Wednesday, March 10, 2010

BMW-Mini-E Offers Lease Extension. Are you in?



After nine months, the initial excitement of being one of the first of the new breed of electric car drivers ( with appreciation to the EV1 and RAV4 drivers) is a near memory.
The lifestyle of living and driving on sunshine (literally driving on sunshine) has settled into the routine to the daily beat of normalcy fitting in perfectly with our family’s lifestyle and driving habits.

It really, really works.

The past nine months, 12,000 miles have been an absolute hoot driving the Mini-E, it is the single best, most fun car I have driven in my 32 years of driving.

BMW has been honest and fair to us and we have loved our car and our relationship with the Mini-E Field Trial program, BMW and the Mini-E have exceeded our expectations.

Today 3/10, All the Mini-E drivers were emailed a lease extension offer for 12 more months. The monthly lease payment is reduced from $850 to $600 a month and this includes the comprehensive and collision insurance, tires and snow tires, maintenance and service, no down payment, no limit on miles, no depreciation.

My prior car a 2005 Volvo S60R had a total cost of ownership at $775 a month including down payment. The Mini-E at $600 a month total cost of ownership, is now the same cost or less than a Volt or Leaf or a newer gas car.
As an example:
No down payment
$400 a month
$100 a month for fuel
$50 a month for insurance
$50 a month for tires and maintenance
$600 a month total cost.
I love the idea of another year with the Mini-E and then transitioning into the Active E if the priceing value is good, or a second model year of the Volt or Leaf having observed how they perform for 6 months.The possibiltity of another lease extension for the Mini-E exist and I am hopeful that they will let some of us drive the wheels off this car for 5 or 6 years and beyond to see where the real world battery range will be long term. That's my ideal path.

If I can share one thought with you, it is that you are going to love driving an electric car.

Am I in? are you kidding me?

I’m in. I’m loving every EV mile

Cheers
Peder