Global Crisis

Unfortunately the blue and white swirly camouflage cover will not be a factory option but owners are welcome to custom paint their i3 like this if they've grown fond of looking at it on the car for two years now! I'll pass.

There has been no official confirmation on what color options will be available on the i3 but rumors have been swirling lately as journalists have been given access to pre-production i3's to test drive on closed courses.

We've seen what I've identified as six different colors so far; two slivers, two grays, a white and a new color specifically made for the i3 identified by BMW as Solar Metallic Orange. That's not much of a wide variety but it's not to say BMW is holding back some for the launch.

Update 8/1/13: I was correct and these are the six color offerings for the i3. I updated the names to the reflect the correct names BMW has designated.

Laurel Gray

Andesite Silver

Ionic Silver

Solar Metallic Orange - Made specifically for the i3

Capparis White

I don't know the official names of the colors for any of these except for Solar Metallic Orange that BMW announced recently. What's your favorite color here and do you expect BMW is holding back on different color options?

This i3 spy shot clearly shows a plastic tray separating the two rear seats.

The i3 is going to only have 4 seats. That was something that has pretty much been an accepted fact since BMW first announced the "Megacity" vehicle would go into production. However now that we are on the verge of the official unveiling later this month some people are starting to ask why not make it seat five?

The i3 concept coupe rear seats

I've seen both the original i3 concept and the i3 concept coupe in person and they both appear wide enough to accommodate three people back there. Add the fact that there is no transmission tunnel to get in the way of the middle passengers feet and one does start to wonder about it. Over in the Facebook i3 group, Anton Wahlman, a contributor to The Street likened BMW's decision to make the i3 only seat four an "unforced error" since it would appear the car could accommodate three in the rear seat if only BMW had wanted it to. Anton said:
"If you can't fit 3 people in the rear seat, it will significantly reduce the propensity of a Volt owner to switch. If this is true, it would be an unforced error in terms of understanding the (American) consumer." He also said:
"The #1 reason I hear people aren't buying the Volt is the lack of seating for 5. Not the ONLY reason, but the single most frequent one. GM knows this, so the Volt 2.0 (2015 model, launched in 2014) will fit 3 people in the back seat."
Anton is speaking from experience, he drives a Volt. He makes a very good point about a Volt owner switching to an i3. 

Both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan LEAF launched in December of 2010. So anyone that was an early adopter and rushed out to get one of the first Volts or LEAFs took delivery in the end of 2010 to the beginning of 2011. Many of these people took the attractive 3 year lease options offered and guess when all those leases are expiring? Yep, pretty much exactly when the i3 will be launching. The i3 is the perfect next step for existing Volt and LEAF owners because it offers more electric range plus a range extender, a combination no other EV does. I have personally received dozens of messages and emails from people in this position wanting to know if I had inside information about the exact launch date because they want to transition directly from their LEAF or Volt into an i3 but don't know if the i3 will be available when their lease expires. 

The original concept had rear bucket seats

As Anton mentioned, it's rumored that Chevy is going to make a 5 seat Volt for the 2015 model. If so, they will sell both a 4 seat Volt and a 5 Seat Volt when the redesigned Volt 2.0 is released later next year. So apparently the Volts lack of a 5th seat was a significant issue, enough for GM to redesign the battery tunnel to allow for a center rear seat. Since the i3 doesn't have a battery tunnel in the first place, and appears to be about as wide as a Volt there must be other reasons BMW elected to make the back seat only for two passengers. Weight considerations could be the main culprit I suspect but regulatory issues and crash test ratings could be possible reasons also. We know how hard BMW worked to keep the i3 weight as low as possible, shedding every pound that wasn't absolutely essential. A lot more goes into adding the third seat than simply adding an extra seatbelt. The suspension would also need to be modified which would add weight and make for a stiffer ride. I wonder if BMW will do what they did with the MINI Countryman and offer a third seat option at a later date if this becomes a bigger issue than they expect. 

