Initial results were announced today from a study being led at the University of California-Davis involving BMW Mini E electric vehicles and their consumers, by Dr. Thomas Turrentine. The ongoing study is attempting to acquire real world data around how consumers use the vehicles on a daily basis by tracking 450 users in Los Angeles and New York.  The consumers are continually tracking all of their information in a log book allowing the researchers to analyze the data. Consumers are currently about halfway through their one year lease period, which is the duration of the study. The initial results showed that most users can suffice with a 100 miles for most daily driving needs. It also found that at home charging was enough for most to do this daily driving, and that additional charging was needed most at work or other places where the vehicle was for long periods during the day. Overall drivers have been quite happy so far, with the biggest demands revolving around space issues to have more people or cargo in the BMW Mini E electric vehicles.

UC Davis is frequently in the news for various studies which they are conducting, and this BMW Mini E electric vehicle study could be very helpful to the future of this genre of vehicle. The study indicates that most of the people so far are reporting an average range of about 70 – 100 miles per day, and that most trips for Mini E drivers have been averaging about 30 miles. With so many vehicles on the road in California contributing to the pollution, it is only a matter of time before more people start to embrace electric vehicles as the technology advances.

Tags: california news, California Universities, uc davis

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 6:55 pm and is filed under California Universities, california news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.