Mini To Make Electric Scooters 'Cool' ?

[LivinLOS]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/8022404/Electric-MINI-Scooter-revealed.html?utm_source=tmg&utm_medium=TD_8022404&utm_campaign=motoring2709am

Wont be long until these become properly viable.. The range needs a boost but for round towners a bit of an image boost and it looks like the time is soon.

[H2oDunc]

At a whopping 4-5000 pounds or 194 - 242,000 baht I cannot see many mugs forking out for one. here I can get a similar spec and, in my opinion a better looking electric bike for 18,000 baht or 370 pounds. Just your typical rip off britain!

[BigBikeBKK]

Well, a lot of folks said the same thing when they started selling the new Mini in Thailand. I think they start at about 3 million Baht, yes? The naysayers all said "It's too expensive no one will buy it"... Yet they've sold and continue to sell like hotcakes in Bangkok and you see them all over the place. Like it or not, electric vehicles are the future. If Mini can make them "Cool" and charge a premium in the process, good for them!

Ride On!

Tony

[LivinLOS]

Of course the price is high.. Its almost like a for sale concept (start it using your cellphone app, built in GPS navi with the phone all branded mini)..

But if I buy one or not isnt the goal.. Making an electric bike a thing of desire is big part in changing the stigma from urrrg at a 15k chinese craptastic thing to ohhhh and a slick BMW / Mini implementation.. Then the trickle down effect will get there.

[BSJ]

BMW scooters......just doesn't sound right!

[ttakata]

Those things look like scaled down toys in the picture.

Whatever, I think they look cool and if they can cut pollution down, I'm all for it.

I wouldn't buy one but I'm sure some Thai people will just to be "Hi So" and they have the cash.

I think the Honda PCX is overpriced but I see them all over now.

[LivinLOS]

They do look like toys yeah.. I kinda like the chunky wheels with the large hubs tho, nice design choice.

[nikster]

Yeah, lots of rich people in Thailand, should be obvious when you are in BKK, or even Chiang Mai. Not sure they'll go for scooters, and hot competition from Vespas in the high end scooter market in Thailand now.

That said - I think these look great.

I am very excited about the "smart phone" thing - it looks like the instrument cluster is going to be your iPhone! The phone will start the machine, presumably there's some sort of code entry on it too in case someone steals your phone. Once you have a mini computer with a gorgeous screen _and_ data connection hooked up to your bike, the possibilities are endless.

Mini / BMW are a bit clueless about what to do with it, apparently - I certainly don't want to know where all the other MINI scooters are, <deleted>, privacy?! - but getting a sat nav for free, needing no keys, and maybe doing all sorts of other interesting stuff with the phone in there - that's really cool. I imagine they'll make this work for Android and iPhone so you're not locked into the fruity brand.

The price is of no concern - this is clearly a play for the future by BMW. Price will undoubtedly come down, and they just want to get a leg in the game early, seeing as it is that all vehicles will eventually switch to electric power. Scooters are actually a little easier to build completely electric because people don't expect to drive them for 300 miles at a time.

Edited October 1, 2010 by nikster

[sabaijai]

http://www.netcarshow.com/mini/2010-scooter_e_concept/