Taking all that into consideration, BMW still hasn't revealed the exact width of the production i3. They did reveal the length in the recent press release which surprisingly will be 6 inches longer than the original i3 concept was. The original concept was 151.4" and the production i3 will be 157.4". It will be interesting to see what the width actually is. If it's wider than 67" (which is about what a 5 passenger Honda Fit is at 66.7") then I may agree with Anton about it being an unforced error unless BMW gives a proper explanation why adding the fifth seat would not have been a good idea. I'm sure offering the i3 as a 5 passenger vehicle compared to a 4 passenger vehicle would open it up to a much broader audience of perspective buyers. After all, virtually all of the top selling passenger cars in the US are 5 passenger vehicles for a reason. 

This is probably the best interior picture of an i3 available. You can see it appears there is plenty of rear legroom

After coming across some more pictures that show the interior roof, I'm pretty sure the sunroof option will have the two individual openings as seen above, separated by a structural support in the center of the roof and each opening will have independent interior shades to slide forward and close one half at a time. However the whole glass top will open as one piece as seen in the video of the previous post. Pretty cool design. I really like that you can close the shade screen on your side if the sun is bothering you and your passenger can leave it open if they prefer it that way. Sunroof solved!

Edit: Some new pictures that show the sunroof openings:

After examining some of the latest i3 photographs, I've noticed something unusual. It seems there may be a sunroof and a moonroof option. One, as seen in the above video below of the i3 driving on the Autobahn, shows a normal looking large sunroof that opens and slides towards the rear of the car as most sunroofs do.

Look at the roof above the front seats. It's clear there are two different openings divided by a section of roof and the glass is covered with the same material on the side window of the rear door the woman has open

However the second, as seen in these two pictures seems to be two separate glass sections divided by a stationary section of the roof. It's hard to tell, but it seems these may not open, and just be there to let light in, like a classic moonroof. The interesting thing is there are two distinct separated panels, not one large piece of glass. I suppose this would allow one passenger to close their moonroof section if the sunlight was bothering them while the other front seat occupant could leave the one on their side open. Unless of course it is one large glass panel that opens and slides back above the section of roof that divides the opening into two spaces. Perhaps they needed that section to increase the strength of the CFRP passenger module. Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think is going on there.

It's harder to see here but you can see the divider sticking down between the two openings.

For those that don't know the difference in sunroofs and moonroofs, basically a sunroof opens and pops up and slides back to allow air in the car while a moonroof is sealed and just allows light in. Click here for a thorough explanation.

The production i3 added black V-shaped accents on both sides of the front bumper

Now that BMW is "showing some skin" on the i3 we're getting a peak at what's been under those swirly blue wraps for the past couple years. There haven't been too many surprises because it's appearing to be very similar to the i3 concept coupe' introduced at last years LA Auto Show - and we were told the production car would be very similar. One thing that does look oddly different is the nose.

On all the BMW-supplied press photos, the i3's nose has two rather large and distinct V-shaped areas that are not painted the same as the rest of the bumper. I'm not sure if this is the actual look the production car will have, or if it's just another ploy by BMW to obfuscate the true look. However if that's the case, why go through all the trouble of custom painting the bumper skins when they could have simply kept the lovely blue swirly camouflage we've all become so fond of, on the car to keep the bumper hidden.

I'm not particularly a fan of this new custom design and actually hope the production i3 goes back to the look of the two previous concepts where the entire bumper skin was painted the same color. What do you think? Do you like the new look or the painted look of the concept cars?

The original i3 concept car

The i3 concept coupe'

Edit: Hats off to Matthew who pointed out that when viewing the photo in high definition you can see the blackout V-shaped area is actually tape and in fact it's not even symmetrical(which is easy to see now that it was pointed out to me!) So I would imagine the production car will indeed have the same painted bumpers as the two concept cars do in the above pictures. Which I definitely think looks better.  :)

Edit #2: Matthew just posted a close up which clearly shows these areas are simply taped off:

The i3 in Solar Metallic Orange

There has been a lot of speculation on the i3's price. A few days ago Autoblog posted a story that claimed they had confirmation the i3 would cost $34,500. However today Dave Buchko, a spokesman for BMW North America told Edmunds Automotive this in a telephone conversation: "The base price of the i3 in the U.S., not including the tax incentive, will be in the low-to-mid-$40,000s"

So while Autoblog wasn't correct, they may not have been entirely wrong. The i3 will qualify for the maximum electric vehicle Federal tax rebate of $7,500. Therefore if the base price is $42,000, than the effective cost would be exactly what Autoblog said it would be, $34,500. Hopefully we'll get official pricing as well as technical information at the i3 World Premier on July 29th. 

