RE: BMW i4: 530hp, 372 miles of range confirmed

RE: BMW i4: 530hp, 372 miles of range confirmed

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Discussion

hu8742

232 posts

124 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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350+ miles of range .... yeah right. Bet you when it comes out its more like <250 miles. I seem to remember Audi confidently claiming something similar with the e-tron before it was launched and that struggles to get to 200 miles.

Jon_S_Rally

3,380 posts

87 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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9k rpm said:
I’m pretty sure the iX3 uses the same (new) platform as the ICE X3 and it was designed specifically for the purpose of dual power train use.
I hope so. That seems the obvious way forward. Making multiple platforms seems really wasteful.

Augustus Windsock

3,340 posts

154 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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If I were in the market for an EV then I’d consider this.
My issues with the whole EV thing is that if you live in a house with no parking space or garage (say in London) then how do I charge it without trailing a cable from my house to the road. And that’s not including the possibility of pedestrians tripping over the cable and even being able to park outside your own house
And secondly if day you wanted to travel from where I live (Peak District) to the south of France then charging becomes a major issue
With the network as it is at the moment I envisage I would charge the car at home and then drive down towards Folkestone
Nearing Folkestone I’d be thinking of recharging the car but find that all the points are occupied (and not for 5 mins as when a car fills with fossil fuels)
And when I run out of electrickety I can’t just walk to the nearest collage and bring back a can of it.
We need a better charging infrastructure but the other issue is how much of this electrickety will be produced by ‘clean’ methods and how much by fossil fuels?
Personally I’m pleased that in my early years of driving I was able to razz about in Cosworths, UR Quattros etc when there was (apparently!) no such thing as global warming or an ozone layer that got holes in it!

chandrew

979 posts

208 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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I'm also an (ex) i3 owner but from what I can see the i4 won't provide what I'm looking for when I swap out of my current 340i xDrive in the next 18 months.

For me, all the interesting EVs have been designed as an EV from the ground up. I see no reason for such a long bonnet / small cabin space when there is no engine. It provides a great opportunity to rethink how a car should be packaged. The i3 was a case in point but Teslas, the iPace and from what I can see the Taycan / ID3 / Polestar all benefit from this.

I can understand it's unlikely to have the innovative materials of the i3 (A key advantage of the i3 / i8 approach over a 'standard' car is that whilst marginal cost is more expensive, tooling is a fraction of the cost of a traditional vehicle so it becomes much more cost-effective with low volume production).

After such an innovative start in EVs BMW seems to have really lost its way. It's approach seems more to do with protecting it's balance sheet and not upsetting the works councils rather than developing the best products it can. Fortunately others are prepared to be much more bold.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Greg the Fish said:
Trying too hard to disguise that hideous front end.

Who in their right mind would take one of these over a Tesla?
Someone who wanted to buy a car from a manufacturer who will a. Be around in 10 years and b. Can screw a car together and make it handle c. Has decent CS

phil4

1,202 posts

237 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Augustus Windsock said:
If I were in the market for an EV then I’d consider this.
My issues with the whole EV thing is that if you live in a house with no parking space or garage (say in London) then how do I charge it without trailing a cable from my house to the road. And that’s not including the possibility of pedestrians tripping over the cable and even being able to park outside your own house
Saw this done in Amsterdam by having kerbside charging posts... a bit like the kerb side parking meters. Yes, you'd need someone to actually get on and put them in, and yes, you'd pay for charging... but that's the easiest current way of doing that.

Augustus Windsock said:
And secondly if day you wanted to travel from where I live (Peak District) to the south of France then charging becomes a major issue
With the network as it is at the moment I envisage I would charge the car at home and then drive down towards Folkestone
Nearing Folkestone I’d be thinking of recharging the car but find that all the points are occupied (and not for 5 mins as when a car fills with fossil fuels)
And when I run out of electrickety I can’t just walk to the nearest collage and bring back a can of it.
Yes, you'd need to stop and charge it. In all honesty there are a fair few more charging points along major routes these days, yes, may not be free, but things like ZapMap will help with that. And I'll be honest, if you're driving from Peak District to South of France, for everyone's safety, I'd hope you'd stop for a little longer than 5 minutes on the way.

