The Mini E, an electric battery version of the popular retro rocket, is quite literally not for everyone. Instead of simply selling the plug-in car (which lost its back seat to the battery pack), BMW announced that it would offer $850-a-month one-year leases to 450 select customers in California, New York and New Jersey. Getting those cars on the road — and happily plugging into the grid — proved more difficult than BMW originally thought.  First, the list had to be winnowed down. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to be an electric car pioneer, even at $850 a month, so nearly 2,000 people applied for the 450 electric Minis. According to Richard Steinberg, Mini’s manager of product strategy, applicants filled in a lengthy Web-based survey measuring their familiarity with social media, and their ability to give feedback on a regular basis through an electronic logbook. It didn’t hurt if they were bloggers.  And then the program ran into some speed bumps. Some cars were delivered later than promised, and many owners had to plug them into house current — with full charges taking 23 hours or more — because a European-sourced cable that BMW wanted to use with its 220-volt in-garage chargers did not have Underwriters Laboratory approval for the United States. A UL-approved American cable has since been distributed, Mr. Steinberg said.  Paul Scott, vice president of the Plug-in America advocacy group, also said that some cars have shut down because slightly elevated battery temperature triggered a safety mechanism. “A lot of these issues have been cleared up,” he said. “But the program was rushed, and I think it’s a textbook example of how not to bring an E.V. to market. We don’t have a problem with the car itself, though.”  In response, Mr. Steinberg said, “We had some production issues with cables and connectors, and some rollout lag — but all the cars were delivered by June 30.” He said BMW is working on a software fix for the battery temperature problem (which, in most cases, simply issues warnings).  “This was the first E.V. from BMW Group’s Project i,” Mr. Steinberg said, “and we will apply our experience from this program to the next generation of vehicles.” Project i is aimed at developing cars and trucks for the world’s emerging “megacities,” and Mr. Steinberg said its forthcoming urban mobility vehicle would have an available electric powertrain.  “A majority of our drivers are very satisfied,” Mr. Steinberg said. “They are blogging, sharing information with each other and enjoying being part of the process.” One example of that sharing is a map that shows Mini E drivers where others live, so they can get emergency charges or make stopovers on long trips.  Mini E drivers seem to have taken the early glitches in stride. Peter Trepp, a venture capitalist in Pacific Palisades, Calif., who received the first Mini E delivered in the United States, said on his blog last month that negative comments “are from people outside the program and usually full of agenda-driven misinformation.” In an interview, Mr, Trepp called the car “an incredibly well-done prototype, reliable and fun.” Asked to score it on a scale of one to 100, he gave it a 90.  Stuart Greenberg, a computer programmer who lives in Coram, N.Y., got his Mini E in June and said he loves it. Mr. Greenberg went a month without a high-voltage cable, but he shrugs it off. “I commute only 26 miles a day,” he said in an interview, “so I was able to get enough charge plugging the car into house current at night. Until that was resolved, I didn’t use the car on weekends.”  Mr. Greenberg, who has put 2,200 miles on his Mini E, says acceleration is instantaneous, and the car is so quiet that, with the windows down, he can hear conversations on the street. “I had to get used to the regenerative braking, which slows the car down really fast when you take your foot off the accelerator,” he said. “And there’s torque steer if you step on it, but that’s only an issue when I’m showing off — you learn to adjust for that.”  As one of only approximately 100 New Yorkers with a Mini E, Mr. Greenberg says he feels lucky. It almost didn’t happen. While filling in the online application form, he says he encountered a screen telling him that all his data was lost and that he could opt to forget the whole thing. He chose to continue, and was then told that his data was safe, and BMW was just testing him. “They wanted to know if I had the right attitude, I guess,” Mr. Greenberg said.
The Mini E pilot program faced early problems — many of which have been resolved — though the electric version of the Mini has received rave reviews from lessees.