RE: BMW i3: Driven

[s1962a]

JonnyVTEC said:

TWPC said:

Interesting to see how the Leaf's price has fallen: drive the deal will now sell us the cheapest version for £18,200.

With or without the batteries?

This was the price of my current (old gen) leaf when I bought it earlier in the year. I'm sure Nissan are making a loss on these as it was 18k before the quite attractive finance deal.

The 70 quid a month battery leasing option makes the RRP of the top spec (Tekna) about 20k before any discounts.

[Mucus72]

I have a thought, which probably won't be very insightful, but hell, it's hot, I've had a few cheeky glasses of white, so here goes. My thought is about what if we could really make the best out of all of these car company alliances? Renault - Zoe, Twizy, a good set of electric car plans. Nissan - the Leaf, enough said previously in this thread, but IMHO pretty convincing. Caterham raced a Nissan engined car at Le Mans, and Nissan plan an all-electric assault next year. Renault/Alpine alliance. Alpine/Caterham alliance. Caterham use Ford engines at present, both Zetec and Duratech. Ford have a beautiful little 1.0 Ecoboost, again enough said in this thread. Caterham 7 is amazing and light, at 515 or 535kg depending on S3 or SV sizes - btw I own a 7, and get both phenomenal performance an pretty good MPG.

So putting the above paragraph jumble of thoughts loosely together, what do I get?

The 7 is too compromised for most, certainly as a first car, but Colin Chapman's ethos of adding lightness was spot on.

The new Caterham/Alpine car will also be light. Imagine Nissan, Alpine and Caterham engineers working on an Ecoboost 1 litre sub 1000kg car AND an all electric version, AND a 2.0 R400 engined variant. What a lovely choice.

Right, another glass of wine. Anyone want to add to my thoughts?

[LuS1fer]

Mucus72 said:

Right, another glass of wine. Anyone want to add to my thoughts?

Only thought is you posted this at 18:30 yesterday so lay off the wine....

[JimmyTheHand]

What concerns me about battery powered cars - is whether we are exchanging one environmental issue with another set. - Currently the only "green" source of energy that could hope to deliver enough reliable power without alternative backups is nuclear. Using some of the instant on backup systems might be environmentally worse than ditching the renewable systems and using a better designed always on conventional power station - but of course rational analysis of such things is always drowned out, and the subsidies on renewable sources adds money on side against analysis (especially against whether subsidies work as required)

Then we have the battery issues - limited life and Lithium mining, neither without environmental impact which is liable to increase dramatically if cars powered by batteries.

[Jimbo.]

JonnyVTEC said:

With or without the batteries?

How many of us had Christmas damn near ruined by a "batteries not included" sticker on that years favourite toy?

[Mucus72]

LuS1fer said:

Mucus72 said:

Right, another glass of wine. Anyone want to add to my thoughts?

Only thought is you posted this at 18:30 yesterday so lay off the wine....

Thanks for your concerns regarding my drinking habits. I'm on holiday, so it's allowed. I'm also in a time zone far away from BST, so I hadn't started too early!

[Russell B]

g3org3y said:

Intrigued to see the interior now!

It is great

[danp]

Price is less than i expected, £25680 inc 5k gov subsidy.

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/290401/bmw_i3_pr...

[AnotherClarkey]

danp said:

Price is less than i expected, £25680 inc 5k gov subsidy.

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/290401/bmw_i3_pr...

Sounds almost reasonable - I would be very tempted at that price and will certainly be popping along for a test drive.

[pickledsmurf]

I don't think range needs to be an issue. This can be overcome as the technology becomes more common and consumers embrace the change. I have a range problem with my RS4, about 225 miles if I'm not careful.

I recently watched the following video on You Tube of how Tesla were planning to solve the issues of range with electric cars. Essentially by using a system of batteries that can be removed from beneath the vehicle at a "battery exchange centre" and replaced with a fully recharged set of batteries in a matter of a couple of minutes. Is this any different to having to stop to fill up your car with petrol on a long journey?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY

What the industry needs to do, is to design a system of battery exchange that can be employed universally between manufacturers and roll these out alongside the traditional petrol/diesel forecourts. This would make range extenders for electric vehicles obsolete.