Augustus Windsock said:
We need a better charging infrastructure but the other issue is how much of this electrickety will be produced by ‘clean’ methods and how much by fossil fuels?
We do, yes. But think about it the other way, if you were putting charging points in.... would you convert every single parking space in your carpark, just for the handful of people who have EV cars? Of course you wouldn't, you'd wait until your EV points were always full, and then you'd add some more. Granted there's likely a fair old delay between those two things, but that's how it'll work. It's the same reason every new road isn't built as a 4 lane motorway.

As EV's become more common, so will charging points. The questions is is that extra inconvenience worth the money saving? If not, that's fine, but also realise the money saving won't be around forever. We can't give up the fuel tax + duty we currently pay without it being transferred to something else, be that road charging, electricty taxed etc. As and when EV's become common so the price benefit will vanish.

And as for green power generation, the good bit about that is that there's relatively few polluting power sources in the UK, and the government is the only one who can control that. So instead of the government trying to persuade millions of public to change their ways, there's just a few power plants to sort out.

On the BMW i4? Shame the shape/styling is so normal and unadventurous.

Edited by phil4 on Monday 18th November 15:40

Nerdherder

1,773 posts

96 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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330e now, i4 when it comes out. Job jobbed for the premium business lease driver.

P.s. 'We' had all brands of PHEV and EV in the fleet when I drove a previous gen 330e.

P.s.s. BMW needs to stop the daft Roger Rabbit grille and overly hysterical use of sharp creases in their exterior design yesterday, or differentiate between markets is that's what they like in China.
I really like drivering BMW's but the recent models are too achingly hideous for me taste. Get your design game together BMW.

Shaoxter

4,048 posts

123 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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I would have thought 530bhp in an EV would have equated to a faster 0-62 time than that?

Ares

11,000 posts

119 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Jon_S_Rally said:
The thing that irks me about cars like this is the use of a separate platform. Of course the architecture needs of an EV can be rather different to that of an ICE car, but making an EV platform and an ICE platform seems massively inefficient. Finding ways to fit EV powertrains/batteries into existing vehicles, or developing single platforms that can support both (or a combination) would seem much more sensible to me. It's clear that ICE and hybrid cars are going to play a role for some time yet, so why not just offer platforms that can do all three? Hyundai have done it with the IONIQ which, although a bit of a minger, seems a really sensible way forward.

The EV I and many others want is still very much a normal car, without the token space-age looks, but with normal styling, normal equipment, normal interior space, normal range and normal performance. It just seems to me that, sadly, many of the EVs coming out at the moment are as much a virtue-signalling marketing exercise as they are a serious transport proposition.
Give it chance.... When current platforms were in design stage, EV was still not a mainstream short-term plan.

But even then, there are fundamental differences. EVs need their batteries under the floor for CoG. ICE don't.

EVs bring about huge different design potential, but you have to give it chance.

anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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I thought that Tesla's plan from the outset was to become a global supplier of batteries and associated charging kit, hence the purchase of a solar panel manufacturer and the introduction of the power wall home battery.
Plan is to integrate home produced electricity and create a national charging infrastructure.
From the outset they knew that the mainstream manufacturers would catch up and make more mainstream vehicles, so perhaps we won't see too much resistance from Tesla?

nunpuncher

3,363 posts

124 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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Shaoxter said:
I would have thought 530bhp in an EV would have equated to a faster 0-62 time than that?
It'll probably weigh 2.5t.

Can't help chuckling at the comments about this being bought by people who want a driver's car that handles and is well screwed together. Have none of you driven a modern BMW?

