BMW is a little late to the electric car party but it has now arrived with two hot-looking prototype vehicles – the i3 city runabout and the i8 super sports car.
These cars were engineered from the ground up to be electric cars unlike the company’s electric Mini, which was a conversion of the gas-powered car.
There is technology in these two cars, expensive technology, not seen anywhere else in the automotive industry at the moment. For example, the extreme lightweight construction takes advantage of a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic body on an aluminum frame. To date, carbon fibre has been wildly expensive to turn into manufactured objects. There’s lots of it in fighter planes and missiles but next to none in mass-produced automobiles. BMW has invested heavily to be able to both produce the stuff and use it in mass manufacturing. Stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum, carbon fibre puts BMW ahead of the competition in the lightweight derby.
Let’s start with the i8 because it seems the i3 is going back to the drawing board. The i8 is a beautiful, powerful-looking machine with blistering acceleration and a frightening top speed. It’s a plug-in hybrid too – who said these things had to be boring?
There’s an electric motor on the front axle and a three-cylinder engine – yes, just three – on the rear. It’ll do about 225 km/h flat-out but if you drive slowly, it should deliver fuel economy in the 3 litres/100 km range. It’s also loaded with Internet-delivered connectivity that will do all the usual stuff like avoiding traffic jams and buying theatre tickets.
BMW i3.
As for the i3 four-seat runabout – formerly known as the global Megacity car – it was designed and engineered to be an electric-only car. It goes 0-100 km in 8 seconds and has a 125 km driving range. But it seems that Bimmer is getting cold feet on the all-electric idea.People who drove the electric Mini’s that were put on the road as a trial told the company they really would prefer to a have a gas engine too just in case the juice ran out – like the Chevy Volt has.
The i3 on display had no provision for a “range-extender” gas engine – the electric motor is in the front, the batteries are under the floor and the trunk is in the rear. However, the company announced there will be one available when the car goes on sale in two years. I can’t imagine where it will stuff a gas engine; maybe an Evinrude on the back bumper with a pulley instead of a propeller.
Nevertheless, the carbon-fibre body in particular shows how far BMW has gone in rethinking the automobile. Boeing tried to rethink the airliner with the carbon-fibre Dreamliner and we all know it’s years late and billions over budget. BMW is confident however that it has carbon fibre under control. The chief engineer told me, “We have a lead of several years over any other auto maker.”
But at what cost? I asked Norbert Reithofer, BMW’s CEO, “How much?” He replied that in the beginning horseless carriages cost a lot more than the ones with a horse attached, but the price came down quickly. End of answer. Word leaked out to a group of Australian journalists late in the day that the i8 would be in the six-figure range.
BMW calls it the new definition of premium. The cars will be as “green” as “green” can be – from the manufacturing processes right through to the fuel economy delivered on the road. No expense has been spared to make the cars suitable for the giant cities of the world.
It’s quite a gamble, especially for a relatively small, independent company, and for now BMW is putting forward a technology and styling package seen nowhere else.