For the full Edmunds story, click HERE.

BMW NA sent out a press release today titled " The Ultimate Driving Machine in a new era of mobility" It's a pretty comprehensive press release and a bit long to post in its entirety here so I'll provide the link HERE and let you read it direct. 

Some notable highlights:
~0-60mph in approximately 7 seconds (woo hoo!)
~The range extender has no effect on luggage capacity.
~Navigation system will be optional.
~The high-voltage battery consists of eight modules (each with 12 individual cells), which together produce a rated voltage of 360 volts.
~It achieved a .21 kilowatt hours per mile rating on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). This cycle is less strenuous than the EPA test. 
~The 22kWh battery weighs about 450lbs
~When plugged into a public DC fast-charging station (50 kW) it only takes about 20 minutes for the battery to reach 80 percent capacity.

New BMW i3 sightings are occurring practically on a daily basis now. The latest was captured by blogautomobile, a French car blog which captures pictures of a white i3 parked under an artfully designed small solar canopy in front of the BMW Welt in Munich.

The nearly-naked i3 has limited camouflage covering only the belt-line and rear hatch area. It's pretty clear the rear side window they are hiding will have the same stream-flow design the i3 concept coupe has but it is still unclear what the rear hatch will look like. That and the interior are the only things we haven't been able to get good pictures of to date.

One thing to note is the wheels on the car are the flush "aero" wheels we've seen on i3's during road tests. I assumed these wheels were for testing purposes only but I'm beginning to think they may be the standard 19" wheels. I'm sure they are perfect for reducing drag, but I'm not too sure many buyers will appreciate the plain look. I know I'll be going for the wheel upgrade package if these are indeed the standard wheels. :)

 

Autoblog posted a story today claiming the i3 will have a beginning price of $34,500! If true that would mean the effective price would be $27,000 in the US after the $7,500 federal tax credit and would most certainly propel the i3 into instant sales success immediately upon its launch. The article also claims the range extender option (REx) will cost about $2,000, which is exactly half of what has been speculated thus far.

However, don't write your deposit check yet. While I'll be as happy as anybody if BMW somehow manages to deliver this groundbreaking vehicle at such a low cost, I just don't believe it's true. BMW hasn't said much about pricing, but what they have said seems to indicate a higher price point, one in the mid $40,000 range. It would certainly be a coup if they can deliver on this, but I'm not holding my breath. The article is suspect to me in the first place because it claims the range extender to be used in the i3 was first used in the ActiveE. I have over 50,000 miles on my ActiveE. I wish somebody told me earlier it had a range extender, I cold have used it on more than  a few occasions!

Want LED headlights on your i3? It looks like you'll have to pay for them. Close up images of recent i3's caught driving around on public streets confirm there are two different headlights used; one being typical Halogen and the other LED. Combine that with the recent (patent?) drawings posted online by autoevolution.com and it's clear the car will have two headlight options. 

The Halogen headlights that will likely be standard

The more expensive and energy efficient LED headlights that appear to be optional

 I'm not sure what this means for the taillights which look to be blade-lit LED's in all the spy photos I've examined. Perhaps only the LED headlights will be optional and the rest of the lighting will always be LED. I think many would have assumed the i3 would be all LED in all trim levels because of the emphasis BMW has put on efficiency. Using heat pumps, uniquely tall and skinny tires, CFRP and aluminum to reduce weight, etc it would seem like a shame to then have normal halogen headlights lighting the way. If this is the case, I'm sure it's a result of BMW trying to get the base MSRP as low as possible. Will that mean the stylish wheels we've seen recently will be optional also, as well an "EV necessities" like navigation with charging station locator? We don't have long to go now and the "Vorfreude" is certainly building. I'm looking forward to getting all this information finally out in the open so we can really get down to discussing what we like and what we don't. What do you think of the headlight topic? Post your comments below.

