Global Crisis

Good news! Various reports are circulating that claim BMW is planning on producing as many as 30,000 i3's per year. Many have questioned the level of commitment BMW really has in the EV market. Were they making the i3 as a low production "halo car", or were they really going to try to make this car a real player in the electric car market? This news also gives a little insight into the cost BMW plans to sell the car at. If they really plan on selling this many units per year, the planned price cannot be extraordinarily high and that's good news. While 30,000 isn't a huge number in comparison to other BMW models, it would represent more units than both the Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF are making in the first year of production.

Thanks to the work of GaryB, we know EEStor continues to apply for patents related to its technology. The latest is an application for a fusible link.   In case you're worried EEStor isn't covering enough bases, this application also invokes "Thomas Edison's electrical power distribution system," useful for anyone critical of EEStor's grasp of history.

On a related note, I was going to keep this

BMW, in a joint venture with SGL is building a new plant in Moses Lake, Washington to manufacture the carbon fiber body panels for the new i3 and other BMW models.

When completed, the plant will be 154,250 square-foot and take advantage of the use of hydro-generated electricity the area has to offer. This allows the plant to drastically reduce it's electricity costs (carbon fiber production requires a lot of electricity) while using an environmentally friendly source of generation. This keeps in line with the BMW groups philosophy of being the most sustainable auto manufacturer, an award they have won an amazing six years in a row now.


http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/news/article_9367ffe8-32f3-11e0-b815-001cc4c002e0.html

On Facebook? Do you want to get the latest BMW i3 info and join discussions about the car? I've created a BMW i3 Facebook group for anyone interested. Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_127721967301673#!/home.php?sk=group_127721967301673

This blog will detail the development and intimately the real life experience of the BMW i3, BMW's first production electric vehicle.

Feel free to ask questions and contribute. We are about 2 1/2 years from the car being in showrooms and there will be a lot to discuss between now and then.

For starters, go to this link to learn about the car.

As Tuesday Feb 1, 2011, Lockheed Martin maintains that there have been "no changes" in it's EEStor agreement.  "Our rights agreement is still in effect," Craig Van Bebber wrote in an email to me today.

To find out why Lockheed would maintain such a long term relationship with EEStor Inc and get virtually nothing in return, I decided to go under cover once again to see if perhaps a nugget of