RE: BMW i3 prices confirmed

[Amateurish]

Looks fantastic. 0% BIK - will definitely get a quote for my new company car next year. I'll be very interested to see how much the range extender adds in price.

[Pulse]

As ever, it doesn't look as good as the concept... Shame.

I really think a car like this will appeal to a lot of people, and despite it not looking quite like the concept (interior especially), I would still be interested.

£25,000 is a lot of money, but perhaps it's worth that.

[Amateurish]

ITP said:

They are getting there but it's still quite expensive.

Contract is 8000 miles a year for 369pm plus 3k.
If it costs £3 a day to charge as mentioned earlier that's about £1000/year.

8000miles of fuel at, say 40 mpg, is about £1300/year. So only £25/month more.
How much does a smallish conventional car cost to lease over 3 years / 8000 miles a year? Not £344 (369-25) plus £3000 I wouldn't have thought.... I am obviously talking private buyers here, not company 40% tax pyer benefits etc etc.

8000 miles will take about 80-100 full charges, which should cost about £2 each. So electricity cost of £160-£200 / year.

[Funk]

redroadster said:

This is way forward will take quite a few years but once they perfect wi fi tech to charge these electric cars from say lamp posts without having to plug in they will be the only cars people will have and them few years are not that far away !.

I HAVE SOLVED THE ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING PROBLEM...!!!!



Please send the cheque at your earliest convenience...

[E38Ross]

JD said:

So how does something like this compare with a leased UP (an alternative?). on a personal contract, an UP is £165 p/month (2795 down, and 25k PA)

How many miles would you need to cover to start to make the i3 Cheaper?

Quite a lot I suspect.... Probably the point where you're doing too many miles to mean the electric car is a viable alternative.

Still, seems a good step in the right direction. If I was living in a city centre doing about 8k miles per year I might be interested.

Sadly, my commute is 20 miles each way, I'm doing over 1k per month average and occasionally have to do trips each way of over 250 miles.

[Prawnboy]

30k, i'll take a Cygnett- cooler badge!

[Luke.]

Prawnboy said:

30k, i'll take a Cygnett- cooler badge!

Meh.

[MiseryStreak]

Funk said:

I HAVE SOLVED THE ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING PROBLEM...!!!!



Please send the cheque at your earliest convenience...

You may have said that in jest but dynamic inductive charging will be the way it's done in the future. Cables/strips or pads laid in roads that generate an electric field that charge the vehicle batteries as you drive along.

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/automotive/in-depth/y...

[ITP]

Amateurish said:

ITP said:

They are getting there but it's still quite expensive.

Contract is 8000 miles a year for 369pm plus 3k.
If it costs £3 a day to charge as mentioned earlier that's about £1000/year.

8000miles of fuel at, say 40 mpg, is about £1300/year. So only £25/month more.
How much does a smallish conventional car cost to lease over 3 years / 8000 miles a year? Not £344 (369-25) plus £3000 I wouldn't have thought.... I am obviously talking private buyers here, not company 40% tax pyer benefits etc etc.

8000 miles will take about 80-100 full charges, which should cost about £2 each. So electricity cost of £160-£200 / year.

That sounds better. So you would save about 70-90/month, not 25, on fuel versus electric assuming you do about 40 or 50mpg. Gives you up to about 290pm for a normally fuelled car to break even with the 369pm for the i3.
Still high I reckon. I'm not against this electric runabout thing, my family car is an RX400h, but that does have a nice big 3.3 v6 'range extender'...

[jmflare]

Wth is this? Why not cycle instead, save £25k and get more fit. Oh and not get stuck somewhere for 12 hours because you need to recharge.

I expect this crap from Honda or Toyota but not BMW, why not spend the money and time spent on this hideous mess to develop an actually viable form of future auto-mobile. Seriously, who let this happen to you BMW?

[chrisw666]

I like that electric cars are becoming more popular, as city/short trip utility cars they make a lot of sense.

