RE: Dealers confirmed for BMW i3 and i8
Discussion
I think the i8 is pretty amazing, something that will offer M3 matching performance with combined cycle of 104mpg (real world 60+ mpg?) and stunning looks.
I thought when the concept originally surfaced a few years ago there was talk of a £150K price tag, so £100K and squarely set against a 911 or R8 looks like a very interesting alternative.
As said by a previous poster, many people will run the i8 through a company rather than privately. For the i8 vs the 911 or r8, the personal cost as a tax benefit will be close to half that of the 'competition'.
I thought when the concept originally surfaced a few years ago there was talk of a £150K price tag, so £100K and squarely set against a 911 or R8 looks like a very interesting alternative.
As said by a previous poster, many people will run the i8 through a company rather than privately. For the i8 vs the 911 or r8, the personal cost as a tax benefit will be close to half that of the 'competition'.
DonkeyApple said:
Don't under estimate the draw of the BMW badge 
[...]
My gut feeling is that this will be the first EV that fits both of these groups, ie meets the demand of the left wing, trustafarian's partner desire for political smugness and also the latest 'tendy' car to be seen in.
[...]
No doubt helped by its association with its bigger brother as well as the brand.
Interesting take on things. Will be very interesting to see if BMW can pull that off. Apart from the badge though, 1250 kg, 170 PS, some EV instant torque + RWD also sound good. Could end up quite nice to drive. And I salute them for what seems like a "fun to drive" approach on an EV which is a first from a major manufacturer.[...]
My gut feeling is that this will be the first EV that fits both of these groups, ie meets the demand of the left wing, trustafarian's partner desire for political smugness and also the latest 'tendy' car to be seen in.
[...]
No doubt helped by its association with its bigger brother as well as the brand.
A few things have been said already - badge appeal. i3 maybe £35k but an 125d auto is nearly £32k. Why would you spend that when you can get a 114i for nearly 15k less? OR even a Nissan Note for 11k. The 114i will be just as fast in nearly 95% of daily driving, unless they'd added inspector gadget extendable wheels for passing over slower traffic. And auto is for wimps and drivers who don't care about driving right?
Tax! An electric car as a low emissions vehicle s a 100% first year capital allowance. Which means if bought through a company means you can deduct it off your taxable profits. So say you made 100k profit this year - you could keep it as profit and pay 20k to HMRC. OR Buy an i8 and pay HMRC nothing.
Ok you'll then have to pay car tax, but at a rate of 5% if they keep the CO2 figure as 35g/km!. So the BIK figure is 5% of 100k, or £5,000. On which you pay tax at your tax rate I'll assume 40%. So £2k a year. Compare that to an M5 which comes in at 35% for 232g/km. So 35% of 75k is £26,250 as the BIK figure. So tax at 40% is £10,500 a year. Call me a tax dodger if you like - but I'd prefer to pay HMRC £8k a year less and drive the i8 instead of an M5.
Theres's your market. People who run their own companies / earn a lot and are sick of paying too much tax.
Tax! An electric car as a low emissions vehicle s a 100% first year capital allowance. Which means if bought through a company means you can deduct it off your taxable profits. So say you made 100k profit this year - you could keep it as profit and pay 20k to HMRC. OR Buy an i8 and pay HMRC nothing.
Ok you'll then have to pay car tax, but at a rate of 5% if they keep the CO2 figure as 35g/km!. So the BIK figure is 5% of 100k, or £5,000. On which you pay tax at your tax rate I'll assume 40%. So £2k a year. Compare that to an M5 which comes in at 35% for 232g/km. So 35% of 75k is £26,250 as the BIK figure. So tax at 40% is £10,500 a year. Call me a tax dodger if you like - but I'd prefer to pay HMRC £8k a year less and drive the i8 instead of an M5.
Theres's your market. People who run their own companies / earn a lot and are sick of paying too much tax.
markrc said:
I might be miles behind the times (apologies if I am) but if I had a 60 mile round trip to work and wanted an i3, how would I go about charging the thing? Would it be ok long term to charge it daily (or nightly I should say) when it constantly has between 20-40% charge remaining? Or would it be better to always do the 'fast charge' after I've put my toast on in the morning?
I know with many electricals you 'should' fully charge down the battery before re-charging to extend the life of the battery itself (even with li-ion ones) but that becomes a whole load more difficult if you're expected to do it in a car... unless you're remarkably good at estimating distances, hills, traffic, etc...