Both i3 concept cars(the original 5 door & the more recent coupe') had LED headlights

A nearly undisguised i3 with production wheels

I started this blog about 2 1/2 years ago and until recently I've had to scour the internet and reach out to contacts I have to get any morsel of i3 information I could. BMW had been exceptionally tight-lipped when it came to i3 information of any kind. In fact we are only a couple months from its official European launch and there is very little technical information available.

However as we approach the July 29th unveiling of the production we are now getting daily doses of 'spy' photographs, each one seemingly revealing more and more. The site gmotors.co.uk is responsible for grabbing the latest, and most revealing pictures posted here today. For the first time we see an i3 with production wheels driving on the roads. We did get a quick glimpse of these wheels (which I posted here back in April) when the car was apparently doing an advertising photo shoot. I really like these wheels but I don't know if they are the 19" standard wheels or the 20" wheels that will be optional. You can tell they are very flush with black painted inlets to give the appearance the spokes are thinner than the really are so there is minimum wind resistance, decreasing the drag they cause.














The second piece of interesting information I found today was from a blogger "Lisa The Car Addict" who was sitting in the BMW Welt just as a BMW "Product Genius" was walking by and talking about i3 & i8 Pricing. Here's what she had to say on her blog:


Hey Guys,
Right now I’m sitting inside the BMW Welt, killing time before my last final exam later and a “Product Genius” just walked by with a group of business men. Anddd, he also talked about the Prices .. 36000€ for the pure electric BMW i3 and 39000€ for BMW i3 with Range Extender. And 100000€ for the BMW i8. All base prices, of course.
So yes, the earlier “communicated” prices must be real
I also had a look at their recently installed quick charger for Electric Cars right in front of the BMW Welt at the Doppelkegel. Pictures of it later!
Enjoy your Day,
Lisa

A 36,000€ price for he i3 would be great, and much lower than most - including myself expect. For US pricing, most premium German manufacturers sell their cars for much less than they do in their home country, and it's usually "1 Dollar for 1 Euro" as opposed to adjusting for the Euro's higher value. So if Lisa's information is correct, the i3 could have a base MSRP in the US for $36,000! With the Federal Tax credit it could actually cost less than $30,000! I still have a hard time believing this will be the case and I'd hate to get everyone's hopes up only to be disappointed when a $42,000 MSRP is announced, but this is definitely intriguing news that I'll watch closely and report here as soon as any kind of pricing information becomes available.

Another mostly-revealed photo but this one has what hopefully are wheels used only for testing. If these are the standard wheels than I'm sure most people will opt to pay for the much nicer wheels in the above pictures. Perhaps that's BMW's plan to get you to spend another $1,500 or so for the upgrade! Offer hideous stock wheels so you have to buy the premium option ;)

Super-thin seats of the i3. They'll save weight but will they be comfortable and supportive?

There have been dozens of i3 spy photos captured over the past couple years since BMW has been field testing mule i3's in hot and cold weather climates. Until last week the cars have been camouflaged with a blue swirly cover that effectively disguises the body lines beneath it. However they have all been exterior pictures. Nobody has really been able to capture any interior pictures at all, until now.

An Autokarma follower happened upon a parked i3 on the streets of Leipzig, Germany which didn't have its interior completely covered so he snapped some shots with his cell phone. Although much of it was covered, the seats are completely visible and we get to see them for the first time. They are surprisingly thin, no doubt to save weight. The picture of the rear seats is kind of dark but what you can take from it is there will be plenty of rear leg room which is uncommon in a car of this size and much more than there is in a BMW 1 series like my ActiveE. In fact, I'd say it looks like there is at least as much room in the rear seating area than there is in a 3-Series. This would confirm what BMW NA electric vehicle program manager Jacob Harb said at last years LA Auto Show, that the i3 would have about as much interior passenger room as a 3-Series even though the exterior dimensions are much smaller.

The rear seats will have plenty of legroom

Now that BMW has pretty much shown the whole exterior and are leaving pre-production i3's on the streets of Germany it can't be long in my opinion before we get to see the whole car. I had previously assumed BMW would hold off to the Frankfurt Auto Show to reveal the production i3, but recent reports have claimed it will be much sooner than that and I'm beginning to believe that will be the case. All the better!

