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BMW Debuts First Electric Vehicle Made Primarily of Carbon Fiber
Elliot Chang writes "BMW debuted its 2014 i3 EV in New York City this morning. The new car is the world's first purpose-built electric vehicle made primarily of lightweight carbon fiber. The new 2014 BMW i3 electric vehicle will be powered by a rear-mounted 170-hp electric motor coupled with a 22-kWh lithium-ion battery. The range of the standard i3 will be 80-100 miles, but drivers wanting to go the extra mile, so to speak, will be able to opt for a two-cylinder range extender engine that will boost the i3s range to about 180 miles. The new i3s DC Fast Charger will be able to go from a fully drained battery to about an 80 percent charge in just 20 minutes when plugged into a public EV fast-charging station."
The new car is the world's first purpose-built electric vehicle made primarily of dollar bills.
Butt ugly, $40,000+ and a mere 100 mile range. They will sell about 4 of these.
Ok, probably just being pedantic, but what do they mean by two-cylinder on an electric motor? I thought cylinders were reserved for motors with explosions inside.
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
I'm sure the BMW is intended to be more of a mass-market vehicle, but it's hardly the first electric car body that makes heavy use of carbon fiber for weight reduction.
This car is not made primarily from carbon fiber. It is an aluminum framed car with plastic body panels that have been reinforced with carbon fiber.
... who can actually afford it? It's great that they're getting in to the game with this but until an EV is made that the average human being can buy without selling their kids and mortgaging their soul it's just worthless.
by putting a BMW logo on it
I don't get it. Do car manufacturers make their electric vehicles ugly on purpose?
Carbon fibre body, lithium ion batteries, company starts with a "B", where have I heard this before???
Let's hope these things don't catch fire...
Yet another electric / hybrid car that looks like crap IMHO. Why not make it look more in line with your other models?
One thing I wish Ford or one of the companies that built muscle cars, was take that body style, almost copy it exactly, and convert it into a hybrid or electric vehicle. Obviously, they'd have to change alot of stuff for structural integrity, make it carbon fiber, etc, but keep the body shape and curves.
Imagine a car that looked like a 70's Mach 1 that was hybrid or electric... Of course, then people can't be smug driving these cars. Saying... Thanks!!
170 hp is about 130 kW, driving at 50% throttle is 65 kW. 22 kWh translates into 20 minutes of fun then :)
Even at 1/4 throttle it is 40 minutes. Can drive 100 miles in 40 minutes?
At this price I expect to get at least an i7.
Note BMW opened a few years back a factory in Moses lake WA to mass produce CF parts.
For anyone who has worked with carbon fibre, would this car have its structural integrity affected by weather or road contaminants over time? Will it delaminate/deteriorate over time when exposed to road salts, hot/cold weather? Does a ding in the door mean that the entire door's structural integrity has been compromised? I've always wondered how long a carbon fibre driveshaft would last, much less the frame/structure that would save someone in a crash.
Butt ugly, $40,000+ and a mere 100 mile range. They will sell about 4 of these.
No, they'll sell a bunch of these because they are a car brand for posers - and for folks who know nothing about cars.
They really don't want to sell many of these do they? It's ugly. Design something that people would actually
enjoy looking at instead of just letting your designers go ape shit and producing a care only they could love.
Pictures and construction details here: ...and test drive here:
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/bmw-i3-production-car-revealed-2013-07-29
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/BMW-i3-first-drive-2013-09-10
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Wow that is ugly. I assume when this doesn't sell very well their execs will erroneously assume that people dont want EV's; when in fact people dont want butt ugly cars. Their execs should ask the people within their company who is proud of the aesthetic design of this thing... Id be surprised if anyone was. I expect that the group that designed this is suffering for diluted accountability syndrome and noone is accountable for this disaster.
It's yet another butt-ugly electric car designed to meet the California air standards to help offset carbon. With only an 80-100 mile range (180 with a gasoline range extender) and it's butt ugly looks I don't think Tesla has anything to worry about. It'll join all the Nissan Leafs that are constantly charging around here. For $22K more you can get a much nicer Tesla model S (not counting $7500 federal tax rebate) with a 208 mile range (EPA). The Leafs are actually rather annoying.
For the few times when I actually do need to charge (and there's not yet a Tesla Supercharger) all the spots are clogged up with Leafs because they have so little range. A friend of mine has one and he's always having to look for a place to charge whenever he goes anywhere.
Cars like this are fine if you're just driving around town or have a short commute, but even driving around the Bay Area these cars aren't all that practical unless you have a second car with decent range. At least it supports rapid charging though BMW is supporting the SAE standard referred to as "frankenplug" rather than Chademo which is far more common (but is only really supported by Nissan around here).
Note that I'm rather biased since I drive a Tesla Model S. In my case I've only driven my gasoline car a couple of times since I got my model S. Once was to go to a camping trip where there's no charging anywhere along the way out in the middle of nowhere over dirt roads and the other was to haul some garden supplies I didn't want in my Tesla. I've taken it from the Bay Area up to Lake Tahoe (destination at 7200' elevation) with zero problems. I just had to stop in Folsom long enough to eat lunch while my car charged. It was 106F while driving through the Sacramento valley as well so I ran with the AC set to 72. I worked out driving down to LA isn't an issue either since I can get by with a fast charge in Gilroy (only a few minutes since the car still has a lot of charge) then one battery swap (90 seconds) along the way if I don't feel like stopping and waiting again. A good alternative to Gilroy is to just drive south all the way to Harris Ranch and charge there while getting a good steak.
