Since January, 2012, BMW has been field-testing 700 electric ActiveE cars. Now the company wants you to see what sort of mileage and data those experimental cars are accumulating, and on Thursday rolls out an online digital tool it calls "Electronaut Effect" to do just that.
The site was created to popularize the company's electric car project, showing curious onlookers the range, money saved and environmental advantages of its ActiveE vehicles.
According to a company press release, the new site is designed to "help drivers considering an electric vehicle purchase make informed decisions." The experimental electric cars have now traveled a combined 6.1 million miles, and BMW claims the drivers have saved $741,039 and more than 275,000 gallons of gas along the way:
The most impressive statistic is the vehicle that traveled 367.7 miles in one day, driven by one of BMW's "Electronauts," which is the company's name for its 700 ActiveE car testers. That long range certainly must have involved a few quick recharges, given the vehicle's range of about 100 miles. A BMW spokesman told us, "A full charge takes about 4 to 5 hours, making it one of the quickest electric vehicles to charge."
The Electronauts have access to a slightly different site from the one facing the public, showing them a leader board that allows them to compete against each other to see who can get the best mileage.
Instead of diving in head-first with a 100% electric vehicle that's available to all (such as the Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S), BMWs angle on this newfangled electro-tech is to first familiarize prospective buyers (as well as itself) with the characteristics of electric cars before rolling them out for widespread consumption.
Perhaps displaying aggregate information about the user experience of driving an electric car will alleviate range anxiety, that dreaded emotional state that strikes fear in the heart of any driver or purveyor of non-hybrid 100% electric cars.
BMW has learned a lot from this field test of the ActiveE. BMW told Mashable, "Much of what was learned will be applied to the BMW i3 -- the fully electric plug-in made primarily from carbon fiber coming later this year." That's good news, because we thought the BMW i3 was one of the top 5 coolest cars at the LA Auto Show late last year.
But what if you want one of these ActiveE vehicles to try out for yourself? You're out of luck -- BMW says it has no plans to manufacture any more ActiveE cars.
Take a look at this "Electronaut Effect" online tool, and let us know in the comments if you think BMW is on the right track with its electric cars program.