Practically uncovered i3's now roam the streets in Germany. BMW is still obscuring the funky look of the rear window though.

The video above is brief but you can see the interior a bit and even an armrest which people have asked about. It was shot by Joachim Kerscher in Sittenbach, Germany. He just happened to see the car drive by his house so he drove around looking for it and found it parked here. 

The BMW i3 range extender engine which is made by Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco for BMW.

There is still a lot of unknown information about the i3. BMW has been extremely conservative about what information they offer. While they have stated it will have an electric range of 80 to 100 miles and cost about the same as a nicely equipped 3-Series, the two biggest questions still remain: What will the EPA range rating be and exactly what will it cost? However right behind those two questions for many people is: What will the performance be when the range extender is in use?

The range extender engine will be a 650cc Kymco engine borrowed from the BMW C650 GT scooter. It will be highly optimized to lower noise & vibration and will only put out 35hp, compared to its 65hp when used for the scooter. The gas tank will be a miniscule 2.8 gallons and BMW has stated it will extend the range of the car about another 90 miles, effectively doubling the cars range. However many journalists are wondering will that added 90 miles be an ultimate driving experience or the ultimate disappointment?

The REx will fit nicely next to the e-motor

The Chevy Volt is the closest vehicle to compare the REX i3 to, even though it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison. The Volt has a 1.4 liter gas engine that puts out 80hp to power the generator, more than double the output of the i3's gas range extender engine. However the Volt weighs 1,000lbs more than the i3 will and isn't nearly as efficient so it would naturally need a larger, more powerful range extender engine. The Volt's robust range extender allows it to drive uninhibited while the range extender is maintaining the car's charge. The million dollar question is will the same be said about the i3? That answer looks like it will be no, it won't. BMW's Product and Technology Communications spokesman, Dave Buchko said of the range extender: "The i3 range extender is meant to enable the car to go a little further than the pure BEV on those rare occasions when driver needs to go a little further. It is not intended for daily use. We've said that the REx [range extender] will double the effective range of 80-100 miles. I have not seen anything to suggest that it would not be capable of doing so.". Then BMW North American CEO Ludwig Willisch said while the range extender is running: "The car will not be as agile," Willisch said. "It will not have full power when it runs on the combination."

I'm not exactly sure what "not intended for daily use" means though. That sounds like you'll break if you use it every day and that's obviously not going to be the case. Will the cars performance be so inhibited while in REx mode you wouldn't want to drive it that way every day? I find it difficult to believe BMW would add the range extender if it was so weak it offered terrible performance while in use. Willisch must have confidence it will perform admirably in REx mode though because he predicted at least 80% of US i3 buyers will order it with the range extender. I've also heard it described by some as a "limp home mode" by some(not BMW people) and I also don't believe that is accurate either.

An i3 with the range extender was caught at a gas station refueling in this spy photo. The gas filler door will be located on the front passenger quarter panel and the charge port will be on the rear passenger side quarter panel, just above the wheel.

A big determination of how it will perform in range extender mode is how much of the battery the car holds as a buffer when the range extender turns on. Lets say the i3 normally only uses 90% of its 22kWh capacity. That means the all electric i3 will utilize about 19.8kWh's. If the REx i3 holds another 10% as a buffer to help with short bursts of needed energy than the range extender will turn on after using only 17.6kWh's of the 22kWh pack. This will allow the car to perform better when in REx mode but it will also mean the car will drive about 10 miles less on electricity. The larger the buffer the better the REx performance but the shorter all electric range. I hope BMW allows you to turn off the REx for those times when you could make your destination on pure electricity if you only need a few miles after the REx would have turned on. That way you could utilize the full ~19.8kWh that a BEV i3 has available, without reserving the buffer needed for the REx since you don't intend to need it. Of course the percentages of the battery pack utilization I'm using here are just guesses on my part, but I expect them to be pretty close to reality.

My guess is it will be pretty much in between the hobbled horse and "ultimate driving EV" when the range extender is in use. I think it will drive fine on flat terrain, and can probably even drive along at 70mph in those circumstances. However introduce an extended incline or times when you need to go 75 or more to keep up with traffic and the car could quickly find itself gasping for enough energy to maintain its motion. It definitely won't be a "It'll get you home but you'll have to crawl along at 30mph" but lets just say you'd lose if you try to autocross in REx mode. Then again, if BMW does reserve a fair amount of the battery back as a buffer, it could perform very well for the first 20 miles or so, before the stored energy gets to a minimum and the REx is working at maximum output to sustain the charge level.

