BMW i3 Concept Revealed

 

I usually don't refer the followers of this blog over to my other blogs unless there is a significant news story about either the BMW ActiveE or future i3(megacity).  

The above picture is the just released concept of the 2013 BMW i3, the car that the MINI-E program was designed to help gather information for. This will be the first all electric car that BMW sells, since both the MINI-E and ActiveE are small lease only programs, and what all the work and investment that was made in the MINI-E and ActiveE programs was meant for. I'm still kind of busy getting the restaurant ready to reopen, but I had to do a post on my i3 blog now that BMW has finally released images of the car. You can read all about it HERE.

BMW i3 Concept Revealed!

So here it is. It's been over two years since we first started hearing about the mysterious BMW "Megacity Vehicle" since dubbed the 2013 BMW i3 and we're finally getting an official look at what BMW has been cooking up.

This is a concept, so the production version will be a bit different, but overall the shape will be pretty much what we see here. They will of course lose the glass side panels and roof, both to be replaced with carbon fiber panels as is the entire outer shell. If you compare it to the renderings in the post below this, you see it is kind of a hybrid of a few of them. There haven't been much details released yet, but some of them of note that I did read are the car will have tall 19" wheels, which are very large diameter for a car of this size. The stated purpose for these are that they lower the rolling resistance and improve efficiency. It will also go 0-60 in under 8 seconds. It will charge on a regular household 110v outlet in six hours. That basically means the battery pack is small as previously reported, probably 16 to 18 kWh. It will also have a range extender option that BMW calls i-REx. The range extender will be a small gasoline(not diesel) engine that will only charge the battery pack, it will not have the ability to drive the wheels directly like the Chevy Volt can under certain circumstances.

 I'm sure there will be lot's of info coming out in the next few days, I'll try to get it all up here as soon as it's available.

BMW i3 To be Officially Introduced in July!

 

According to BMWCOOP and some of my other sources, the BMW i3 as well as the i8 may be formally introduced as early as late July. This goes against most reports that the i3 will be seen for the very first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. 

While BMW has shown pre-production i8's in videos, they have never shown the public an i3 in the flesh and have only provided vague sketches of the car that is hoped to revolutionize the electric car market, setting new standards for efficiency as well as being the first-ever mass produced car that is made entirely of lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic and aluminum. This car may very well pave the way for BMW as well as other major OEM's to offer dramatically lighter, more efficient cars that require less energy to operate.

Two Years of Driving Electric

Yesterday was two years to the day that I picked up MINI-E #250 and began a journey that would alter my life in many ways.

I had no idea I'd grow to enjoy electric drive as much as I did and I really had no idea I would become such an outspoken proponent of battery electric vehicles. The past two years have been a great ride, both figuratively and literally. The electric driving experience I have had with the MINI-E has been so great it has convinced me that I'll be driving electric cars from now on. The great news is that it is now possible, and that wasn't the case in 2008 when I filled out the application to take part in the MINI-E trial lease program. Back then you either had to buy a $100,000+ Tesla Roadster or build your own EV if you wanted a real, highway capable electric car.

Since I didn't have a spare $100k lying around or the time necessary to do a full conversion, I signed up to participate in the MINI-E Field Trial, not knowing at the time this program would take me off gas for good.
The program was initially supposed to be a one year, closed end lease. At the end of the year I would hand back the car and go back to gas, since there would still be no electric cars available for purchase at the time. However BMW offered one year lease extensions and now offered another six month lease extension, effectively making the MINI-E Trial Lease program 30 months for those who wish to remain in the program.  Six months from now, I and the other MINI-E pioneers that stayed in the program can transition directly from the MINI-E into the BMW ActiveE, the final test car before the 2013 BMW i3 hits the market. The ActiveE is a 24 month lease and when it ends, the i3 will already be in showrooms. The significance of this is that BMW has offered me a clear uninterrupted gas-free path, from the day I took possession of my MINI-E two years ago to the day they will offer the i3 for sale. No other car major auto manufacturer (that isn't named Tesla) can claim they have done that for any of their customers. I know the MINI-E group was small, but I think BMW deserves credit for this program. Sure we have to pay to lease the cars, and they are getting valuable information form these field studies, but no other major car maker took any of their customers off gas for good in 2009.

Being in the program has made me more aware of my energy usage, both in the car and at home. I installed a solar array, bought Energy Star appliances, changed all my lighting to either compact florescent and LED bulbs, adjusted my programmable thermostats, replaced old drafty windows and are generally more aware of reducing wasted energy. In doing so I have reduced my home electric usage about as much as I need to charge the car, effectively eliminating my personal fuel expense and the solar array eliminates 90% of my homes electric cost. I even drive more efficiently, using the regenerative braking as much as possible and I definitely find myself driving slower, even when I'm not driving the MINI-E.

I have driven the car 59,500 miles so far. That's about 30,000 miles a year or double what the average American drives and the MINI-E handled it without any problem. So much for electric cars being only good for low mileage drivers that only drive short trips! Oh and another thing, I've never been stranded on the roadside because I ran out of charge. Something that everybody that hasn't driven an EV seems to be worried about. The car has been extremely reliable and has required very little maintenance at all. Another thing that I'm really impressed with is that I have now charged the car over 1,100 times and it still has virtually the same range it did when it was brand new. I know at some point, there will be battery degradation, but I can tell you for certain, it isn't measurable yet and I have the data to prove it.

