BMW's all-electric i3 premieres

BMW has denied it has bet the farm on its pioneering i3 electric car, even though it has no contingency plans in case it fails to sell in the world’s mega cities.

Officially launched in simultaneous events in London, New York and Beijing today, the i3 five-door will spearhead BMW’s ambitions to dominate the global electric car market.

With CEO Norbert Reithofer insisting that the i3 was a landmark launch that people would remember for years to come, the alloy-framed, carbon-bodied machine was finally revealed in its production trim after 30 months of teasers and tech days.

Yet after almost €3 billion in investment in research, development and new production processes, BMW has previously spoken of building only around 30,000 i3s a year as the major volume model of the ‘i’ brand alongside the sportier i8 hybrid.

Today, though, BMW refused to be drawn into volume considerations, suggesting only that it wanted to be a significant player in the growing electric premium market.

“This market was 7000 units a few years ago and will be around 160,000 this year,” BMW board member in charge of sales and marketing, Dr Ian Robertson, said.

“We are aiming to be a significant player in this market. We are not going to be a niche player, but we aren’t going to put a number on it, either.”

While it is insisting the car’s full electric range will be more than enough for most buyers, it is also offering temporary lease packages on other internal-combustion BMWs like the X5 or the 5 Series so electric i3 buyers can take vacations without worrying about stopping with a flat battery on a freeway.

“The i3 is for people living and working in cities,” Dr Robertson insisted.

“The car as we know it has been around for almost 130 years and a change is coming with the i3. It’s the era of sustainability and it starts with us today.

“We are at a turning point in history. We are really at the forefront of this and we will definitely be part of shaping the future direction.

“At the same time, the i3 is designed to make a profit from Day One.”

For all that, though, BMW’s board member in charge of development, Dr Herbert Diess, insists there is no contingency plan for the i3 in case the all-electric car, or its range-extender hybrid twin, fails.

“I would not call this car a risk,” Dr Diess said. “Every new car in our range is a risk. I would call it a chance.

“We never considered to put a petrol three or four [-cylinder] inside the i3 body. That would be a backup plan, and this car is born electric, so there’s really no need for this. There is no backup plan.

“Even the two-cylinder petrol we offer is just to keep the range anxiety away. The standard electric model is actually faster than the range extender.

“I think it’s not about volume. What’s important is that the car is in demand and that they [customers] try the car and love the car. It’s not about the numbers we sell.”

At the core of the i3 is a mega-strong aluminium frame housing a 230kg battery pack beneath the floor, in the most secure part of the car, all sitting inside the wheelbase. Its body is a single carbon-fibre unit (effectively a second chassis) built in the world’s first mass-production carbon-fibre manufacturing facility.

The body makes the i3 about 30 per cent lighter than a metal body, meaning the i3 weighs in at 1195kg in electric form.

Only brands like Lamborghini and McLaren use carbon-fibre chassis and the material has stayed in the supercar realm because it’s expensive, it’s slow and hard to make in significant numbers.

“I think that as our competitors drive this car they will understand that electric cars will have to be built and engineered differently,” Dr Diess said.

“The overall concept is quite different in quality. Our main target is test drivers and to get as many potential customers into the car as possible this year.”

BMW wants to build about 30,000 i3s per year, and says that although its breakthrough chassis engineering philosophy won’t hurt BMWs technical image, it doesn’t help the price.

BMW will be asking between €35,000 and €40,000 (AUD$50,500 to $57,600), which is significant. There are bigger cars with greater range and very low fuel consumption in the BMW line-up, without having to head to other brands.

And that’s saying nothing about when you go to change over your i3 into a second-hand car market that doesn’t have any baseline for it.

If it started from scratch with the chassis and body engineering, it tried hard to keep the interior conventional. The i3 has a high driving position and, with no transmission tunnel, it has a flat floor that helps improve the impression of space.

BMW kept a cover over the interior design when we drove the car, but there is a high-mounted, multi-media screen topping the centre of the dashboard and a TFT digital speedo that also shows whether the batteries are being charged or discharged.

There are large storage areas in the dashboard, including an open one on the top, beneath the multi-media screen, and a deep, capacious glovebox. That’s just as well, because the cargo area is tiny (BMW isn’t releasing figures on the actual capacity of it yet).

The rear seat is a different matter. Yes, it’s an easy place to sit and it has plenty of headroom, excellent forward visibility and very comfortable seats -- and it’s wide enough for three -- but it’s not without its issues.

It uses suicide doors which are awkward to get in and out of with any dignity, but the larger issue is that the rear windows are fixed in place and one of the i3’s range-extending tricks in the ECO PRO mode is turning down the air-conditioner…

Most of the instruments are exactly where you’d expect them to be, with an ‘ON’ button as well. The i3 introduces a control unit on the right of the steering column that twists forward for Drive, back for Reverse and half a click for Neutral.

BMW says it can hit 100km/h in 7.2 seconds thanks to its Lithium-Ion battery pack as 22kW/hrs of charge, which it can discharge at 360 Volts into a 125kW/250Nm electric motor, which BMW has placed on top of the rear axle. But the thing is the acceleration.

It leaps to 60km/h in 3.8 seconds, it does the overtaking burst from 80-120km/h in 5.4 seconds and BMW has effectively limited it to 150km/h. By then, the engine is spinning at nearly 11,000rpm, with the single, step-down gear delivering the drive to the wheels.

It will do between 130km and 160km on a full charge in the Comfort mode, somewhere towards 200km in the ECO PRO mode and a claimed 300km in the ECO PRO+ mode. On the official EU numbers, the range is claimed at 190km.

Six months after its launch, BMW will fit a range-extending hybrid model into the i3 range, nestling a two-cylinder, 25kW scooter engine alongside the electric motor. The petrol engine, with a nine-litre fuel tank, doesn’t drive the wheels, but adds energy via cranking the same i3 generator that helps to recharge the battery on long descents or under braking.