BMW AG took another step in the direction of electrification at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show by rolling out a concept version of an electric, three-door coupe.
The i3 Concept Coupe is the third electrified car BMW has announced in the past 18 months. It joins the racy i8 hybrid and a five-door vehicle (also called the i3) that is slated to reach production at the end of 2013. Like the five-door car, the coupe will be designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle.
BMW did not offer a production schedule for the coupe, but it did call the vehicle yet another sign the luxury automaker is earnest in its plan to bring electric powertrains to the premium car segment. "We're very serious about getting real sales volumes from this," Matthew Russell, a spokesman for BMW, told us. "It's a car that will have an appeal to a huge number of mega-city residents, business people, and electric car aficionados. We're expecting a real demand for this car."
Click on the photo below to check out BMW's EV lineup.
Family members: The i3 Concept Coupe joins two other vehicles in BMW's i sub-brand. The i8 plug-in hybrid (right) will reach production in 2014, and the five-door all-electric i3 EV will come out in 2013. (Source: BMW)
The i3 Concept Coupe is the third vehicle to be proposed for the BMW i sub-brand. All three vehicles will use a body-on-frame approach consisting of two functional units -- a drive module and a life module. The drive module, made from aluminum, incorporates the suspension, battery, drive system, and structural components. The life module, which sits atop the drive module, is a high-strength passenger cell made from carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. The plastic is said to offer a huge weight reduction, which is why the i3 Concept Coupe checks in at just 2,756 pounds.
The coupe will be propelled by a 170hp electric motor developed by BMW that offers 184lb-ft of torque and works in conjunction with a single-speed transmission. A liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery (of unknown capacity as yet) will provide approximately 100 miles of all-electric range. BMW has said the i3 will offer an optional range extender -- an onboard generator coupled with a small gas tank. "It's kind of an emergency-only feature," Russell said. "It's for people who have some range anxiety and are transitioning into an electric vehicle. It helps them relax by roughly doubling the range."
Battery charging for the coupe takes about three hours. However, an optional, DC fast-charge setup (available only at public charging stations) can charge the battery in less than an hour.
Unlike two other electric vehicles unveiled at the L.A. Auto Show (the Chevy Spark and the Fiat 500e), the BMW i3 vehicles will not be built atop another vehicle's platform, Russell said. "It's not based on anything. The aerodynamics, architecture, propulsion, battery, motors, wheels, tires -- all of it's brand new."
Though BMW did not reveal a price for the concept car, Russell did say it would be positioned at the premium end of the electric car market segment. "We believe we are more in the category of the Tesla Model S," whose base price was recently boosted to $59,900. "Like the Model S, it's a unique vehicle. We see it as a key part of the future of mobility."
Yes, but I want to see the numbers on redcharging in 3 hours. Surely that is not at a residential location. The article says 1 hour at public "fast charging" stations and 3 hours otherwise.
Numbers please?
I would have posted this as a separate topic but could not do so for some reason.
What I would like to know is whatever happened to motor-in-wheel. That strikes me as the most efficient and cost effective system (no gearing losses, no drive train hardware). And an itelligent version of it could be linked to the steering to do a better job of allocating torque than a differential ever could.
Did the cost of the motors kill that? Why don't you ever hear about it anymore?
One question for BMW is how they plan on selling gasoline, diesel, electric, AND fuel cell vehicles in high enough quantity to make profits on them all. Electric will die off fairly quickly once fuel cells hit, this unveil is probably nothing more than PR. Their fuel cell cars go on sale in 2 years so where does electric cars fit in their long term vision?
So what I want to know is, can you eject the "life module" in the event of an accident and be rescued by a passing space ship? Puh-leez!
But that aside, the i8 is sweet. The i3s look to be a bit of a Nissan Leaf "me-too!" sorta thing, only probably double the price. Having owned a number of BMWs in the past, and having to buy lots of replacement parts, the BMW pricing model seems to be assessing an item's fair market value and then added a zero to it.
I think the main disadvantage of motor-in-wheel is the radical increase in unsprung weight. Perhaps it's affect on ride quality has kept it out of (most) electric vech. Active suspension systems could be required to make it work for production cars. Catapillar will continue to use it in their machines, at least until dirt goes digital! ;^)
Did BMW actually build one of these, or is it just an idea? There seems to be a lot of claims of what it "will" do, and very little actual details. Anyone can say that they will have an electric that goes 100 miles/(1 hr charge), but can they realistically deliver this by 2013?
Arden Dulou: Maybe you don't understand the concept of fuel cells. A fuel cell is like a battery, only it doesn't store energy, it creates it (electricty) on-the-fly by harvesting the electrons from a chemical reaction. You would use the same exact Electric Vehicle, but instead of a giant battery, you would replace it with a small fuel cell and a container to house the fuel (H2?).
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