Mini Power

These are CAR's first pictures of the electric Mini – the miserly mini that will help BMW meet tough new American regulations requiring car makers selling vehicles in California also to offer zero-emission vehicles by 2012.

Our scoop photographer snapped the Mini out testing on the roads around Munich. And it wasn’t difficult for our man to spot the battery-powered Mini; apart from its telling lack of exhaust pipes, those ‘Hybrid Test Vehicle’ decals slapped all over the car were a bit of a giveaway…

If this is a mule of the electric Mini, when does the real thing arrive?

By Ben Whitworth