A1VDY

3,575 posts

126 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
An eV with a front grille and air intakes, wtf??
No doubt fake sorsts as well.
And what is it with bmw and this 'granny' take they seem to have on certain models.. &#129315;


LukeDM

467 posts

122 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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If they could put this in a regular 3 series estate I’d be putting my money down. It wouldn’t need this much power either.

edwheels

256 posts

145 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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This looks good and I am so pleased it looks like there will be a serious rival to Tesla for range and charging times. Competition is all in this market and this will push things along.

The BMW may not be a nimble car given the weight and so on but for me it would be, I'm sure, a nicer place to spend time in than any Telsa - hopefully without too many look-at-me tricks, no massive iPad screen in the middle of the console and a dashboard / idrive system which will lend a welcome familiarity to those changing to an EV. I am not saying Tesla have the recipe wrong - they are just not for me - whereas even the current BMW i3 is something I could live with.

simon-tigjs

129 posts

96 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
This looks like a major step for EV. Its going to take one of the major manufactures , with the support of a proper dealer network to give potential buyers the confidence to change. This is why this wins over Tesla.
The charging infrastructure is surely going to be a concern for ages though, yet the BMW range extender is a get you home trump card. If they put that on this I reckon they would be queuing up to buy. IMO this is the stepping stone to conversion while the network plays catch up or charge on the move is invented. Massive range and no anxiety for when your circumstances dictate. I know someone who has a Tesla and can just get to Dartmouth from Gloucester...only there are almost no charting points in Dartmouth!

Terminator X

14,920 posts

203 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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What weight though? The battery alone is 550kg's!

TX.

Court_S

Original Poster:

12,764 posts

176 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
chandrew said:
I'm also an (ex) i3 owner but from what I can see the i4 won't provide what I'm looking for when I swap out of my current 340i xDrive in the next 18 months.

For me, all the interesting EVs have been designed as an EV from the ground up. I see no reason for such a long bonnet / small cabin space when there is no engine. It provides a great opportunity to rethink how a car should be packaged. The i3 was a case in point but Teslas, the iPace and from what I can see the Taycan / ID3 / Polestar all benefit from this.

I can understand it's unlikely to have the innovative materials of the i3 (A key advantage of the i3 / i8 approach over a 'standard' car is that whilst marginal cost is more expensive, tooling is a fraction of the cost of a traditional vehicle so it becomes much more cost-effective with low volume production).

After such an innovative start in EVs BMW seems to have really lost its way. It's approach seems more to do with protecting it's balance sheet and not upsetting the works councils rather than developing the best products it can. Fortunately others are prepared to be much more bold.
My guess is that by making it look like a normal car then it’ll sell better. I love the i3 (the materials, design etc) but for many it just looks too odd. The first thing most people comment on about the i3 is how it looks.

For me, BMW’s i cars have been a wasted opportunity. They did something different and had the opportunity to get the jump on their competition but they haven’t really developed the concept much and now appear to be changing direction.

Panjy

162 posts

145 months

Monday 18th November 2019
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If the performance and range match those quoted in the article this should be an impressive car.

Hopefully the finished article will be better looking though, not at all impressed with the pics above frown

simonwhite2000

2,466 posts

96 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
Greg the Fish said:
Trying too hard to disguise that hideous front end.

Who in their right mind would take one of these over a Tesla?
I wouldn't even consider owning/ leasing a Tesla. I am still utterly bewildered by the following they have.

simonwhite2000

2,466 posts

96 months

Monday 18th November 2019
quotequote all
ntiz said:
Greg the Fish said:
Trying too hard to disguise that hideous front end.

Who in their right mind would take one of these over a Tesla?
Anyone sane??

People who like cars that handle.
Stop properly
Built properly.
Don’t like systems crashing
Something approaching customer service

I could go for quite a while.

Before you call me a hater I’m a 2x Tesla Model S owner. Only reason you buy the Tesla is for the charging network.
People really buy a Tesla just for that? Why? If that's the only positive. Btw my father in laws p85 is in its 3rd set of batteries amongst many other problems.