Global Crisis

For over a year now BMW has been talking about the 2013 "Megacity" vehicle. It will be the first all electric BMW sold ever. Since it was first announced, we have never actually seen a picture or a clear rendering of what the car will look like, just vague sketches until now. The photos to the left show the actual i3(albeit in camouflage) during cold weather testing.

A couple things that stand out immediately are the circular tail lights that extend out from the car. They look cool but I do wonder if they will be prone to breakage. Also note the tall, thin tires. I have heard about these but had not seen any pictures or drawings before these photos. Evidentlly, BMW has been working on a special tire that has very low rolling resistance for the i3. This cars main purpose is to be efficient, and the rolling resistance of tires play a bigger role than you might expect. For example, when BMW puts the winter snow tires on my MINI-E, I immediately see a reduction in range of about 3%. Now if they could design a tire that alone increases the range by 5 to 8%, think of how that helps the overall efficiency of the car. Hopefully this wheel/tire combo will not sacrifice much handling or ride comfort though, because after all, it still needs to feel like a BMW.