BMW ActiveE

This past Wednesday, May 21, I picked up my shiny new 2014 BMW i3 REx range-extended electric car from JMK BMW in Springfield, New Jersey. The car, in Laurel Grey, was the first range-extended i3 delivered in North America, and I will always appreciate that BMW gave me the honor of being the first...

Just two weeks ago, drivers of the BMW ActiveE fleet of electric test vehicles were delighted to see that their cars would have a second life. BMW announced that it would redeploy 80 ActiveE electric cars to its DriveNow car-sharing program in San Francisco. MUST READ: 2014 BMW i3 Test Drive: No...

The BMW ActiveE lease program is over, but the cars will live on with the DriveNow car-sharing service.

BMW ActiveE drivers question the i3's price and practicality.

It's become increasingly common for carmakers to solicit volunteers to lease new-technology cars for a year or two, to gather real-world data about how the cars are actually driven and used. But those cars remain development prototypes, not production-quality vehicles. And as BMW ActiveE drivers...

Think BMW, and your first thoughts may turn to sports sedans, luxury cars and sports cars. None are known for being particularly green, but BMW is set to change that when it launches the i3 electric compact car, and the upcoming i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. In fact, BMW has been developing...

It's no surprise that California is becoming the heart of electric car ownership. Its weather, state incentives and even public attitudes make for an ideal environment in which to run an EV, and a healthy network of charging stations ensures that drivers can even tackle occasional longer trips...

We quite like the BMW ActiveE. It's a good-looking, comfortable, quick electric car, and its existence will help develop BMW's first true electric production car, the 2014 BMW i3. Now, thanks to BMW's car sharing service DriveNow, residents in San Francisco will also get to enjoy the ActiveE's...

BMW is recalling its ActiveE electric cars to replace a potentially faulty component whose failure could leave drivers without power steering. According to the text of the recall, "variations in electrical current" may occur within the electric power steering, leading to a sudden loss of the power...

Visit any major race track on any day of the week and there’s bound to be a cacophony of noise as professional race teams or enthusiastic amateurs drive lap after lap in praise to the gods of gasoline. But what would it be like if every car going around the track was powered by electricity?...

"Yeah, but where does the electricity come from, huh?" comes the oft-sneering question when the subject of electric cars is brought up in polite conversation. Sneery it may be, but there's an underlying point if your main source of power is something like coal. However, BMW ActiveE drivers will...

BMW’s 1,000-strong fleet of ActiveE electric cars are stationed around the world, with the largest number of test cars concentrated in the U.S. Earlier this year, we got the chance to step behind the wheel of the very first BMW ActiveE to be delivered in the U.S., but earlier this week, we...

BMW might be more than a year away from bring its first production electric car -- the 2014 BMW i3 -- to production, but the German automaker wants you to know that it isn’t new to electric cars. You may not know it, but BMW’s electric car history spans 40 years. As part of its...

Want to boldly go where few have gone before? If so, you might just have what it takes to become an "Electronaut", BMW's term for the select few who'll be piloting the 2012 BMW ActiveE for the next few years. BMW has started the recruitment process to find 700 potential ActiveE drivers. BMW's...

Yesterday we reviewed the BMW ActiveE electric car after spending an afternoon in the first ActiveE delivered in the U.S. Now, we have a brief video clip to take you inside the car, hitting some of the high points of the driving experience. The clip starts with the car at rest in the remarkably...

Regular readers may recognize the name of Tom Moloughney, who has written several stories on his experiences living with a Mini E electric car for two years. Now Moloughney has moved up in the electric-car world. On Friday, he was the first U.S. customer to take delivery of a BMW ActiveE, the first...

Like a karaoke singer following a top rock band, London has its work cut out in hosting the 2012 Olympic games, following China's impressive 2008 games. The city won't have as much trouble beating Beijing's pollution levels though, which is why London is claiming its games will be the "greenest...

A couple of weeks ago, BMW invited me to come to Munich and take part in the first drive of production versions of the BMW ActiveE, their second battery electric test vehicle. A bit of background: I've been something of a high-profile MINI E pioneers, maintaining an active blog about my...

Over the years automakers have used a huge array of techniques to entice members of the public to become test drivers in their electric car test programs. Often however, high lease fees combined with the requirement that lesses give back the prototype or limited run electric car at the end of the...

A few months after BMW and MINI's electric car study ended in the United States, a similar scheme run in the U.K. has also come to a close, and the results are in... ...and if you've read the results of the American tests, the figures coming from the U.K. will all look very familiar. Basically, all...