0 The LA Auto Show: Driving Impressions & Details Learned

It's been a long time coming but I finally got to drive an i3. I've actually been getting tired of having journalists contact me and ask me for my opinion of it on the road compared to the MINI-E and ActiveE and having to tell them I haven't had the opportunity to drive one yet! So did it live up to my (high) expectations? Yes, it did. It's certainly not "the perfect EV," but in my opinion, it does do more things better than any other electric vehicle that costs less than $70,000. And yes, the $70,000 is the threshold mentioned because slightly above that, (actually $72,240) is the starting point before incentives, for the least expensive Model S you can buy in the US.

Lined up for test drives

Price is worth mentioning here because since the i3 has launched there have been endless comparisons between it and the Model S. My contention is that they are both excellent electric vehicles and while there will be inevitable comparisons and even some cross-shopping, they are really vastly different cars and if they weren't both electric would never be compared. The i3's base price is $42,275. That's $29,965 or about 40% less than a base Model S and that alone should end the need to compare them. However I feel it was important to touch on this because everybody else is. These are both excellent EVs, but they serve different masters. The one thing fascinating about the Model S is that it's such a great electric vehicle, that every other electric vehicle that comes along will now be compared to it, well done Tesla.

The back up camera video is extremely clear

In addition to my test drives I had the opportunity to sit down and interview just about every BMW representative there and I will do a future blog post dedicated to at least one of those interviews. However, here I'm going to focus on my thoughts on the driving experience and answering the many questions about the i3 I've received in the past few weeks in the form of comments, personal emails or posts on the BMW i3 Facebook page or in the BMW i3 forum, both of which I am the administrator of.

Tera World interior is all leather

BMW had fifty identical i3s at the LA Auto Show for test drives. They were all exactly the same color, had the 20" wheels, the top of the line Tera World interior and had every available option the i3 will offer. I later found out from BMW NA i3 product manager Jose Guerrero that these cars were actually the very first i3s to roll off the assembly line and that they were pre-production vehicles and European spec so they had to be updated with US charging ports, navigation software and other small modifications so they could be used here in the US for test drives. Also, after the LA Auto show these cars will gradually filter to dealers all over the US so depending on where you live your local BMW dealer may get one soon for demonstration and test drives.

What about the range extender?

Harb addresses the ActiveE drivers

Unfortunately none of the cars had range extenders so I can't answer many of the REx questions I've had like: "How quiet is it?  Can you feel the vibrations when it's on?  What MPG does it deliver?" I did learn some new details which I'll discuss later in the post though. I will say this though because the question of how robust the range extender is has been a common theme on every website that has an i3 discussion. At a private event on Thursday that BMW held for the ActiveE drivers that question was brought up and Jacob Harb, BMW's North American manager of sales and strategy for electric vehicles said he wanted to straighten out the confusion around a comment that a BMW representative once said, and that was that the REx wasn't meant for daily use. Jacob said you can certainly use it every day if you need to, but that BMW didn't envision the car being used by someone that has a 120 or 130 mile daily commute. The car could do it, but if your daily driving needs were this extensive then perhaps a different vehicle might be a better choice. He was then asked about taking it on a long drive and refilling the tank and continuing to drive. Again he said that BMW doesn't really envision people using the car like that all the time, but technically it's perfectly capable of doing so. He even said that technically speaking, you could drive an i3 from New York to LA simply by stopping for gas every 50 or 60 miles and refueling, and then qualified it by saying, "But I don't know why anybody would want to do that."  And personally I agree.

Driving in LA:

I stopped for quick photo op

I actually had the opportunity to drive the i3 twice, and do a ride along once so I probably spent a collective 20 miles in the car. I had a press pass so I registered for a press drive and then at the ActiveE event we were all allowed one test drive, plus I rode along when fellow Electronaut Todd Crook took his turn. On the first drive BMW handed me a course that they wanted the press to follow. It was basically a 3 mile loop that had you driving five blocks and turn right four times and you ended back where the ride originated from which was the Staples Center parking lot. You were alone, so you could of course vary from the course if you "got lost."  Being from New Jersey and never having driven in LA before I found it difficult staying on course and accidentally drove a little longer. It was pretty much what I expected it to be. Very quick, (we were told it does 0-60 in 7.0 seconds) very quiet (quieter than the ActiveE for sure), it has very responsive steering, an amazingly short turning radius and the braking was probably the best I've ever experienced. I practiced some emergency stops in a parking lot and the car stopped in exceptionally short distances. I can't wait to see official road tests when they measure braking distances. I predict it will deliver some of the shortest braking distances of any car on the road today.

The optional wide nav screen looks great

I really didn't get the chance to push the handling because of the LA city environment but I did have some fun weaving in and out of traffic, sprinting from streetlight to streetlight and mashing the accelerator to the floor at every opportunity. I don't know how it will do auto crossing (yet), but I give it an A+ for making the most fun you can out of city driving. I even tried out the Parking Assistant and it worked perfectly. I also purposely hit every pothole there was - and incidentally LA doesn't have nearly as many of them as we do in New York, and the car absorbed them without a problem and I didn't hear any unusual rattles or noises that I've read a few other journalists report when driving over bumps. The regenerative braking was about 10% weaker than it is on the ActiveE, but it's still by far the strongest regenerative braking on any electric vehicle. I'd say the Volt in low driving mode and the Model S are tied for 2nd, but the i3 has stayed true to BMW's promise of having the strongest regen in the industry which really allows for "one pedal driving." Like on the ActiveE there is what BMW calls a glide mode (basically the ability to coast to improve efficiency). By slightly easing back on the accelerator, the motor decouples and the car freewheels. While this isn't what you would normally need in a city driving environment, it will come in handy at higher speeds on the freeway. By easing back a bit more on the accelerator the motor then reengages and the regenerative braking grabs. 

Lift the armrest & you can slide across

The seats were comfortable and supportive and felt like they would do fine holding you in place during spirited driving but definitely don't grab you into place like seats in a sports car would. This, plus the lack of a center tunnel on the floor does allow you to easily slide across to the other side of the car and exit out of the passenger side if you wanted to, which I did just to see how easy it would be. The back seats have plenty of room for two big adults. I even brought along three passengers on my second test drive to see how we all fit and if the extra 600+ lbs would effect the driving dynamics. The car was slightly slower as you would expect but the handling felt just as good as when I was driving alone but again, I couldn't push it much on the streets of LA but I did make some rapid lane changes at about 40 mph and the car felt precise and planted even with the full load. 

What was learned: 

As I mentioned above I've had a lot of people ask me i3 questions recently and I promised I'd do my best to get answers once I drove the car and had the opportunity to speak to the program managers again. Without listing the specific questions here the answers to most of what I've been asked:


-The range extender engine is liquid cooled, but it's a different system and coolant than what is used for the battery management system. In fact, the i3 REx has three separate cooling systems. One for the BMS, one for the passenger cabin and one for the REx engine. The battery pack uses air conditioning refrigerant and the REx engine uses conventional liquid coolant.

-Waste heat from the REx is not used to heat the cabin.

-In the US the heat pump is standard on all BEV i3s, but it's not available on the i3 REx. BMW doesn't believe it's a necessary option if you have the range extender.

-Yes, you can certainly precondition the cabin (heat or cool) and the battery even if you have the REx. (Two people from the UK asked me this so evidently there is inaccurate info somewhere there)

-European delivery will not be offered on the i3.

-There are no optional interior color choices. Each interior level only comes in the color shown. So you can't for instance get the Terra World with gray interior, it only is available in the brown leather like the pictures shown above.

-The REx does not turn on until the state of charge is under 5%. It is robust enough to maintain the charge under all but the most strenuous conditions. You can manually shut it off so it doesn't turn on at all for instances when you know you'll make your destination on battery alone. If you do so it resets once you turn the car off and on again. This way you can't forget you shut the REx off.

-The REx has start/stop technology and shuts off when you are driving under 10mph unless the SOC is so low that it needs to stay on to get the car to 5% SOC. This is so that the car remains quiet at low speeds and while parked. This means you can't park the car with the REx on and let it charge up for a while.

-There is no speed limiter when the REx is running, but there is when you choose Eco Pro+ mode. In Eco Pro+ mode you are limited to 56 mph. Jose Guererro showed the ActiveE group a picture of the speedometer he took while driving an i3 with the REx running and he was going about 70-75mph (I don't remember exactly) he also said the car was maintaining the charge without a problem at that speed.

*UPDATE: The US i3's will not be speed limited in Eco Pro+ mode like I wrote above. The European i3's are though, and the car I drove was a European spec i3, so when I put it in Eco Pro+ mode the speed restriction display showed, which is why I reported it as such.

-Heated seats are optional, and this was a bit of a head scratcher: You can't precondition the passenger cabin with heat unless you get the seat heater option. I don't get that at all, but that's the way it is. Anyone who lives in an area that has cold temperatures during the year simply must get the heated seats option in my opinion or they will regret it later.

-The rear seats fold down completely flat and split 50/50. 

-Comfort Access is standard with Giga and Terra World trim packages, as is the sunroof.

-The battery pack is comprised of 8 modules which each have 12 individual cells. The cells are supplied by Samsung but BMW assembles the modules in house.

-You have to get the Parking Assistant package to get the rear view camera, it's not a standalone option.

-US orders will begin in January, not in November as previously reported on InsideEVs.com

-i3s bound for the US will begin production in March, likely arrive in the US for delivery sometime in April.

I was also asked to take some specific pictures, here they are:

Taken by my friend Andre

There were 6 CCS quick chargers there

The display while DC fast charging

One battery module contains 12 cells

There is one more thing that I learned. For some reason, BMW has decided to omit a state of charge gauge. My head nearly exploded when I found this out. Both the MINI-E and ActiveE had state of charge meters and quite honestly it's all I use when I drive. I never use the predicted remaining miles, or the bar graph. I love the simplicity of a simply number, from 0 to 100% to tell me how much energy I have to work with. I am not alone either, when the other ActiveE drivers found out they were as shocked as I was. In fact we brought it up and protested so much the i3 management team promised they would revisit this. I'm going to dedicate my next blog post on this topic, because I don't want this post to be all about the SOC. Other than this topic, most everything else was extremely positive. The car drives as great as I had hoped it would and BMW announced to the ActiveE group that as a thank you for our participation, they would be making a special edition i3 that will only be available for us, and our cars will be some of the first i3s delivered to the US.  I hope I got to everyone's questions and requests. Please leave any other questions in the comment area and I'll answer them if I can.

Detail: The LA Auto Show: Driving Impressions & Details Learned

0 Strong US i3 Demand Expected, Says CEO Willisch

Predicting demand for electric vehicles has proven to be a difficult task. Both GM and Nissan had admit to not hitting their sales predictions when they first launched their respective electric vehicles. Tesla, on the other hand seems to have their sales constricted by battery supply issues and not by a lack of customer demand.

BMW has been very quiet with regard to talking about sales targets for the i3. It has been reported that BMW will have the ability to make 30,000 i3's per year and could possibly push that up to 40,000 if the demand warrants it. However that isn't right out of the gate. The first year of production will most certainly be much lower than 30,000 regardless of the demand.  Because everything about the i3 requires a completely new manufacturing process it's going to take a little while for BMW to work out any initial kinks in the assembly process. Plus, BMW can only make as many i3's as they get battery cells for. Yes BMW does assemble the battery pack in-house at their Landshut plant, but they do get the cells from a supplier (Samsung) and will be limited to what Samsung can supply.

The i3 battery pack consists of  8 modules, each consisting of 12 individual cells. Pictured above is one i3 module with an individual cell positioned in front.

Initial European orders have been very strong which is good for BMW and a good sign in general for the EV industry, but may squeeze i3 availability for the US market. BMW North American CEO Ludwig Willisch recently told the Automotive News that he believes BMW will sell every i3 allocated to US dealers and wouldn't comment on volume any more than saying  the US would get "more than a few thousand". In 2012, the first full year of US sales for the Volt and the LEAF, they sold 7,345 and 9,655 units respectively. The market for electric vehicles has matured a bit since then which is an advantage for the i3, but the i3 is also much more expensive than either the Volt or the LEAF so that will certainly be a sales-restricting factor in itself. Throw in the fact that we don't know how many i3's BMW can supply the US in the first year and it really is difficult to even guess how many will be sold in 2014. Maybe that's why Willisch and the others at BMW are reluctant to offer any real sales prediction other than to say "strong demand"; or perhaps it's because they watched Nissan and GM fall short and have to address their mistakes and eat a little crow. My guess is it's the latter.

Detail: Strong US i3 Demand Expected, Says CEO Willisch

0 How Long Will it Take To Charge an i3?

The i3 will charge in about 3 hours on a standard level 2 supply.

Since installing public charging stations at my restaurant in Montclair NJ, I have conversations with EV-interested folks nearly every day. One of the most popular questions they seem to always ask is how long does an electric car take to charge?

I wish I could just give a quick answer, but it's just not that easy. Nearly every EV takes a different amount of time to charge since they have different size batteries and the also have different charging rates. Then you throw in three different levels of charging (120V, 240V & 480V DC quick charge) and there isn't even a single answer for every car. For instance if I said the i3 takes about 3 hours to charge I'd be correct. However I could also say it will charge to 80% in under a half hour (DC QC) as I could say it takes about 15 hours (simple 120V household outlet) to charge and I'd still be correct. So I try to quickly explain the different methods of charging and the fact that every car is different without totally confusing the person or making it sound so complicated that they are are turned off by it all. After all, getting gas may be expensive but let's face it, it's very easy to understand!

The size of the battery, the onboard charger and the supply provided will all work together to determine how long your EV will take to charge. The vast majority of the time most EV owners will charge their car they will do so on a 240V electric supply, so I'll focus on that here. One advantage "little battery" EV's like the i3 have is since they have a small battery, they will charge relatively quickly, provided they have robust onboard charging capabilities. The i3's standard 7.7kW charger will fully charge the battery in under three hours which is pretty good compared to the other EV's on the market. Only Tesla (9.6kW charging standard) and Renault (43kW Chameleon charger) offer an EV with a faster level 2 charging rate than the i3.

Miles Per Hour:

One way to condense the conversation about charging time is to simply say how many miles of range per hour of charging you get. The i3's small battery (18.8kWh usable) combined with its relatively fast onboard charger will allow you to gain about 30 miles of range for every hour you are plugged into a 240v 32 amp supply. This will be something I really welcome. My MINI-E could accept up to 12kW's and I would get about 30 miles per hour of charging. However after a recent BMW software tweak my ActiveE only gets about 15 miles of range per hour and it feels painfully slow, especially when I need to charge to get somewhere. I am
so looking forward to getting back to charging at 30 miles per hour when I get my i3. Being able to charge quickly on a standard level 2 supply is really helpful and once you've been able to do so you don't want to go to a slower charging rate. The car becomes imminently more usable when you can charge it quickly so I'm glad BMW is offering a pretty robust onboard charger. Now of course I wish it was a 9.6kW charger like Tesla uses, but that's just the part of me that is never satisfied speaking. In reality 7.7kW's is fine for a car with a 22kWh battery. It will charge twice as fast as my ActiveE and deliver about the same range, and that will really make the car much more versatile.

Detail: How Long Will it Take To Charge an i3?

0 DC Quick Charge: Better Than a Bigger Battery

A BMW i3 charges at the first public SAE CCS quick charge station open in the US. 

The first public DC quick charger in the US that uses the SAE-endorsed Combined Charging System (CCS) opened this week in San Diego, CA. It's located at the Fashion Valley Mall and uses a dual connector quick charger called a "Freedom Station" by EVgo.

The i3 will have a DC quick charge option that the customer can elect or pass on. The price has not been set yet but the speculation is it will cost somewhere between $750 and $1,000 extra. Having the option will allow you to recharge the car to 80% in about 20 minutes. This is an incredible advantage to have in an EV, since charging times are really what limit EVs like the i3 from being able to cover hundreds of miles without much inconvenience. Of course you can get an EV with a huge battery like the Tesla Model S which will allow you to drive a couple hundred miles between charges, but to be able to really cover long distances without much inconvenience, DC quick charge (or battery swap ability) is really needed. 

Standards War

SAE & CHAdeMO side by side

Tesla understands the absolute need for quick charging on pure electric vehicles and is rolling out their own network of DC quick chargers they call Superchargers. Since Tesla uses a proprietary connector nobody other than Tesla customers will be able to use their network. Nissan uses a different connector called CHAdeMO (short for CHArge de MOve or charge for moving) which was developed by Tempco (yeah, the power utility that runs the Fukushima nuclear power plant) for quick charging electric vehicles in Japan. When Nissan came out with the LEAF, the SAE hadn't yet endorsed a DC quick charge connector for the US so Nissan had no other option but to use the CHadeMO connector on the LEAF for quick charging, not that they wouldn't have anyway. Then, once the SAE endorsed the CCS connector, BMW, along with Audi, Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, GM, Porsche all agreed to use it on their plug in vehicles, when they eventually make them. I'm not going to go into why one is better than the other, or why some manufacturers chose one over the other here. There are plenty of articles on the internet that discuss this at nauseam; just do a simple search and you'll find them. I will say that I've talked with a few BMW engineers about this and they all basically told me there was no decision to be made. That the SAE CCS system is so technically superior to CHAdeMO, especially for future applications, that they wouldn't have even considered it. 

Personally, I really don't care which "standard" my EV has, as long as there are chargers out there for me to use. I've held both and even plugged both into cars and the SAE is a little lighter and less bulky and you only need a single charge port on the car so I tend to favor it, but honestly, I would be fine using CHAdeMO if there were chargers installed in my area and there aren't. At the i3 premier in July a BMW program manager asked me how much would I be willing to pay for the DC quick charge option. I suspect the price for the US market hadn't been finalized yet. My response was, "That depends" eliciting his curiosity. I followed it up by saying right now I won't pay a penny for a DC quick charge option because there are no chargers within driving distance of my home. However let's say there were a couple here and there in my general area, then I'd pay about $500 for it. And if there were a couple dozen of them in northern New Jersey I'd be willing to pay $1,000 for it. 

 
I know we are many years from having DC quick chargers in accessible, convenient locations like gas stations but I also believe that day will eventually come. The West Coast has a huge head start over the rest of the country and probably has as much as 70% of the Superchargers, ChadeMO and now CCS stations installed in the entire country. Plus, with the recent NRG settlement California will get 200 more DC quick charge stations, most being dual connector (CHAdeMO and CCS) units. Tesla currently has 24 Superchargers installed and an aggressive plan to cover the rest of the US in a few years. Nissan meanwhile has committed to installing hundreds of CHAdeMO stations in the US although they haven't delivered much on that promise yet. Outside of California's NRG settlement the future is unclear how and when we'll get the SAE CCS stations installed. Without any clear plan for the area you live in, I think it would be foolish to pay up to $1,000 for the option if you don't even know if you'll ever be able to use it. I have a friend that bought a LEAF in 2012 here in New Jersey and paid for the CHAdeMO option but nearly three years later he has never been able to use a CHAdeMO station because there are none within his range. 

I had the opportunity to talk with a BMW manager at the i3 premier about DC Quick charge infrastructure and one of the questions I asked was will the BMW i dealerships be required to install a DC quick charge station. I thought that would be a great way to at least begin the roll out of compatible DC quick chargers for the i3 so customers will at least have their local dealerships to fill up quickly at. They could also look for BMW i dealerships along the route of their long trips and since most dealerships are on highways, the locations would probably be good ones. Unfortunately that isn't going to happen. The dealers will not be required to install DC quick charge stations, but they will be "encouraged to." Personally I'd like to see BMW "encourage" them by offering to supply them with the DC charging station for free, as long as they pay to install, maintain it and have it available for use even when the dealership is closed. The dealerships will however be required to install multiple level 2 charging stations though which is a start, but really doesn't help out with longer road trips.

"Quick" Level 2 Charging

Is there such a thing as quick level 2 charging? While level 2 charging (240v) isn't necessarily quick, some cars do charge quicker than others. The Model S is the king (in the US at least) of L2 charging as it can charge at a rate of up to 20kW with optional dual onboard 10kW chargers. However the real L2 charging champ is only available in Europe. The Renault ZOE's onboard "Chameleon charger" can charge at up to 43kWs! On the other end of the spectrum is the Chevy Volt that is restricted to 3.3kW charging. However since the Volt has a much smaller battery than a Model S, it can actually fully charge in about the same time as a Model S can with it's massive 85kWh battery. The i3 will be able to charge at up to 7.4kW, and since it has only a 22kWh battery, it can fully charge in under 3 hours. This delivers a rate of about 30 miles of range per hour when charging from a 240v 30 amp level 2 charging station. That's a good improvement from my ActiveE, which returns only 15-18 miles of charge per hour. BMW is quick to point out how fast the i3's battery can be replenished while charging on L2, and while it is better than any non-Tesla EV here in the US, it still pales compared to the 80 miles of range you can get in 20 minutes on a DC quick charger.

Bigger battery vs DC quick charge 

The i3's 22kWh battery will allow for 80-100 miles or range in every day driving conditions, and up to 125 miles if the more efficient ECO-Pro+ driving mode is selected (Says BMW). So if range is so important, why not just slap a 40kWh battery in there and call it a day? The i3 would get about 200 miles of range and you wouldn't need quick charge, right? Wrong. Tesla uses enormous battery packs and they still realize they need a DC quick charge network to really make their electric cars viable to the broad public. Even with 200 to 300 mile range their customers want to be able to quickly recharge so they can drive long distances. The truth is, no matter how big your battery is and how far you can drive on a single charge, people will always want more range and quick charging. This is way BMW is offering the range extender on the i3. They know that it's going to take years for a comprehensive DC quick charge network to be built out, so until we have a robust infrastructure in place, the range extender will be a very popular option and will allow the owner to drive as far as they need on the few occasions they need to travel long distances. For daily use they won't use any gas, as the ~100 mile range should be more than enough for the vast majority of the time, yet they still have the flexibility of being able to cover hundreds of miles should the need arise. I believe the range extender becomes obsolete once we have adequate quick charge infrastructure in place. In fact, large Tesla-sized batteries won't be necessary either. Why carry the additional weight around and pay for a huge battery pack when you can use one half the size and just charge it quickly when the occasional need arises? The main reason EVs cost more than conventional powered vehicles is the cost of the battery pack. A smaller pack combined with readily available quick charge is clearly the way to go, however getting the infrastructure in place is the 800 lb gorilla in the room. It's not just going to happen without the support of the manufacturers. Tesla and Nissan seem to be doing their part, will BMW and the others that have signed up to use the SAE CCS standard do their part? Only time will tell.
 

The BMW EV infrastructure team was well represented at the grand opening event for the first public CCS quick charging station. Will they continue to be involved in assisting CCS station deployment, or wait by the sideline and watch?

Detail: DC Quick Charge: Better Than a Bigger Battery

0 What Should The i3 Be Compared To?

Now that BMW has revealed the production version of the i3, including most of its specifications and the MSRP with and without the range extender option, it seems journalists are struggling a bit when they are deciding what other car to compare it to. The result is, they are comparing it to just about everything else with a plug.

A LEAF charging at my restaurant

Since BMW claims it will have about an 80-100 mi range, the inevitable comparisons to the Nissan LEAF have happened. These have largely said the i3 will be faster, offer a better driving experience, has a nicer interior and offers electronic packages and a range extender that Nissan doesn't offer. At the same time, the i3 is $14,000 more than a base LEAF S, has only a marginally better range, has less cargo room and the rear coach doors will be less functional than the LEAF's conventional doors. The LEAF seats 5, while the i3 only seats 4. Exterior styling is pretty much a push, as both cars have unconventional styling that many have said they do not appreciate.

Others have pit the i3 against the Chevy Volt. There is a lot of sense to this comparison because the i3 and the Volt are the only two electric vehicles that have a range extender. The range extender is standard on the Volt; you can't order one without it, while on the i3 it is an option. BMW has stated that they expect the vast

A Volt on display at Nauna's

majority of i3s sold in the US to have the range extender option and I agree with that line of thinking. The i3 has more than two and a half times the electric range of the Volt, allowing most owners to drive on electric a much higher percentage of the time, while the Volt's range extender is more robust and allows the driver to continue driving uninhibitedly once it turns on, even up long mountain climbs. There is still some speculation that the i3 may have difficulty with long, steep mountain climbs once the range extender has come on. The thought is the REx may have difficulty replenishing the energy used in these extreme situations quick enough, but this is still an unknown. Also, the Volt has a 9.3 gallon gas tank so you can drive it up to 380 miles without stopping for gas. The i3 has a 2.4 gallon gas tank so the total range will be less than 200 miles before needing to stop to refuel. The i3 is faster (0-60 in 7.0 seconds compared to the Volts 8.7 sec). Both cars seat 4 with comparable passenger volume but the Volt has more cargo room. The Volt's recent $5,000 price reduction makes it about $10,000 less than an i3 with the REx option, which should be the version of the i3 you use to compare the two. This is a significant advantage for the Volt and the recent surge in Volt sales is proof that people will buy them in large numbers if they believe they are properly priced. A typical BMW customer is accustomed to paying more than a typical Chevrolet customer, but will they see the i3's advantages (performance, much longer AER, cutting edge tech, carbon fiber construction) as worth the premium is yet to be seen.

