MINI E Joins the Plug and Play Club: Electric motivation is the versatile platform's latest iteration

With a MINI D diesel that's sold in Europe and gets about 50 city and 65 highway miles per gallon, you almost have to wonder why they're even messing with a MINI E, for electric. But we know: zero emissions.

The MINI E was unwrapped at the LA Auto Show. It can accelerate from zero to 60 in 8.5 seconds on its 150 kilowatt motor, which translates to 204 horsepower. It will go 156 miles on a charge of its lithium-ion battery that takes two-and-a-half hours to refill with juice, using a wall box that comes with the car and has to be installed in your house by an electrician who gets $80 or $100 per hour, probably more in LA.

The battery unit, being 5088 cells grouped into 48 modules and three elements, takes up as much space as two fat linemen (that's football players, not telephone repairmen) weighing 290 pounds each. Thus the MINI E is a two-seater, with those big blocks full of toxic materials "compactly arranged" behind the front seats. At least the MINI E has passed its crash tests with flying colors, but one hopes that if there's a rollover that's all that will fly.

The MINI E offers dynamic deceleration when you back off the electric pedal, because the generator kicks in and causes drag. In city traffic, says MINI, it will slow down successfully from 75 mph, without hardly using the real brakes.

The MINI E won't be sold, but rather leased, starting with a pilot program of 500 vehicles, which can't be serviced by your local MINI dealer, so service centers will be set up on each coast where the programs are, including Los Angeles. Register online to apply to be a pioneer.

LA's deputy mayor briefly disappeared in the first MINI E, because the city is engaged in the program. She was driven around the block and came back in less than five minutes, asking where the nearest wall socket was.

Just kidding. Actually, the deputy mayor smiles quite nicely for photo-ops.