BMW has recently opened it’s recruitment process to find 700 potential drivers for it’s BMW ActiveE electric vehicle. BMW is calling the drivers Electronauts, and they are being touted as forward thinking adventurers.
The 2012 BMW ActiveE trial will be run for 2 years as part of BMW’s Project i. Project i is a scheme to collect electric vehicle data to help develop BMW’s future i electric vehicles, like the BMW i3 urban electric vehicle, and the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car.
Reports around the web by the lucky few who have test driven the BMW ActiveE say that the car drives well, and has a quality feel. The BMW ActiveE feels more like a factory product than the last BMW electric vehicle trial, the Mini E. Available to lease, the BMW ActiveE 1 series, coupe based electric vehicle costs $499 per month over 24 months, with a down payment of $2,250.
The BMW ActiveE is being built at the Leipzig plant in Germany. Over 1100 BMW ActiveE vehicles are taking part in the trials worldwide. Most of the BMW ActiveE electric vehicles are going to the US, but some are going to Europe and China as well.
U.S. trials of the BMW ActiveE will be offered in Boston, Hartford, New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco. If you’re one of the luck who lives in one of those cities, BMW has a website where you can apply to be an Electronaut.