BMW plans to lease its electric ActiveE and resurrect 4 cylinders

BMW plans to lease its electric ActiveE and resurrect 4 cylinders

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New York ? BMW AG will lease 1,100 of its next-generation electric vehicle ? the ActiveE ? this fall and plans to bring back a four-cylinder engine to a U.S. model ? its first in a decade ? the German automaker said Monday.
BMW said it will lease about 700 of the ActiveE in six markets in the United States: the New York metropolitan area, Boston, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles. Another 400 will be leased outside the U.S.
The company made the announcements at a Manhattan BMW dealership ahead of this week's New York International Auto Show, which opens to the media on Wednesday and the public on Friday.
BMW said it will use the four-cylinder engine in the Z4 sDrive28i Roadster. The new turbo engine will offer power similar to a six-cylinder engine used in the Z4 Roadster.
BMW North American Chairman and CEO Jim O'Donnell said he expects the new engine will also be added to more vehicles later this year, but he declined to elaborate.
The automaker will unveil two new electric vehicles in 2013. O'Donnell said the new EVs and the engines are part of the company's efforts to meet 2016 federal fuel efficiency standards.
"We have an array of products coming out," O'Donnell said.
When it begins leasing the ActiveE this fall, the two-year-lease will cost $499 a month with a down payment of $2,250.
This is the second-generation electric vehicle BMW is leasing as it prepares to sell its i3 ? a pure electric vehicle ? in 2013.
It will also sell a small number of i8 vehicles ? a supercar with an electric motor and a hybrid gasoline engine ? for more than $100,000, said Richard Steinberg, manager of electric vehicle operations and strategy for BMW North America.
Steinberg said the volume of the i3 would be similar to the Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt ? or around 10,000 to 20,000 in the first year.
O'Donnell said he's "far more optimistic" about diesel vehicles boosting U.S. market share than electric vehicles ? and added the U.S. government should end the $7,500 tax credit for EVs.
"I believe in a free economy. I think we should abolish all tax credits," O'Donnell said, noting it was his personal opinion.
"What they are doing is putting a bet on technology, which is not appropriate. As a taxpayer, I am not sure this is the right way to go."
O'Donnell said BMW will accept tax credits for electric vehicles, but he wants a "level playing field" between different technologies, such as clean diesels, which he said are "slightly disadvantaged" by tax policy. He also said Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's prediction that 10 percent of all vehicles would be electric by 2020 is too optimistic.
"(EVs) won't work for most people," O'Donnell said. "For at least 90 percent and maybe more of the population, (an EV) won't work (at the current battery range)."
BMW spokesman Tom Kowaleski said BMW supports some incentives "to stimulate the development of advanced technologies leading to a more sustainable future of mobility."

Source": [ Detroit News ]

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Source: http://blog.leasetrader.com/archive/2011/05/12/BMW-plans-to-lease-its-electric-ActiveE-and-resurrect-4.aspx

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