Somewhere in an underground storage tank at the Lukoil station I used to go to before I got the MINI-E, there are about 3,300 gallons of gas that wouldn't be there if I never applied for the program. You see, I always went to this one gas station to fill up as it was conveniently located on my route from home to work. It I had continued to drive my Toyota Tacoma for the past two years and 59,500 miles, I would have needed to buy about 3,300 gallons of gas as the Tacoma gets about 18mpg. This would have cost me about $10,000. I would have also needed about a dozen oil changes and would be looking at a major (recommended) tune up for the truck. Electric cars like the MINI-E require virtually no maintenance and after driving 60,000 miles you would probably only have to replace the tires and wiper blades.

So yeah, it's really been a great run so far. I really look froward to the BMW ActiveE, but I'm going to miss the minimalist attitude of the MINI-E. Small, great handling, fun to drive and still the feeling of  "efficient basic transportation" that I like. Electric drive in a MINI Cooper platform works and BMW would be foolish not to bring it back in a series production sometime in the future.

I always believed electric cars might be our future. They reduce our dependence on foreign oil, keep our energy dollars in local economies, improve our country's national security and are much better for the environment. The past two years in the MINI-E program proved to me that I was right.

After More Than 57,000 Miles, a 100 Mile Trip is Still No Problem

The other day I needed to go to a meeting at an office that I had never been to before. As always, I checked Google maps to see how far it was for two reasons: how much time will I need to drive there, and can the MINI-E make it or do I need to take my Toyota Tacoma that day. It's not often when I need to take the truck because I'll need to drive further than the MINI-E range will allow, but it does happen once every couple months or so.

When I checked Google maps it was exactly 50 miles away, and about one third of it was highway driving. My initial reaction was that I wouldn't take the chance, it's cutting the range too close and why risk having a problem. A big part of my reasoning because it has been unseasonably cool and rainy here in NJ and the difference of driving in 50 degree temperatures in the rain from 70 degree temperatures might be 10 miles of range or so.

Anyway, I then checked the weather channel and learned that the day I was to go to the meeting we were supposed to have a perfect day, clear and in the mid 70's. So then I started thinking about it, and it didn't take me long to come to the decision to take the MINI-E and take my chances. The plan was to drive there as slow as I could do safely, meaning 55mph on the highway, and the speed limit on the secondary roads using regen as much as possible, even trying not to use the mechanical brakes at all.

As my journey progressed it didn't take me too long to realize I wasn't going to have any problem. In fact, I arrived there, 50 miles later with 60% SOC. I had only used 40% to drive 50 miles! I did drive as efficiently as possible, and drove slower than I normally would, but this guaranteed me that I would make the 100 mile journey and I could even drive any way I wanted to on the return trip without worrying about being extraordinarily efficient.

So I the trip home I drove 70mph on the highway and didn't concentrate on using the regenerative brakes as much as I possibly could. I arrived back at the restaurant with 15% charge remaining which would be good for at least another 25 miles and if I really wanted to push it probably even 30.  I then plugged in and in under three house I was fully charged and ready for more another 100 miles if necessary.

When you add the 62 miles I drove to and from work that day, I drove the MINI-E 162 miles, not bad for a electric car with roughly a 100 mile single charge range. Anyway, the good news is that after more than 57,000 miles and over 1,100 charging cycles, the car still has the same range it had when it was brand new. This is significant because there are a lot of concerns about battery degradation in electric cars. It's going to start to happen at some point, I know that, but it is a bit surprising to me that I have been able to drive and charge the car as much as I have without noticing any decrease in range or battery capacity. This is good news for all electric cars in my opinion. 

1,000 Charges and Still Going Strong!

Recently I passed the 1,000th recharge milestone with my MINI-E. That's considerable when you realize I have only had the car about 660 days so far. I've put 54,000 miles on it so that's over 80 miles per day, every single day I've had it. Obviously I haven't driven it every single day, so the days I have driven it I've probably averaged above 90 miles per day. That's a lot of charging, more than 1.5 times per day actually. Actually, the car is such a pleasure to drive, I find myself using it for everything I can, whether it be personal or for business use.

Those of you that follow this blog know that I occasionally write posts about my experiences for sites like Edmunds, AllCarsElectric and most often, Plugincars.com. I was talking to Brad Berman, editor of plugincars recently and he asked me if I would write a post on my range throughout the year in different temperatures. I was actually working on just that to post here, and planned to post it once I hit my 1,000th recharge. So instead of a full post here about it, I put it up on the plugincars website, that way it will reach an even greater audience than here, and give more people a chance to see how the car has performed. You can jump to the full post HERE.

A lot of people ask me about the range in extreme heat and cold, and whether or not I am beginning to notice battery degradation now that I have over 50,000 miles on it. I really haven't noticed any degradation, but my data seems to show that it is beginning to happen, as the second year data shows slightly less range that the first year throughout almost all temperature ranges.What the real usable life of a EV's battery pack is still debatable. There just aren't enough of them out there that are using the newer lithium ion chemistries that have been driven enough miles and charged enough times to have reliable data on, so I'm sure a lot of people are interested in the data that I've accumulated over the past 22 months.

Remember, the MINI-E is a prototype test car, and does not have a sophisticated thermal management system. The passive thermal management system it employs is really primitive, making this car particularly vulnerable to weather extremes. BMW will be using an active thermal management system on both the ActiveE and the i3, based on lessons learned from the MINI-E trial lease program: Here's what I've observed: