Ultimate electric driving machine? Yes, it’s the BMW i3 e-car

I realise that being "seen to be green" is kinda the point for a lot of people but I wish manufacturers would make them look like normal cars.

It's ugly

That's it really, why bother buying a BMW to drive such an ugly car?

Why couldn't they make an electric car that looked pretty much like a series 3? That could have a chance, this doesn't.

If only...

we weren't already only a few percent away from blackout on the electricity grid, according to the generators...

Real world driving conditions

I wonder what such a light slab sided car feels like in a decent cross wind on the motorway?

On the other hand maybe I don't want to find out.

FUGLY

Jeeeesus H Christ on a Fucking Bike! - that thing fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. the designer shoud have stuck to doing ridiculous running shoes.

Whilst the BMW has some good points, it still doesn't get around the major problem of electric vehicles i.e. where does all the electricity come from?

For a few thousand people in the UK, electric vehicles can be a realistic option; but there are over 28 million cars registered in the UK. If all of these were electric we'd need betweeen 10 and 20 coal or nuclear power stations to keep them running:

28,000,000 * 7.4 kW * 2.0 hours charging per day = 414400 MWh (assuming you only need to charge each one for 2 hours a day).

If the charging is spread evenly over 24 hours (a bad assumption, but gives the lowest power requirement) = 17,226 MW, so about 10 power stations; more likely the charging will be predominantly overnight so a more realistic figure is about 20 additional power stations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of electric vehicles, but if the infrastructure isn't planned for them, they will just saturate the demand for electricity leading to rising electricity bills as the rich buy power for their thirty grand electric vehicles and the poor get priced out of the market.

And what about fuel duty? I don't think the government will want to support hte building of 20 power stations with a reduced income from fuel duty as people choose electric over fossil fuels; don't be surprised that if the proportion of electric vehicles increases there is a move to tax electricity usage for transport (like we currently distinguish between red diesel, for agricultural use, and diesel fuel for cars).

Other than that, it's fine, and I do like the interesting use of alternative materials in the BMW (but twenty five grand for a city car!?).

Parking ticket is in the post

El Reg incriminating themselves by posting photos of the car parked on double yellow lines.

Finally an electric car I may want...

.... but won't buy, as if I had £29k I'd spend £25k on a caterham, and £4k on a cheap runabout .

Seriously though, this is starting to tick the boxes properly - range extending motor I can use if I want to do the occasional longer trip; doesn't handle like it has jelly for suspension; decent performance; phone app to manage charging etc.

Still not going to spend £29k on one though.

Nice review, I want one.

But it's far too expensive. :(

One thing that always amazes me with electric cars, is WHY do they always think they should design them differently from 'normal' cars? They are so often styled like they fell off a Transformer or some hideous child's toy robot. STOP designing them to look like toys!

Did they intentionally make it look as uuuugly as the iPad/Phone?

How very pedestrian.

generator

I'm confused - it says it can keep the battery at a stable level when engine on.

and it has 9 litres.

So it's getting around 45/50 mpg effectively if you were to just continually fill it up with petrol and have it maintain the 3.5% left in battery.

If that is true, then its managing to generate enough leccy from a 650cc engine to power the car.

125kw motor... now there is no way it's managing that.

even assuming they are suggesting its generator output is 60kw (at 360v apparently) that is very impressive... Well... utterly unbelievable tbh.

Definitely targetting the 'deep pockets' demographic.

It's twice the cost of a Ford Fiesta, with less boot space, roughly the same amount of interior space and (I suspect) about the same running costs once servicing and insurance are factored in. And it's certainly faster but when you're nose to tail in a traffic jam, does that really matter?

Yes, it's innovative, but - £26,000 for a supermini!!! £26 grand!!!

26!!!!

Lord above.

Not saying it isn't clever, it's just SO expensive for an electric supermini.

Edit: Downvoted by an iPhone owner, no doubt. ;)

Of course, they're not going to say anything bad... yet.

"You’ll have to wait until El Reg gets one for a week-long test next month"

still don't get it

your assertion "lays to rest any claims that electric cars are fundamentally impractical"

That cannot be true.

These vehicles are aimed at city dwellers and short distance commuters.

If you accept that most domestic buildings in the UK have only single phase power and that most city inhabitants park their cars in the street, how do they charge them overnight? Throw cables out the window?

As someone else has pointed out, you have to produce the power somewhere and somehow and with the current, no pun intended, hysteria around nuclear power all thats being achieved, expensively, is moving the pollution and co2 emissions somewhere else.

The Germans, since this is a German car, will phase out nuclear by 2022, 17 % of requirement. They already have solar producing 25% of their needs but what happens overnight in 2023 when they all want to charge their cars?

And the answer is?

Probably more coal burning and lots of nice French nuclear power.

Oh and Germany is already one of the most expensive countries in Europe per kw/h. I wonder why?

In any case, i'm all for us not polluting the planet and limiting power consumption, keeping the cities smog free and eliminating pollutants but i really don't get electric cars. Hybrids maybe.

BUT what happens when one runs out of juice? its a BMW so you know many of the drivers will be idiots and ignore the range guide..

When you get nearly killed by another car, there is a high chance they drive a BMW..... (yes there are good BMW drivers, but it seems dick heads gravitate towards BMW.

I've owned a Nissan Leaf for the past 8 months, and I can definitely say that you will all be driving electric cars in the next decade. It's fast (enough), comfortable, quiet and reliable. The only issue they need to address is the range. Living with the hills as I do, the quoted range of 100 miles is reduced to 60 miles. If you run the heater (there is no "waste" heat to pump into the place where the meaty bits reside) this range is reduced further still.

Making the car lighter as BMW have done can only be a good thing, and I genuinely hope the range improves once new battery technology we keep hearing about (a battery the size of a current 9v battery with enough power to start your car!!). It's the ONLY bugbear I have about my electric only car. And no, I'm not a "green to be seen" driver, my last car was a 520d, it's purely a cost saving measure given the price of fuel at the moment. I've reduced my monthly fuel cost from circa £130 per month to £40 a month on my electric bill.

You very quickly get into the routine of plugging your car in and charging it overnight. I haven't been to a garage (for fuel or problems) since I bought the car. It's fantastic and if your driving needs are met, I wholeheartedly recommend you at least consider an electric car.

I've sat in and played with the BMW i3, and I can't say I liked it. Nor was it easy to get into the rear seats, but I think with the experience they've gained from making the i3, BMW will make a serious day to day car that is purely electric. Once people start buying electric cars, the economies of scale will kick in and the cars WILL be cheaper. Come on all you lovely techy early adopters, jump in, it's great :-).

How about an El Reg competition so that one lucky reader can win one?

Two Words

UGLY FLOP !!!!!!!

Batteries still suck

Why does the range extender exist?

Because the weight and cost of adding additional batteries to get the car over a 200 mile range on a single charge is too great. Much lighter and cheaper to deploy a small motorbike engine with a briefcase fuel size tank as generator, in the space where more batteries could go. That says it all about electric car technology right now.

Without a big breakthrough in battery longevity, cost and weight, the tech simply cant be accommodated in the styles of cars we choose to drive. The alternative, as experimented by Renault Twizy and risible G-Wiz, is to make us drive very unconventional vehicles which can alleviate some of the drawbacks of batteries.

People's motoring behaviours are definitely changing, I have no doubt - the sheer cost of motoring is forcing the issue. But even in the face of these rapid changes, electric vehicles are still falling far short of the 'affordable' mark. Far more research and investment into better battery tech is needed for anything to substantially change.

Diesel / petrol version?

Can we have this lightweight car in an old-school-fuel version?

What would the mpg be on that?

Battery Safety

I am a bit surprised that no comment has been made as to any battery cell rupture protection features the vehicle may have, in the light of the recent Tesla reports.

I mean, the press made a big deal out of those, even though there were no fatalities and the outcome was comparable to what would have been expected of a combustion (and equally combustible :-P ) car. I think it would have been interesting to ask BMW how this car would handle those scenarios.

While we're at it, it would also be interesting to know how the thing compares to Model S (price, range, performance, features, ...)

One thing has to be said: the nav system of BMWs (at least on 5 series) is pretty slick.

No

Toys go on the pavement.

Just showing my wife ...

... because my company car is up for renewal soon. But she just says it looks too much like the taxi in Total Recall ...

Hmm, anything that implies 8 years and 100,000 miles are in anyway similar limits is probably not for me.

Shame you can't upgrade to REX in your garage

This car would be much more useful if you could drive it as a BEV version during the week when you are going to work but when you want to go for a longer drive on the weekend, just jack up the car, clip in the IC engine with some giant dzeus fastners,plug the generator to the main electrical circuit - and hey presto, instant REX.

Also a bit of a shame the styling makes it look lmike its a VERY small car that has had some of of accident where it ended up inside the bottom half of a bigger car.

The Aztek

First off, it reminds me of an updated Pontiac Aztek. (google it)

Secondly, it's a Beemer. I don't know what the quality is like in Europe, but in the US, the reliability quality is crap for the price, so BMW is a name associated with "overpriced."

Nonetheless, I hope it helps sell more electric cars.

Good review

I don't understand the comments of 'normal looking car'. I recently drove 800 miles and back and noticed an often reoccurring bunch of mingers from the likes of Citroen, Kia, Hyundai, Dacia, Toyota, Skoda (Yeti) and I've still yet to see an attractive looking BMW since the 90s. The Honda Accord, certain Saabs, Vauxhalls and Volvos all look the same, perhaps these models I noticed are considered 'normal'. The looks of the i3 don't surprise me at all. I guess if VW are reading then they'll be justified in just shoving batteries into the latest incarnation of Golf.

Apt number plate

G.F.Y.

propeller logo - NOT

According to BMW, the white-and-blue logo isn't representative of an airplane propeller. Although I do admit that it does have a certain resemblance, and aero engine is what the company started with.

Apparently it's really a piece of the Bavarian state flag. By the way - any good Bavarian will quickly correctly you if you you happen to refer to it as "blue and white". For reasons I don't pretend to understand, it's "white and blue".

Sheep? Yes, but very smart sheep.

When the Federal government reduces your tax bill as a subsidy, and the State government sends you a check...and let's you drive alone in the carpool lane...and let's you drive across bridges for $1 instead of $6...and let's you park for free and charge for free...

You start to understand why some people drive the cars that the government says are "good".

Not sure that information makes its way all the way to the tiny island nation of Uk, and it is great sport poking fun at silly Americans...but there are rational reasons why some buy a Plug-in Prius, for example.

If that makes us sheep, then what do you call people who pay $10 for a gallon of petrol for their 1.0 litre cars so they can wave to speed cameras every 100 yards? LOL.

Had to be BMW

Better range since an BMW never has to waste electricity on running the indicators. :)

Same car made by any other manufacturer, would have 10% less range. :)

Uhh, it's UGLY...

...as hell.

And it COSTS MORE THAN $40K...

...seriously?

A Tesla X, coming next year, is a beautiful-looking (eye of the beholder, 'eye know'), 7-people SUV, will "only" cost $60k - just what BMW is thinking? Or they expect it to become just another very expensive stupid status symbol...?

Apparently a Windows Phone 8 version is being developed.

What's the point? There aren't any apps for it.

Almost there but not quite.

my view in a nutshell :

pro :

+ Performances

+ BMW knows how to make a car

+ Range would be enough for me 99% of the time

cons :

+ Does it have to scream 'I AM ELECTRIC' ?

+ It should be a range rather than a single model

+ Will have to wait 3 years before there's any second hand coming to the market at a reasonable price