I'd certainly rather own an i3 for daily use and have an M3 for weekend/long range jaunts than compromise and run the diesel 3 series that I don't really want for everything.

[Mr E]

simonrockman said:

If you buy this as a company car is it zero rated for BIK? For lots of people that's a 40% saving and for some a 45% saving. Is it still 0 rated if you have the range extender?

Last time I looked at an Ampera, the BIK was 5% I think.

[V8 FOU]

Aaron W said:

they obviously make money thats the point but it isnt just about money its about fun besides if you would rather drive an electric car than a real car why are you on pistonheads the guardian is out there too

Perhaps you should read The Guardian. It may help you to learn to use capitals and punctuation. Possibly, you may see how to construct properly reasoned arguments too.

Or don't they have The Guardian in the school library these days?

[aarondbs]

V8 FOU said:

Aaron W said:

they obviously make money thats the point but it isnt just about money its about fun besides if you would rather drive an electric car than a real car why are you on pistonheads the guardian is out there too

Perhaps you should read The Guardian. It may help you to learn to use capitals and punctuation. Possibly, you may see how to construct properly reasoned arguments too.

Or don't they have The Guardian in the school library these days?

Don't you just hate it when someone of the same (rare) name makes things difficult for themselves and you feel a need to post just so that it doesn't rub off on oneself..

Poor show Aaron. Whatever one thinks of the i3, reverting to politically naïve, poorly written and poorly reasoned arguments is a sure fire way to make one look like an arse...

I think this i3 has some excellent points. My only problem with all electric vehicles is that my office is 30 miles from home and I use my car to drive to S. of France once or twice a year plus an additional 20K per annum. Even my wife works 22 miles from home plus shuffling two kids here and there. When they overcome range issues then maybe they would be worth a look.

[Amateurish]

Mr E said:

simonrockman said:

If you buy this as a company car is it zero rated for BIK? For lots of people that's a 40% saving and for some a 45% saving. Is it still 0 rated if you have the range extender?

Last time I looked at an Ampera, the BIK was 5% I think.

Pure electric are 0% BIK for the moment. They will become 5% in a couple of years.

Less than 75 CO2 (eg Ampera) are 5% BIK.

So expect the i3 to be 5% with range extender, and 0% without.

Edited by Amateurish on Wednesday 24th July 15:21

[Mr E]

Amateurish said:

So expect the i3 to be 5% with range extender, and 0% without.

Understood - cheers for the info.

[E38Ross]

chrisw666 said:

I like that electric cars are becoming more popular, as city/short trip utility cars they make a lot of sense.

I'd certainly rather own an i3 for daily use and have an M3 for weekend/long range jaunts than compromise and run the diesel 3 series that I don't really want for everything.

Odd argument considering the diesel option is cheaper than electric. You said you'd have this plus an M3 instead of just a diesel. What about a diesel and an M3 though?

[Benbay001]

pangster79 said:

I'll just nip down the shops...... oh - hang on, i need to wait 3 hours for it to charge!

Do you often run out of fuel now?


Electric cars are a great idea for city dwellers where the fossil fuels can be burnt in a power station many miles away to reduce smog and stop people from breathing in harmful gases.

[Chicane-UK]

jmflare said:

Wth is this? Why not cycle instead, save £25k and get more fit. Oh and not get stuck somewhere for 12 hours because you need to recharge.

I expect this crap from Honda or Toyota but not BMW, why not spend the money and time spent on this hideous mess to develop an actually viable form of future auto-mobile. Seriously, who let this happen to you BMW?

Speaking as someone who does cycle commute from time to time, you know sometimes it's just not fun slogging through traffic in the driving rain - or the freezing cold. Cycling in heavy traffic is a miserable experience by anyones measure. My trip to work is only 2.4 miles but I regularly walk it instead of cycling it purely because of all the hassle of taking the bike.

[NGK210]

The i3, coming to a supercilious neighbour's parking space in SW3, SW7, W11, W8, NW8, N1, etc, very soon - yoikes, BMW won't be able to make these things fast enough. Kerching!