The I’s have it

BMW i3 has proved to be a successful first stab at the all-electric vehicle market for its Munich maker and since the original 2013 launch, it hasn’t stopped trying to improve it. In 2016, the original 60Ah (ampere hours) version was replaced with a 94Ah variant that boosted this model’s all-electric operating range to more than 200 miles.

A year later, BMW gave the styling a minor refresh and added a slightly pokier i3s derivative to create the model line-up we’re going to look at here. For all buyers, the option remains on both variants to add in a small Range Extender petrol engine to further boost operating mileage.

The result of all these improvements is a car that’s now even harder to ignore in this growing segment.

If you’re of the old school and BMW means shark nosed, six-cylinder, ultimate driving machines to you, the i3 electric vehicle is going to appear a wholly alien concept.

It’s a squat little citycar riding on 155mm wide tyres.

Yet delve a little deeper and it doesn’t take long to find a strand of proper BMW DNA. It’s revealed in the thinking behind the engineering and the logic behind the various development decisions.

Wherever BMW’s engineers could have developed a more focused, technically correct solution, they appear to have done so.

Of course, you might well be part of the 99% of British car buying customers that chooses an internal combustion engine over an electric motor.

Even if that is the case, have a look at what the BMW i3 now offers, especially in this improved form. It’s building a case for electric vehicles that is becoming ever more convincing.

As you might expect from a BMW product, the i3 doesn’t want for go. The electric motor is mounted low down within the rear axle which helps to keep a low centre of gravity and also to improve crashworthiness.

The power unit weighs just 130kg and produces 170bhp in standard form, which means that the i3’s power to weight ration of 141bhp per tonne is just shy of a Honda Civic Type R.

If you’re interested in a comparison of that sort, you’ll be interested in the slightly pokier i3s variant, where the electric motor’s power output is boosted to 184bhp, plus there’s sports suspension with specially developed springs, dampers and anti-roll bars.

Whatever i3 variant you choose, as with all electric vehicles, a decisive advantage comes in its amount of torque. In a typical city scoot such as, say, a 1.2-litre Fiat 500, you can count on 75lb/ft of torque, but this BMW generates a hefty 184lb/ft of muscle in its standard form. It’s sent to the rear wheels via a singleratio gearbox that offers the choice of three driving modes: Comfort, Eco Pro and Eco Pro+. The i3s has an extra Sport setting.

This translates to a car that’s certainly not slow