BMW is rolling ahead with plans for the all-electric Mini we told you about back in July, and it has at least one test mule tooling around the streets of Germany, where a photographer snapped some pix.

Although the car in the pix posted over at Car & Driver looks just like a regular Mini, a close look at the photo above shows it's got no tailpipe. You can't quite make out the sticker, but it reads "HYBRID Erprobungsfahrzeug," which means "Hybrid vehicle testing." Yeah, that could suggest there's an engine under the hood, but that would mean the car would have an exhaust pipe. Check out the pix at Car & Driver — copyright issues preclude us from posting them here — and you'll see for yourself. It doesn't have one.

Details are scarce, but Autocar says the Mini EV will use a lithium-ion battery, have a range of 100 to 135 miles and a 0-to-60 time of less than 9 seconds.

Last we heard, BMW planned to build just 500 electric Minis and bring them all to California to help meet the Golden State's zero-emissions vehicle mandate that requires automakers to build 7,500 non-polluting cars by 2014. Don't expect to get your hands on one, though — BMW says 490 of them will be leased "to selected customers," and the other 10 will hit the auto show circuit. Still, that hasn't kept one Mini EV fanboy from launching an online petition urging BMW to bring the car to the masses. So far, he's got 694 signatures. Want to add your name? Click here.

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 we're told the car will make its debut next month at the Los Angeles auto show.