The BMW ActiveE was a demonstration electric car based on the

BMW 1 Series The BMW 1 Series is a range of subcompact executive cars (C-segment) manufactured by BMW since 2004. It is the successor to the BMW 3 Series Compact and is currently in its third generation. Positioned as the entry level model in BMW range of pr ...

small family cars. It was the second vehicle after the

Mini E The Mini E was a demonstration electric car developed by BMW as a conversion of its Mini Cooper car. The Mini E was developed for field trials and deployed in several countries, including the United States, Germany, UK, France, Japan and Chin ...

to be developed under BMW Group’s Project i. The electric drive system was the latest addition to BMW’s EfficientDynamics programme. The

US Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

official range is , with an energy consumption of 33

kW·h A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bi ...

/100 miles, and the agency rated the ActiveE's combined fuel economy at 2.3L/100 km (102

miles per gallon gasoline equivalent Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (MPGe or MPGge) is a measure of the average distance traveled per unit of energy consumed. MPGe is used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to compare energy consumption of alternative ...

). The four-seater, rear-wheel drive ActiveE was unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2010. Deliveries of the ActiveE for field testing in the U.S. began in January 2012, after the

trial ended. A total of 1,100 vehicles were planned to participate in the program worldwide, with 700 allocated for the U.S. trial and 35 to a trial in China. Participants in the Mini E trial had priority to lease the new electric car. Production began at BMW's

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

plant in July 2011. After the field trial of the Mini E, BMW took reservations for drivers, who BMW calls "Electronauts", in mid-2012. The field trial of the ActiveE started in early 2012. BMW stopped accepting reservations for the ActiveE, and has leased out all of their ActiveE cars. The lease details were similar to that of the Mini E lease details, a two-year limited lease with free maintenance. The lessee had to complete online surveys and take their ActiveE into their local BMW dealership for analysis and service periodically. Once the ActiveE program ended, all ActiveE cars were taken off of the road. Lessees returned their ActiveE vehicles to BMW, and were not able to purchase them. The cars were donated to tech schools or museums for analysis and disassembly, as well as for display purposes.

Specifications

The electric car had a 32 kWh

lithium-ion battery A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also s ...

pack developed in cooperation with

SB LiMotive SB LiMotive was a 50:50 joint company of Bosch and Samsung SDI founded in June 2008. The joint venture developed and manufactured lithium-ion batteries for use in hybrid-, plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles. It was officially ended in ...

and an all-electric range of . The ActiveE takes 8.5 seconds to reach and its maximum speed was electronically limited to . The ActiveE had an EcoPro mode that retards throttle response, shuts down the defrosters and tweaks the climate control to boost efficiency by up to 10%. The ActiveE had a electric synchronous motor integrated into the rear axle to power the rear wheels, the same configuration that will be used in the

BMW i3 The BMW i3 is a B-segment, high-roof hatchback manufactured and marketed by BMW with an electric powertrain using rear-wheel drive via a single-speed transmission and an underfloor Lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion battery pack and an optional R ...

. The motor weighs and delivers of torque. The curb weight of the ActiveE is , nearly heavier than a BMW 135i, but the ActiveE has a 50:50 weight distribution. The liquid-cooled storage cells are located under the hood, in the transmission tunnel and where the fuel tank would normally reside. The rear-mounted electric motor reduces the trunk space to versus in the standard

. Based on some of the lessons learned by BMW regarding cold weather problems during the

field testing, the ActiveE was planned to have liquid cooling and liquid heating, with a thermal management system that was hoped to keep ActiveE batteries at an optimal performance temperature. The ActiveE comes with all the standard ConnectedDrive features including navigation, Sirius satellite radio, Google Local Search and Send-to-Car functionality, and a range of connected apps that normally come in higher-spec models. Also included with the ActiveE is a reworked BMW MyRemote application for the

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s that allows remote locking and unlocking, horn and headlamp activation, and GPS-based CarFinder that allows the user to find the E within . The smartphone app also allows the user to find charging stations, get range information and pre-heat or cool the car to help extend the range. Like other electric vehicles with use of the motor for regeneration of battery power, the Active E had a different driving experience from a car powered by an internal combustion engine: taking pressure off of the accelerator pedal results in deceleration as the motor brakes and regenerates electricity. Many drivers rarely used the brakes except to hold the car at a stop.

EPA ratings

The

official range is , with a city/highway combined energy consumption of 33 kWh/160 kilometers. Under its five-cycle testing, EPA rated the ActiveE at 2.3L/100 km (102

) combined fuel economy, with a rating of 37.88 kpl equivalent in city driving and 33.98 kpl equivalent on highways. BMW ActiveE rear

Production

Production of the ActiveE began at BMW's

plant in July 2011.

Field testing

United States

The first ActiveE delivery in the United States took place in New Jersey on 13 January 2012. BMW explained that the first delivery went to the customer that logged more miles than anyone else in the U.S. Mini-E program. Participants in the Mini E trial had priority as test pilots for the new electric car. This trial was as a follow-up to the Mini E field testing and as a second phase of BMW's Project i. The third and last phase of "Project i" was the development of the

, an

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

electric car that went into mass production in 2013. The ActiveE field testing was expected to include 700 cars and in addition to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and New York, where the

U.S. trials took place, it will also be available in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and select markets in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. The 700 ActiveE test pilots were dubbed by BMW as "Electronauts." The ActiveE lease pricing was $499 a month for 24 months with a down payment of . A total of 673 units were leased in the U.S. through August 2012,''See August 2012 Plug-in Electric Car Sales Numbers.''. and no additional units were delivered during 2013. ''See the section: July 2013 Plug-in Electric Car Sales Numbers.'' An additional 70 cars were used in BMW's

DriveNow DriveNow was a one-way carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW. In 2019, DriveNow and car2go, a carsharing service from Daimler AG, merged to form the global mobility provider Share Now, with a combined fleet of 20,0 ...

carsharing pilot in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. As thanks for their participation in the trial lease program, ActiveE drivers enjoyed priority ordering the

and the first batch of cars was allocated to these customers with delivery scheduled for the end of April 2014, ahead of the American market launch in May. ActiveE customers were allowed to order the i3 with any option they select and they received for free the heated seats and DC quick charge options. Also, BMW created some unique features for the i3 cars of ActiveE lessees, such as embroidered front trunk liner and BMW i floor mats, and interior, exterior and door sill badging. BMW called these cars the “Electronaut Edition i3″ and could only be purchased by ActiveE customers.

United Kingdom

A total of 160 ActiveEs were deployed during the London 2012 Summer Olympics as part of BMW fleet of 4,000 low-emission vehicles allocated to transport dignitaries and officials during the Olympiad.

Germany

ActiveEs have been in use by the carsharing service

in a few German cities, amongst them

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, from 2013 onward. Those were later replaced by

models.

References

External links

BMW Concept ActiveE
Official webpage at BMW.com
BMW Future of Mobility
at BMW Activate the Future
BMW Concept ActiveE: Technology overview
at bmwblog.com {{BMW cars: 2000s to 2010s Concept ActiveE Production electric cars