BMW's already toying with the idea of bringing back the iconic Isetta as an EV. Now a team of engineers is building an electric version of the Mini and it's headed to California.

The German automaker's got its factory in England building the cars without engines, transmissions or fuel tanks and shipping them to Munich, where engineers are installing electric drivetrains.

Want one? You probably won't get one.

According to Automotive News Europe (page is behind a free subscription wall), BMW's planning to build just 500 Mini EVs. They're all destined for California to help meet the zero-emissions vehicle mandate that requires automakers to build 7,500 non-polluting cars by 2014. Automotive News quotes unnamed BMW sources saying 490 of the cars will be leased "to selected customers" and the remaining rides will be used as show cars.

"This step will allow the BMW Group to gain an initial knowledge of how mobility can be achieved efficiently using purely electrically powered vehicles," Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of BMW's board of management, says. "Our task here is to combine the ultimate driving experience with an efficient electrified drive with practically no emissions."

The Mini EV is the work of BMW's Project i, a program launched earlier this year to develop low-emission city cars. There's no word on when BMW will bring the cars to California, but most of the automakers working on EVs plan to have them on the road by 2010.

Photo of a conventional Mini by Mini USA.