I think 150-200 miles is the magic number for EVs to really become practical for a lot more people here in the US.
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Butt ugly
Amen. I've seen Lego cars that are more streamlined than that boxy thing. I wonder if this is done on purpose so they can say "electric cars just don't sell!"
Ignore the hood. Start at the windshield and go back, it does look fairly streamlined. Its also not bad looking from the windshield back. Its really the hood that is a complete disaster. As for dimensions, I think that somewhat reflects its intended use, highly urbanized areas.
Aztek redux now with battery and the prestige value prop logo.
If this thing hits anything bulkier than a shopping cart it's a write-off. That's the problem with composite materials: They don't bend, they break!! Insurance on these will be pretty rich. (but if you have the money for this BMW I guess it's not an issue..). Still, be wary of people who think everything should be made of some super light weight composite. It's a complete mess to work with and will leave you crying even after the slightest accident.
You don't dispose of lithium-ion, you recycle it. CFRP (Carbon fiber reinforced plastic) isn't recycled much, though there are initial plants that can recycle the fibers into a lesser grade.
But you're focusing on the wrong thing. A 1.5 ton 35mpg car is going to burn through 10 tons of gasoline over 120,000 miles, and that gasoline is very polluting to produce, spill, refine, and deliver before it all goes up in smoke. All reputable studies find that 75-90% of the pollution from a car comes from operating it, not manufacturing it.
As to whether you should ditch your 39 mpg car for an i3, so long as you sell it to someone who junks their gas guzzler then it's a win for the environment. The average fuel efficiency of the automotive fleet goes up.
=S
Unlike Slashdot commenters, most Americans live in multiple-car households. If your regular driving is less than the range you're set, because you use the family gas hog for those occasional journeys, or Zipcar.
From the surprisingly favorable Top Gear review, "BMW reckons nearly all i3 buyers will use it as a second car so won't be doing long journeys, and it's optimised to make them efficient and fun."
=S
can more than half of you seriously not spell car?
I can see why you keep tying care/cares instead as your typing it in the back of your mind your probably thinking "No one cares about my opinion"
How is fiberglass? It's basically the same thing, but with stronger, stiffer fibers. The matrix material is what you worry about.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Everyone is calling it ugly, I don't get that at all. This is nothing close to other hideous electric designs. I think they nailed the ergo for it. Priced right for the target demo, nails that parent's-2nd-commuter-car with the range, and has the space to pick up groceries on the way home or a couple of kids on "your" night. Your other vehicle is a minivan for the long distance stuff; this one for the work week.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Wake me when somebody develops a rechargeable battery with an energy density within spitting distance of gasoline and that's cheap, which I think will not include using lithium, for which we would have to strip-mine Bolivia to serve a fraction of the potential demand for EVs. That will have to be a battery that uses the oxygen in air as half of its electrochemistry.
Basically, we're spoiled by fossil fuels like gasoline, which have the singular advantage that the oxidizer is available everywhere, for free. If my 2006 Rav4 had to carry the oxygen (in non-cryo form) to burn its ~12 gallons of gasoline, I'd probably have payload space for me alone.
A calcium-air battery that could survive a few thousand deep discharge cycles could fill the bill. Maybe another common metal like magnesium, but I'm too lazy to consult the electromotive series right now. Very tough materials science challenge.
Until somebody develops such a battery, I expect electric vehicles to retain their bimodal distribution - either they have a uselessly low range, or they're lifestyle playthings.
These days, BMW sells a hell of a lot of cars on Asian markets, especially to China. China has a growing middle and upper class, and these people want fine German cars (not to mention the know-how of how to build them).
China, like many other Asian countries, also has a massive pollution problem. You can't leave the house without a breathing mask in Bejing pretty much. That's the kind of market the BMWi i3 is made for. So if you're wondering why it's not designed to your expectations, that's probably why :)
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
.. If its anything like some of their other cars.
It is confirmed now.
As a big auto manufacturer there is so many interest in making electric cars fail.
The 50 years old engineers specialized in fluids, the engine factory owners...
If you are in doubt just look at the front of this car. It is designed from the ground up to create a reaction "Look!! consumers don't want electric cars, we are not selling them!
I love how there are about ten people in all of the photos. Clearly not many people were invited, or likely give a shit.
the concept is cool, the car is just not cool. $50k for something that isn't cool, you may as well buy the Nissan Leaf.
I don't know why car companies are sabotaging any real competitor for a successful EV product. Why do EV vehicles always have to be stupid looking or just obscenely expensive. Its like car companies really don't want you to buy EV cars, they just know there is a certain percentage of asshats out there that will buy any ugly or expensive shit they sell just because it is supposed to save the planet or something.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive seems like a better car. Not only does it look a lot better, it's a proper super sports car with 740 hp. Even Top Gear likes it!
Little expensive though.
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
It is cramped, expensive and it's range stinks. If you pay just a third more you can get the more powereful Telsa which is as luxurious and spacious as a BMW 535 yet has almost three times the range of the i3.
There's really nothing to see here, it is just a compliance vehicle. Move on.
Happy Tesla Model S owner.
They say it is made primarily of carbon fiber, which I guess is for weight savings, but why not tell me how much it weighs?
I don't mind the way it looks, even if it looks mostly like a toy (I think because of the size), but agree with others that a plain-jane designed electric car would probably sell.
Really? For only $22k more? What a deal!
$22k more turns a BMW 335 into an M3.
$22k more turns a pair of Nike shoes into a Hyundai or a Kia.
$22k more turns an apartment lease agreement into a home mortgage.
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