9,500 people sign up to lease MINI E, will cost over $500/month

Since MINI USA opened up the MINIspace.com site a couple of weeks ago to allow people to register their interest in leasing the new MINI E next year, over 9,500 people have signed up. Unfortunately most of them will not actually have the opportunity to get one. BMW is only building 500 of the little battery cars and they'll only be offered up in California, New York and New Jersey. For those lucky few that do get selected for the field test, the cars won't be inexpensive. BMW hasn't officially announced the price yet but Automotive News is reporting that the lease payment will be over $500 per month. We'll be getting our first up close look at the MINI E along with a technical briefing at the LA Auto Show in two weeks. Following the show, the official application process will start and the company expects to deliver the cars starting in January.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. req'd]