BMW i3 REX to be axed

UPDATE 05/10/2018 9:00am: Turns out that while the pure-electric BMW i3 variant has an extended life in front of it, the range-extender or REX version does not.

BMW issued a statement to Autocar in the UK overnight confirming the added battery life of the all-electric versions for 2019 means the REX would be killed off with immediate effect.

Pity BMW development chief Klaus Frohlich wasn’t prepared to tell the whole story during our interview with him at the Paris motor show this week, when he predicted a long life for the i3. Just goes to show, you have to make sure you ask all the right questions!

04/10/2018 2:00pm: Despite now being an orphan, the revolutionary but expensive BMW i3 electric vehicle will continue in production well into next decade, BMW has declared.

Expected to become part of a much larger BMW ‘i’ family when it was first shown off in 2011 and then launched in 2014, the pioneering BMW i3 has instead been shuffled aside.

That’s because BMW has walked away from the concept of developing an ‘i’ family of unique, stand-alone electric vehicles.

Instead, forthcoming EVs like the iX3 (based on the latest X3), the i4 (3 Series) and the iNext will draw on an adaptation of BMW’s orthodox CLAR architecture.

All up, BMW Group says it will have 12 EV models on the road by 2025 and 25 electrified vehicle models all up.

Instead of developing more dedicated electrified models like the i3 and i8, the BMW-i division is now intended to become an incubator of advanced ideas (both EV and otherwise) that can flow to the wider BMW range.

The i3’s half-brother, the petrol-electric i8 hybrid coupe, also looks set to continue into a second generation and form the basis of a new BMW M1 supercar.

Speaking to Australian media at the Paris motor show this week, BMW development boss Klaus Frohlich made it clear the i3 still had a lot of development and sales life left in it.

“This car will have the highest sales volumes beyond 2020,” predicted Frohlich.

“The life-cycle of the i3 is very strange. Because the segment is growing the i3 is growing with the segment.

“Last year we have the highest sales volumes, this year we will have the highest sales volumes with a four, five-year old car. No, i3 will have a long life.

“The i3 is in a separate factory so I can produce it as long as the customer demand is growing.”

The i3 and sportier i3s have just been boosted with a new 42.2kw/h battery for 2019 that extends its claimed driving range from 200km to 260km.

The updated i3 models (pictured) go on sale in Australia in February 2019. The current i3 retails in Australia for $68,700 plus on-road costs, while the sportier i3s costs $69,900. The range-extender version with small petrol engine adds $6000.

There are other minor improvements coming to update the infotainment system and trim levels, but the i3’s revolutionary aluminium platform, carbon-fibre body, suicide doors and rear-wheel drive layout will remain for now.

However, the i3’s carbon-fibre intensive construction has proved to be the wrong direction for EV development, Frohlich revealed.

“I do not think this approach of the fully carbon [fibre] is now the best way to proceed,” he said.

“On a super sports car at high price you can afford carbon-fibre and its function is critical because we do not have only lateral acceleration, you have cornering.

“So then we are prepared to invest into high-cost carbon-fibre.

“But to make a shell out of carbon-fibre equal in the city-car segment … this is not financially viable.”

Despite that, Frohlich said the learnings from i3 development had paid off for the BMW in other vehicles.

“We learned a lot about producing carbon-fibre, we learned a lot how to recycle carbon and we use it in cars like the 7 Series. In the iNext there will be a lot of carbon-fibre, in high-end cars and, for example, in M cars.

“We will continue to work on carbon-fibre production technologies. At the same time we will work on steel technology. Carbon-fibre is not an ending story.”