The i3's interior is nicer than any other IMO

I believe if you must find an EV to compare the i3 to, the Volt is a particularly good one because they are the only two EVs that have range extenders and I definitely believe many customers will select the REx option. I believe that is true partly because many first time EV buyers will want the security of having the range extender there "just in case" and others will opt for it because they find the i3's electric range to be short of what they want in an electric vehicle. I believe if BMW gave the i3 15% to 20% more electric range then the take rate on the range extender would drop precipitously. This is where I think BMW swung and missed. They had the opportunity to put some distance between themselves and every other EV out there other than Tesla's products which are much more expensive. An i3 with an EPA range rating of 110  to 120 miles would have really created a new class of EV, instead they now have a premium version of a Volt combined with a LEAF. With electric cars, a lot of what's premium about the car is range and I'm a bit surprised BMW didn't get that message and offer slightly more range. They didn't need to match Tesla's long range vehicles though. If they just put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack I think they would have hit a home run. I do believe the i3 will sell well, but it would have been much better received if it offered a slightly longer electric range.

My Model S for a day!

Then there is the Model S. A lot of recent news stories are comparing the i3 to it. Tesla's Model S is the benchmark that all other EVs, rightly or wrongly, will be compared to. That is because it's such a great car. However nothing offered today deserves to be compared to the Model S, it really stands alone at the top of he EV hierarchy. It's not only a great EV, it's great compared to just about anything. I don't like this comparison though, not because the i3 comes up short (literally), but because the least expensive Model S is nearly $30,000 more than an i3. In fact for what the least expensive Model S costs you could buy an i3 and a LEAF S and still have enough money left over to pay for the electricity to drive them both a combined 135,000 miles! Still, I understand why some people want to compare the i3 to the Model S. The i3 is the first EV coming from a "premium" auto manufacturer so they assume BMW was trying to go head to head with Tesla which they obviously weren't. The i3 may very well prove to be as good at what it was designed for as the Model S is at what it was designed for, but only time will tell.

I haven't seen anybody compare it to any of the low volume compliance cars currently being offered and I avoided using any of them here also. As compliance cars the manufacturers only goal is to get them leased or sold as quickly and as painlessly as possible and they can accept huge losses in doing so by heavily discounting them, offering unlimited mileage leases and even giving away free charging equipment. This is all great for the customer, but it doesn't allow a fair comparison.

I've seen a few people say it reminds them of an iMiEV and granted the stubby nose can draw some similarities to the shape, but having driven a few iMiEV's and have sat in a few i3's now I'd advise people to see and drive the i3 before you try to lump them together because they really aren't similar once you've seen the i3 in person. The i3 is more than a foot longer and 7 1/2 inches wider than an iMiEV and has much more interior volume, plus it has 40% more range and the performance isn't really comparable.

So while there is no perfect apples to apples comparison, I think the Chevy Volt is probably what makes sense the most to compare it to and that's only if you are comparing it to the i3 with range extender. However I believe the i3 is different enough that it's going to draw people that may not have bought a LEAF or a Volt, which is good for the plug-in industry. More choices will get more EV's on the road and as they say, a rising tide raises all boats.

Detail: What Should The i3 Be Compared To?

0 BMW i3 Wins Two Next Green Car Awards

Winners of the 2013  Next Green Car Awards winners were announced yesterday and the BMW i3 claimed the top prize in two of the eight categories. The Next Green Car Awards are said to be the most scientifically-based Green Car Awards in the UK.

Courtesy Gerald Belton

The i3 won  the "2013 Supermini Award" for being "set to change what we expect and demand of an electric urban vehicle; one that maximizes electrification, connectivity, quality and driving performance.” It was won the "2013 City-Car" award. Of that, Suzanne Grey, General Manager BMW i said: "We believe the BMW i3 is a real game changing vehicle because it has been born electric. Being designed from the ground up to be an electric vehicle has resulted in a number of benefits in terms of weight, packaging, range, emissions and driving dynamics."

Other winners included the Nissan LEAF which took home the "Small Family Award", The Tesla Model S (Executive Award), the Volkswagen e-Up! (Next Generation Award) and the Volvo 360 Plug in Hybrid (The Large Family Award).

Dr. Ben Lane, Managing Editor of Next Green Car said: "The 2013 winners reflect two key elements underlying current green car development: drive-train electrification and continuing improvements in fuel efficiency. While all the winners are highly distinctive in the innovations they employ, they all excel at using new technologies to enhance the driver experience."

