The i3 and BMW 360-degrees Electric
Munich believes it has solved our EV concerns with the i3 support package - has it?
Price
With the Government's OLEV grant, the BMW i3 costs £25,680. To lease, it is £369 a month over three years and 24,000 miles with a £2,995 deposit. The range-extender model will cost £28,830 or £480 a month. Just a quick clarification point on the range-extender too; the 34hp, 650cc bike engine drives only a generator, and kicks in when the batteries have reached 18 per cent charge level. It is used to maintain the charge at that level and extends the range to around 185 miles.
Spec
The i3 wouldn't be a BMW without a 'comprehensive' options list. Standard 'Atelier' trim can be enhanced though the 'Loft', 'Lodge' and 'Suite' spec, bringing even more exotic cabin materials and pushing BMW's 'next premium' ethos. They cost £1,000, £1,500 and £2,000 respectively.
The seven-page extras catalogue also includes fairly conventional items such as a Professional Media upgrade (Professional Nav is a free upgrade on all i3s ordered before February), wheels, paints, park assist and voice activation. Be prepared to spend a while with it when speccing an i3 though, it's fairly detailed...
360-degree Electric
"The 360-degree Electric packages of services turn zero emissions urban mobility into a compelling everyday driving experience". BMW believes 360-degree Electric gives i3 customers the benefits of EV motoring without the drawbacks, so has it?
The charging solutions appear rather clever, both at home or in public. So, when your i3 needs a charge after 80-120 miles, there are a few options. An 80 per cent charge at home through a conventional socket will take around eight hours. With a BMW I Wallbox (£315 to you sir, installation included), this drops to three hours. Moreover, with the BMW i Remote app (more on which soon), charging can be timed to take advantage of low-cost electricity. It can also pre-heat the car to save energy on the move. If you so desire, BMW will assist in the installation of a car port with solar panels.
In Germany, customers can also sign up to an agreement to provide carbon-neutral electricity. BMW claims this gives the i3 an overall carbon footprint half that of a 2008 118d, taking into account the renewable energy used at the Leipzig and Moses Lake factories too.
With a rapid charge public station (145 currently in Britain), the i3 can be 80 per cent replenished in half an hour. Customers will be issued with a ChargeNow card, which facilitates cashless charging at around 70 per cent of the country's stations. These are in BMW's i network, where the card authorises the user, who subsequently receives a statement at the end of the month with usage costs.
Furthermore, BMW has teamed up with ParkAtMyHouse in Britain to offer users further parking and charging facilities. What you're meant to do at a stranger's house for eight hours whilst your i3 is charging though is anybody's guess...
ParkNow long term (still with us?) can reserve users a parking space for their i3 near home or work with one of the I network partners to allow for charging if they don't have a private parking area. Availability information goes back to the nav and app.
Driving abroad for a family holiday? Worry not, the 360-degree Electric programme provides an annual quota of time in a conventional BMW for when those situations arise. You won't be able to show off your futuristic EV, but it seems like a sensible solution.
Finally, if you do actually run out of electricity, phone BMW Mobile Service. They will arrive with a 'sort of spare fuel can' (that's a direct BMW quote) to charge the battery and get you underway again.
The app
The BMW i Remote app is a very clever thing. And yes, it's available on Android. It's also part of the 360-degree Electric package and BMW's ConnectedDrive services, working with a sim card built into the i3 to provide access to the BMW server.
The app provides charging information, informing the user when the battery is fully replenished. It also rates the efficiency of your driving and offers tips to improve it. But perhaps its biggest asset is how the app works with the 'intermodal routing' sat-nav option. This provides real time public transport information though the server plus mapping to complete your journey via other means if necessary. The images below should give you some idea of how it works. Unfortunately we weren't given chance to in Amsterdam, BMW (wisely) deciding hacks shouldn't be wandering around an unknown city with an iPhone.
Conclusion
With the i sub-brand, BMW does appear to have mitigated against many of the perennial EV concerns. However, it is far from flawless. The charging cable remains a bulky thing, one that you can imagine becoming filthy over winter as it's dragged across tarmac. And whilst public charging makes sense in big cities like Amsterdam and London, Britain's EV infrastructure isn't as advanced elsewhere in the country. Perhaps that's why around 80 per cent of BMW's initial interest on the i3 has been towards the range-extender version.
And whilst the car worked unsurprisingly well on a prescribed launch route, how well it fare out in said real world? We want to see the i3 succeed as it's an original and innovative take on long-standing problem. With a couple of owners already popping up on PH, we should be able to find out!
This should have covered all the vital points of interest around the BMW i3. If there's anything else specific, leave a comment and we'll delve back into the massive press pack and attempt to find out!
[Sources: sourcelondon.net, nextgreencar.com, BMW i website]
I guess BMW wants to play down the range extender model. Coz, there's nothing new here. The concept has been used for 100 years in different form of transportation. But clearly the range extender model makes more sense to most buyers if it does work like a normal locomotive engine.
So if the REX unit is belting out 40bhp constantly, there will be times under acceleration you will be running the battery down and times when you're cruising you're charging it up, it should even out.
Shame about the 9L tank, nothing a few jerry cans in the boot won't fix
Basically you buy a battery, like a big box with handles.
It can be plugged into your car, think using existing child seat isofix, which could be easily modified to either hold a child seat or a range extender pack.
This would make the batteries universal..!
You could plug two of them in on each rear seat simultaneously to extend your range even further.
Dreamt it up the other day.
BP battery or Shell...
But, all batteries from any manufactures have to be universal. Or, why not just use the old locomotive technology instead. So, for everyday cars electric motors will play main roles. And fossil fuel engine can simply be the back up generator.
We do need alternative powered cars but not at double the cost of normal powered car
But is it as good as a 135im........
Having said that, I am impressed by how much thought has gone into all of this by BMW.
But by offering a fossil car for use some times, it does mean that this is a more viable option for more people than most EV's that have come to market in the past.
I.e. it's still not 'right' for everyone, but it could be 'right' for more people than before.
Basically you buy a battery, like a big box with handles.
It can be plugged into your car, think using existing child seat isofix, which could be easily modified to either hold a child seat or a range extender pack.
This would make the batteries universal..!
You could plug two of them in on each rear seat simultaneously to extend your range even further.
Dreamt it up the other day.
This sort of amuses me no end. Buy an EV that is inflexible and technologically limited and then bolt bits to it to make it viable:
I cannot see the BIK remaining 0% if these become popular though. EVs are getting there.
Why don't EV manufacturers make their charging cables coiled like the air lines you see connecting HGV tractor units and trailers? I think their drivers call them 'suzies', no idea why that is. Less likely to get dirty if raised off the floor, surely?
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