The bottom line is if you really just want the security of knowing you'll never have to call a tow truck to get home, then the REx will be worth its weight in gold for you. I've been there on the side of the road a couple times in the past four years falling short of my destination so I know it will be a valuable asset for those circumstances. However if you plan to use the range extender to drive hundreds of highway miles to make a far off destination, then I'm guessing this isn't the right EV for you. Horses for courses. Hopefully, we'll get the answers to these questions and all the technical specifications of the i3 soon. It launches in Europe in the fall so the wait is nearly over.

The concept i3 coupe parked with a BMW i branded level 2 wall charger

I get asked all the time "How much does it cost to drive an electric car?" I've also had a fair share of people say " I like the car, but I wouldn't want to see your electric bill". Like gas cars, some electric cars are more efficient than others. The BMW i3 has been purpose built to not only offer the dynamic driving experience BMW customers have come to expect, but to also be a highly efficient car. But what is efficient for an electric car? Everybody understands MPG for gas cars but few really understand how electric cars are measured for efficiency, let alone how that will translate into the cost to operate it.

The ActiveE Monroney sticker

First off lets discuss how the EPA calculates the miles per gallon equivalent(MPGe) for electric cars. Gas cars have the official EPA miles per gallon listed on the window(Monroney) sticker and electric cars have a rating called MPGe. Since one gallon of gasoline creates the same energy as 33.7 kilowatt hours of electricity, electric cars are tested to see how far they can go on 33.7kWh's and that is the official MPGe which is listed on the window sticker of every new EV. The BMW ActiveE I drive has a rating of 107 MPGe. Not bad for a heavy converted gas car, but not especially good as far as electric vehicles go. The Chevy Spark EV, recently was rated at 119 MPGe making it the most efficient EV rated so far as it barely beat out the Honda Fit EV's 118 MPGe rating.

Neither The Fit EV or the Spark EV were purpose built as electric vehicles. They are converted gas cars like the ActiveE. Being purpose built as an EV with a lightweight CFRP body and aluminum frame, the i3 should easily top the Spark's 119 MPGe rating. I'm guessing the i3 may have an MPGe rating as high as 130, which will give it the "most efficient EV" crown, one that it may hold for quite some time as there is really no other EV coming out anytime soon that will challenge it in my opinion.

So lets say the i3 gets a 130MPGe rating for arguments sake. That means it will go 3.86 miles for every kilowatt hour of electricity you use to charge it or need about 26kWh's to drive 100 miles. The average price of electricity in the US is 11 cents per kWh, however that varies greatly from state to state. I pay 18 cents per kWh so for me it would cost $4.68 to drive an i3 100 miles. If I were to drive 15,000 miles per year my annual fuel cost would only be $702! How far can you currently drive on $702 in gas? If your car gets 25 miles per gallon and you pay on average $3.50 per gallon(which is lower than what we have averaged the past year) it would cost you $2,100 in gas to drive the same 15,000 miles! Plus, we all know gas prices will only climb over time. Electricity rates do go up occasionally but historically they are much more stable than gas prices. Plus, many people do have the option of installing a solar array which will guarantee a free supply of electricity for the next 25 to 30 years. There is nothing the gas and oil industry can offer to compete with solar, as the customer supplies, and has control over their own energy.

BMW will offer solar canopies to i3 customers

So whip out your electric bill and find out how much you pay per kWh for your electricity. Then divide the number of miles you drive per year by 3.86 and multiply that by your electricity rate and you'll know how much it would cost you to fuel an i3 for a year. I'm sure you already know how much you dump into the gas pump so calculating your savings won't be too hard. Of course if you want to save even more you can install a solar array at your home like I did and start making your own electricity. Sure there's an initial outlay of cash for the solar system and not everybody can afford it, but if you can it's a fantastic set up and you'll have it paid off in a few years of savings from driving your i3 on sunshine!