I have a feeling these won't be the last awards handed out the the i3. It will be interesting to see how the i3 is received when the big automotive news outlets hold their annual "Car of the Year" contests. The Tesla Model S swept many of these awards last year. While I don't expect the i3 to claim as much hardware as the Model S did, I do believe it will score very well up against the other new cars introduced this year.

Sources: Autoevolution.com, insideevs.com

Detail: BMW i3 Wins Two Next Green Car Awards

0 BMW Allows The First Journalists Ever To Take A Ride In An i3

An i3 test car going through cold weather testing in Sweden.     Photo: Autocar

For the first time ever BMW has allowed a few journalists take a ride in i3's. One of the test rides took place in Sweden where a small fleet of i3's is finishing up their final cold weather testing. BMW has actually been conducting cold weather testing of the i3's there for over two years now, as the conditions there are perfect for this kind of validation. The other drive happened in Ismaning, Germany at another of BMW's test facilities.

Kacher poses as BMW's Kranz looks on. Photo: Car Magazine

In the past two days Autocar and Car Magazine have published articles on their impression of the experience. It appears nobody was allowed to actually drive the i3, they were passengers. Autocar writer Greg Kable had Patrick Mueller, head of BMW i drivetrain development as his pilot and Georg Kacher of Car Magazine had the privilege of being chauffeured by non other than Uli Kranz, the project leader of BMW i. You can click on the above links to read the full reports and I'll summarize the revelations that I believe are most important here:

1) The i3 is faster than what we thought. Until now BMW had said two things about the speed of the i3. In one instance they said the concept i3 will go 0-100km (62mph) in 7.9 seconds. Then in most recent marketing venues we were told the "Concept i3 goes 0-60mph in under 8 seconds". It's important to note they always referenced the "Concept i3" not the production car. Now for the first time journalists have quoted 0-60 times. Kable from Autocar said the i3 will do 0-60 in 7.2 seconds and Kacher said it will do it in 7.3. The i3 is clearly going to be a quick car. My MINI-E did 0-60 in about 8 seconds and it was a blast to drive. The ActiveE is no slouch either, but it takes a little over 9 seconds to hit 60mph. Cutting two seconds off the ActiveE time will certainly make for a spirited drive. 

2) The i3 achieved an official 140 miles of range on the European test procedure. What does this mean? Well the 2012/2012 LEAF achieved a range of 107 miles on this same test and that translated into a 73 mile EPA rating. Translated to the i3 that would then give it an EPA rating of 95 miles per charge. I know you can't make that exact assumption, but if you simply roll the numbers and say the i3 achieved a range of 130%(140/107) that's what it converts to and it's all we have to go on at this time. I would be happy if that is the EPA range rating for the i3. I have contended all along that I would prefer a 100 mile EPA rating, but as long as it is over 90 miles per charge, then I believe it will do just fine. It will then have the highest EPA rating of any EV that doesn't have a Tesla powertrain.

The 20" wheels on the concept coupe

3) It will come standard with 19" wheels and 20" wheels will be optional. The concept cars had 20" wheels, but concept cars frequently have oversized wheels that don't make it to production. These wheels are huge for a car of this size. There isn't any production car anywhere that is this small and has 20" wheels! You usually only see 20" wheels on huge SUV's and trucks. The whole concept of these tall wheels and thin tires is to maximize efficiency by reducing rolling resistance and drag, while still providing great road holding for high performance driving. When questioned about how the thin tires can manage to give the car such great handling Kranz said: "It’s not rocket science. All that matters is the size of the contact patch. The 19-inch tires may be skinny, but their tall height generates the same contact patch as a low-section 16-inch MINI tire". Kacher was very impressed with the handling and he said: "The i3’s most awesome dynamic talent is its incredible grip. The made-to-measure tires are about as narrow as those of a 125cc motorbike, yet they hang on almost as tenaciously as BMW’s latest DTM racer."

This is the engine to be used for the REx

4) The range extender will be a 650cc two-cylinder gas engine borrowed from the BMW C650GT motorcycle. When used for the motorcycle it has a maximum of 60hp but on the i3 it will be highly optimized for efficiency, and will run at lower RPM's for a quiet, low vibration operation. This lowers the power output to 35bhp. It will be mounted close to the rear wheels and accompanied by a 2.3 gallon gas tank which will be positioned behind the front axle. This makes sense since the gas filler door is on the front passenger quarter panel. I imagine 35 hp will be enough to allow the i3 to continue at highway speeds of 65-70mph on flat surfaces, but I don't believe it will be enough to allow the car to climb steep grades at highway speeds. It's worth noting that BMW has hinted that the range extender is not meant for full time driving like a Chevy Volt. It's main purpose to to allow you to get you to your destination or the nearest charge point once you have exhausted the battery and allow you to do so without worry of being stranded, it's not designed for prolonged high speed driving. If you frequently need to drive more than 100 to 120 miles or so, perhaps the i3 with a range extender isn't the best plug-in choice for you, but let's wait for the official specifications before we conclude that for sure.

