“In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far...”

It was the summer of 1979 – The Buggles went to number 1 in the UK with the song that eventually launched MTV in 1981, and CT Governor Ella Grasso instituted a gas rationing system based on license plate numbers to reduce long lines and minimize hoarding of gas.  I was 12 years old that summer, and sat in my father’s ’66 Pontiac Grand Prix on more than one occasion waiting in line to fill up.  Sitting there I wondered how I would ever afford gas when I finally had my own car.  Fortunately by the time I could drive things had turned around and availability and prices met with the gas budget of a 16 year old.  The experience of sitting in those lines, however, had begun to shape my beliefs in ways that I wouldn’t have guessed back then. 

Fast forward to 2009 – it’s been 30 years since I had to sit in those lines with my father, and my daily driver was 16+ years old and showing its age.  I’ve been a car enthusiast for most of my life and have even owned an exotic, and definitely wanted a ‘driver’s car’.  But looking at the cars that were available, I struggled to find a car that was a ‘fit’.  While I wanted a vehicle that was a driver’s car, I also wanted one that was green.  The Prius had been widely available for years and the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt were in development and ahead of the pack for EVs.  None of these cars would ever be mistaken for a driver’s car though.  The only car that was out there that seemed to meet my requirements was the Mini Cooper, but I wasn’t sold.  36 mpg was nice, but I was hoping for something better.  Had the Mini-E had been available in my area, I would have jumped on it, but sadly it wasn’t.

Three years later the Mini-E field trial was finally coming to an end, and the second phase of BMW’s Project i was starting.  The BMW ActiveE is a 1 Series that has been configured to be electric.  The search for my next vehicle was over.  Now I just had to get one of the 700 cars that would be available in the US.  So I went through the process, and then waited to see if I made the cut.  On Valentine’s day I received what everyone who wants one of these cars was waiting for – an email from BMW indicating “Congratulations on being assigned your all-new BMW ActiveE. You are officially confirmed as one of 700 BMW Electronauts.” 

Sidebar – yeah the ‘Electronaut’ thing is a bit geeky, but being a bit of a geek myself I guess I can live with it.

Back to the story – So it was confirmed that I was getting a car, but when?  Mini-E Pioneers (yep – BMW definitely was playing up the ‘geek’ factor for Project i) were being assigned cars first, then their friends and family who wanted ActiveEs and finally us noobies.  As the days ticked by and people began receiving their cars, it became apparent that it was taking about 4-5 weeks for the cars to show up after receipt of the confirmation letter.  So I continued to wait.

Today that wait is finally over.  I received word that my ActiveE will arrive at the dealer on Monday.

Please join me as I document via this blog my two year journey with the all-electric BMW ActiveE.  Video [may have] Killed the Radio Star, but unlike GM, the Oil companies, and everyone else who conspired to kill the EV1, they can no longer rewind because the electric car has come too far (I mentioned I was a geek right?).