Recently there has been a lot of speculation as to whether the next new MINI Cooper would be focused around fuel economy and building a greener MINI or maybe some sort of SUV. Within the fuel economy hopefuls there were basically two camps, the diesel camp and the hybrid camp. BMW, MINIs parent company has fuel efficient diesels on the shelf and plans for hybrid gas/electric BMWs have already been announced so a greener MINI had to be just around the corner. Well MINI showed their hand this morning with the announcement of a 100% electric plug-in MINI named the MINI E where the E stands for electric.

Over the next year and a half, BMW will test a series of electric-powered MINI models in real life conditions, the company announced today. The MINIs will be built in the company’s Oxford plant in the U.K. without engines and transmissions and then shipped to BMW’s headquarters in Munich, Germany where they will be fitted with an electric powertrain. The Bavarian automaker said that it will build and test several hundred of electric MINIs in order to evaluate the viability of a mass production version.

These are the first official photos of the MINI E, an all-electric version of the MINI Cooper that will make its first public appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show in mid-November. What’s so important about this MINI -aside from its technical specs- is that over the next year or so, BMW will produce around 500 units which will be leased to selected private and corporate customers in the U.S. states of California, New York and New Jersey, giving the Bavarian automaker the chance to evaluate the viability of a full-scale production EV. MINI said that it also considering the possibility of leasing the vehicle in Europe.

The BMW Group isn’t fooling around with its Electric MINI project that will see up to 500 drivers in the U.S. states of Southern California, New York City and New Jersey getting the chance to obtain the plug-in MINI E for a year through leasing. Right after the release of the first pics and details of the MINI E (click here to read our article), the British firm launched a dedicated site were those interested can sign up for more info on the application process. We signed-up and received an e-mail saying that MINI will keep us updated.