What does it take to make the electric dream a reality?
By Suzanne Gray, Project Manager, Mini E
As part of preparing itself for responding to social trends influencing car buying needs and desires in the future, and recognising demands for more sustainable personal mobility, BMW Group has sought to understand how people respond to electric vehicles. The Group has done so in depth, by trialling 612 fully electric MINI Es (the world’s largest electric vehicle test fleet) in a number of countries where this type of vehicle is expected to have potential. Whilst BMW Group has been experimenting with electric vehicles for the last forty years, it’s only now that so many factors have converged to both require and stimulate a potential market for these cars.
The multi-disciplinary offering that a university could bring to the table was a more diverse and holistic one than the commercial sector alone can typically produce.
The UK is seen as a likely leading market for low carbon vehicles thanks to the series of initiatives and measures put in place by the UK Government, the Mayor of London and the responsible authorities in a number of other cities and regions. Great emphasis has therefore been placed by BMW Group on UK input to shape the design for electric cars, new services related to them and the support framework to make them a genuinely attractive proposition for consumers and companies in order to drive uptake.
Creative thinking from within BMW Group about the biggest change the car industry has seen since its inception needed an important real-world check. How would private and company motorists and fleet managers get on living with a different type of car? What were their preconceptions, their real experiences and their attitudes towards a different style of motoring? Might there be unexpected benefits from having an electric car? What are potential barriers to the uptake of this type of car? What type of support is needed for drivers?
During everyday usage, a MINI E can travel around 100-120 miles on a single charge, depending on driving style and conditions and, of course, offers the typically dynamic performance for which the MINI is famous. It can sprint from 0-62mph in just 8.5 seconds and has an electronically-limited top speed of 95mph. These characteristics made this test vehicle an ideal candidate to give people a taste of just how far electric vehicles have come.
For such an important task, BMW Group sought a research partner who could complement interpretation of behavioural metrics and engineering data with strong psychological analysis. The multi-disciplinary offering that a university could bring to the table was a more diverse and holistic one than the commercial sector alone can typically produce. The combined strengths of Oxford Brookes University’s Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre (part of the School of Technology) and of its School of Psychology led to its selection. In particular methodological expertise in research construction, selection, delivery and analysis, as well as proven competence in the psychological interpretation of data were seen as key contributory areas of expertise.
With a field trial lasting from December 2009 to March 2011 which saw 40 MINI Es being used on UK roads, the University team and its appointed researchers have delivered very successfully on their promise and the approach they took to studying users has been rightly recognised as a benchmark. Their particular approach has gone on to form the basis for studying electric vehicle drivers across all eight of the UK trials supported by the Technology Strategy Board, of which the MINI E UK trial was one.
The international inter-university introductions and collaborations through the global trials programme have led to a network of learning and broader interpretation.
It was of great benefit to have these two very different schools working together to provide a holistic perspective across a range of analysis and business modelling activities. It brought a richness of understanding that otherwise might not have been possible. University partners have also featured in BMW Group’s US and German trials, as well as ongoing ones in France, China and Japan. The international inter-university introductions and collaborations through the global trials programme have led to a network of learning and broader interpretation. Oxford Brookes have additionally forged valuable new links with one of China’s leading technical universities. In terms of credibility with government stakeholders and policy¬makers, academia scores highly and its recommendations are taken seriously. Since it will take a concerted international effort on the part of many different stakeholders to encourage people and companies to be open to a new approach to motoring, as well as a supportive policy framework that is supportive, academia has a very important role to play in influencing thinking and education on this topic. Without a market for electrified vehicles, stringent passenger car emission reduction targets and ambitions cannot be met.
The project
The MINI E UK Research Consortium, of which BMW Group was the lead partner, comprised several organisations based around Oxford and the South-East of England. All played important roles in the collaborative field trial. In addition to the BMW Group, the consortium included Scottish and Southern Energy, which supplied both the electricity and the electrical infrastructure, Oxford Brookes University and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) as well as Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. The MINI E UK trial was one of the first of the Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programmes.
During the UK trial, the MINI E was tested on British roads by around 100 private, corporate and public sector drivers – all of whom gave valuable feedback to the project consortium and UK Government. Between them they covered in excess of 250,000 miles over the duration of the trial. The findings are being used to develop the engineering and infrastructure support for the future large-volume production and deployment of electric vehicles and have helped to establish the social and economic issues around running an electric car.
Suzanne Gray is General Manager of Project I UK at BMW Group UK Ltd and lead on the Mini E project.
