The BMW Mini E

The West Coast unveiling of the Mini E (held on the same evening as the East Coast event) took place at the California Science Museum in Los Angeles. This was the first official opportunity for most of the potential drivers to actually touch and feel the car they signed up for!

The activities started outside where there was Mini open for "petting," and then moved inside for a short formal presentation, including a talk by green enthusiast John Picard, followed by dinner and opportunities to socialize with the Mini team and fellow drivers..

There was clearly a lot of enthusiastic energy in the Mini E team as well as in the potential drivers -- deja vu, to those of us who were part of the Saturn/GM EV1 program. Hopefully the parallels will not be too exact!

Recall that in 2003, GM short-sightedly recalled the last EV1 and proceeded to crush all but a few destined for museums! And as we partied on this evening, GM was reportedly contemplating which form of corporate death it preferred. We're hoping that BMW/Mini will have better corporate vision and we wish them success with the Mini E!