Anyone with an answer/a good stab in the dark?
Yep - EVs have built in battery management systems. They cycle the batteries for you as the batteries are built in banks that run both series and parallel. If you think of a chess grid - day 1 it might use up Bank A1 first, then A2 etc. on day 2 it might run down D4 then D3 first. I know with many electricals you 'should' fully charge down the battery before re-charging to extend the life of the battery itself (even with li-ion ones) but that becomes a whole load more difficult if you're expected to do it in a car... unless you're remarkably good at estimating distances, hills, traffic, etc...
Anyone with an answer/a good stab in the dark?
PS - for a 60 miles round trip you'll be ok. 60 miles each way and you might want to charge up before you come home.
As a lot of people have commented - not everyone has a driveway. So these are not target customer. And not everyone has a commutable EV distance. That said Vaxhall did research for the Ampera and found something like 80% of daily commutes are less than 40 miles IIRC. And I guess about half of people have a drive or regular parking spot. So a rough guess is that 40% of people may be able to switch to an EV. If these people do the maths say comparing a 120d to the i3, they might convince themselves and get a TTS for the weekends and longer trips, and a T5 camper for the kids.
Kolbenkopp said:
DonkeyApple said:
Don't under estimate the draw of the BMW badge
[...]
My gut feeling is that this will be the first EV that fits both of these groups, ie meets the demand of the left wing, trustafarian's partner desire for political smugness and also the latest 'tendy' car to be seen in.
[...]
No doubt helped by its association with its bigger brother as well as the brand.
Interesting take on things. Will be very interesting to see if BMW can pull that off. Apart from the badge though, 1250 kg, 170 PS, some EV instant torque + RWD also sound good. Could end up quite nice to drive. And I salute them for what seems like a "fun to drive" approach on an EV which is a first from a major manufacturer.[...]
My gut feeling is that this will be the first EV that fits both of these groups, ie meets the demand of the left wing, trustafarian's partner desire for political smugness and also the latest 'tendy' car to be seen in.
[...]
No doubt helped by its association with its bigger brother as well as the brand.
Below is a list of the initial BMW i UK sales agents:
- Bavarian
- Berry Chiswick
- Benham Wolverhampton
- BMW Park Lane
- Bowker Preston
- Broad Oak Canterbury
- Chandlers Brighton
- Cooper Croydon
- Cooper Norwich
- Cooper Reading
- Cooper Teesside
- Cooper Tunbridge Wells
- Cotswold Gloucester
- Dick Lovett Bristol
- Eastern Motor Company
- Elms Cambridge
- Fairfield
- Halliwell Jones Warrington
- Harry Fairbairn Glasgow
- Jacksons Jersey
- John Clark Aberdeen
- Knights North Staffs
- Lloyd Carlisle
- Lloyd Newcastle
- North Oxford Garage
- Ocean Plymouth
- Rybrook Warwick
- Sandal Huddersfield
- Scotthall Milton Keynes
- Soper of Lincoln
- Specialist Cars Stevenage
- Stephen James Enfield
- Stratstone Derby
- Stratstone Leeds
- Sycamore Peterborough
- Sytner Birmingham
- Sytner Cardiff
- Sytner Harold Wood
- Sytner High Wycombe
- Sytner Leicester
- Sytner Sheffield
- Vines of Guildford
- Westerly Exeter
- Williams Liverpool
- Williams Manchester
- Wood of Bournemouth
Driven the Nissan Leaf a few times, well impressed, instant go when pressing the loud pedal (except its almost silent) and 40 on the dial before you know it. Other than that its no different to driving any other modern hatchback. Sadly it all goes pear shaped after about a 100 miles but if that fits with your lifestyle and going green is on your to do list its well worth a test drive.
I doubt BMW expect to shift many i8's but then they didn't sell many M1's either, 20 years on and the M brand has done okay. Worldwide the i3 numbers will make sense, 10-20 years from now and we'll all have something similar.
Flashback to the 1980's, Mobile Phones at a £1000 a pop, they'll never take off
I doubt BMW expect to shift many i8's but then they didn't sell many M1's either, 20 years on and the M brand has done okay. Worldwide the i3 numbers will make sense, 10-20 years from now and we'll all have something similar.
Flashback to the 1980's, Mobile Phones at a £1000 a pop, they'll never take off
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff