BMW already have an electric car in their stable, the Mini-E, which has begun trials with selected members of the public. Now BMW are adding to the fleet of electric vehicles with the BMW Concept ActiveE; an electric vehicle under the BMW brand. More specifically it is a 1 Series Coupé. The interesting thing and the reason why I am writing about this is that in the press release there is mention of BMW’s ConnectedDrive services which allow a phone to connect to the vehicle to operate certain vehicle features and statuses:
“This includes specific remote functions which enable the use of a mobile phone to check the charge status of the battery, search for public charging stations and activate the vehicle’s auxiliary heating and air conditioning functions.”
While there is no mention of any brand of phone in particular, the press images do include some images which may be mock-ups of an iPhone application.
Some of the features which seem to be shown in the iPhone app images include: locate a charging station; schedule climate control; charge status and mileage remaining.
The vehicle itself is is said to give a maximum output of 170bhp and a maximum torque of 250Nm. 0-62mph is expected to be less than 9 seconds with top speed of 90mph (electronically limited) and range of up to 100 miles. If you have access to a 50amp connection, the car can be fully charged in as little as three hours.
Hopefully we will see some of these ConnectedDrive features from other manufacturers also without having to resort to third party add-ons in the near future.