5) Kacher wrote: "BMW has tooled up initially to produce 30,000 cars a year, but this can be extended to 50,000 units if the i3 takes off". I had heard rumors of production estimates being 30,000/year initially but they were never really confirmed. If Kacher got this directly from Kranz then it's really the first time an official production goal was offered by BMW. It's a lofty goal. No other EV has even come close to selling that many in any year, let alone it's first year. One advantage the i3 does have though is it will be available in markets all over the world, unlike many of the other plug in cars that are available today. However the LEAF is available in many countries also and it hasn't hit the 30,000/year mark after more than two years and it's a much more affordable car then the i3 will be. It's difficult to gauge the plug in vehicle market. Government incentives play a big role and so does the proliferation of public charging infrastructure. However the i3 is the only EV in it's price class that will offer the performance and range that it does, as well as an optional range extender and the premium driving experience that is expected of a BMW so it will be interesting to watch how the sales figures progress.

Since I wasn't lucky enough to be one of the first outside BMW to hitch a ride in an i3 I'll just reprint Kacher's conclusion. He makes his thoughts on the car very clear:

"The i3 is shaping up to be a breakthrough electric car. It delivers dynamic thrills like no electric car before it. The steering seems highly involving, the drivetrain’s punch would flatten a Leaf, and the handling and road-holding seem up there with BMW’s best. Ulrich Kranz and his team appear to have succeeded in bringing pure driving pleasure to the environmentally friendly car. We’ll know for sure when we drive the car in summer 2013"

Detail: BMW Allows The First Journalists Ever To Take A Ride In An i3

0 How Much Would You Pay For An i3?

There are a lot of questions still unanswered about BMW's first production electric car, the i3. Various sources have reported it will launch in September 2013 as an 2014 model, and BMW has gradually released technical information like the battery size(22kWh's) the motor specs (130kw, 184 lb-ft torque, 170 hp) and dimensions (151" long, 60" high, 101" wheelbase and 2,756lbs). However the only thing anyone from BMW has said regarding the price is that it will cost "less than a BMW 5-Series sedan", which starts at about $48,000US.

Which brings us to this poll today. How much would you be willing to pay for a BMW i3? Before you answer the poll, please read the specifications of the other available and soon to be available electric cars. This may give you a better understanding of where the i3 fits into the electric vehicle scene.

BMW i3 ???
Four passenger hatchback to be sold 3rd quarter 2013 as a 2014 model.
130 kW motor: Top speed 93mph: 0-60 in under 8 seconds
Rear wheel drive; 7.7kW level 2 charging standard, SAE DC quick charge optional
Active liquid thermal management battery system
22kWh battery, Carbon fiber passenger cell & aluminum frame (dedicated EV platform)
Range: EPA 92 miles per charge (estimated)

Nissan LEAF $35,200(SV) $37,250(SL)
Five passenger hatchback currently available
80 kW motor: Top speed: 90mph: 0-60 9.9 sec
Front wheel drive; 3.3kW level 2 standard, CHAdeMO quick charge optional(standard on SL)
Passive thermal management system
24kWh battery, conventional construction(dedicated EV platform)
Range: EPA rated 73 miles per charge

Coda Sedan $37,250
Five passenger sedan currently available
100 kW motor: Top speed 85mph: 0-60 9.5 sec
Front wheel drive; 6.6kW level 2 standard, no DC quick charge option available
Active liquid thermal management system
31kWh battery, conventional construction(dedicated EV platform)
Range: EPA rated 88 miles per charge


Ford Focus Electric $39,995
Five Passenger hatchback currently available
100 kW motor: Top speed 84mph: 0-60 9.5 sec
Front wheel drive; 6.6kW level 2 charging standard, no DC quick charge option available
Active liquid thermal management battery system
23kWh battery, conventional construction (converted ICE platform)
Range: EPA rated 76 miles per charge

Tesla Model S $57,400
Five Passenger hatchback(with 2 optional rear-facing child seats) available early 2013
Motor and performance figured not available, but expected to be good.
Rear wheel drive;10kw level 2 charging standard, no DC quick charge option for 40kW base Model S
Active liquid thermal management battery system
40kW battery, EV platform: "skateboard" battery design & extensive use of aluminum to reduce weight.
Range: 125-130mile EPA rating (estimated)

As you can see, the i3 motor's power, charging rate, top speed, 0-60 and range is better than all the currently available EV's but will in all likelihood be less than that of the Tesla Model S 40kW once Tesla releases that information. I believe this points to the fair market value of the i3 to be somewhere between the Model S and the other less expensive EV's. I have therefore listed the poll pricing options to be in between the Model S and the others.

Please vote fairly. Obviously, everybody would like the price to be as low as possible, but I'm asking for you to vote for what you would pay based on what you think is a fair price in the market for the i3. In my opinion, there is absolutely no way the car will list for under $40,000 but I put that in a a choice anyway. Of course all these vehicles qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit, so your final cost will be $7,500 less than the listed prices provided you qualify for the tax credit.

Detail: How Much Would You Pay For An i3?