MINI E will reportedly cost $850/month for one-year lease

For those of you hoping to snap up one first electrically powered MINIs, we have what may be bad news. The price of the MINI E keeps creeping upward. The other day, Automotive News reported that the battery-powered prototypes were going to cost over $500 for the lease. Today however, another site that we aren't familiar with, Luxvelocity, is reporting that it will priced at $850 per month for a one year lease. We've contacted BMW and MINI for a comment but have yet to hear anything back. It's unlikely that we will be hearing anything either since the car will debuting at the LA Auto Show in less than two weeks.

The Luxvelocity article does state that BMW will still be losing money on the cars at that price since they are hand-built prototypes. Given the value of these 500 cars, it should be no surprise that BMW would also require lessees to have a lockable garage to park the car in and install the wall charger. If you live in an apartment you're out of luck for now. We'll let you know if we hear anything new. Thanks to J for the tip!

Update: It's been confirmed by MINI USA spokesperson Nathalie Bauters that the price will in fact be $850/month.

[Source: Luxvelocity]