Electricity and carbon fibre make i3 exciting
Design could pave way for fuel goals
What’s a poor curmudgeon to do? Electric cars are supposed to be either dumpy little froo- froos barely evolved from a golf cart or some form of emissions-free Ferrari-baiter, replete with a price tag only a Hollywood movie director could afford.
Into this polarized marketplace steps BMW. Its newly released i3 finally seems to offer something in the middle ground where most consumers — certainly those of the upscale variety — shop. Its 7.2 second zeroto-100-kilometres-an-hour time is most certainly perky. The styling is nouveau environmentally conscious, but with a certain mainstream grace. Even the interior, all natural fibres and recyclable material, could pass muster on a regular car.
What is really cool about the i3, however, far beyond the fact that its motor is electric, is how BMW has re-imagined the engineering of building cars. There’s a lightweight base chassis that houses the drivetrain (a 170-horsepower electric motor), battery (a 22 kWh lithium ion affair) and suspension (independent all the way around), to which the body is bonded and screwed. All up, weight is a featherlike 1,297 kilograms.
What makes the i3 all the more interesting is that the body is made of carbon-reinforced plastic. The dramatically-lighter-than-steel fibre has been used in automobile production but only in expensive supercars such as McLaren, Lamborghini, etc.
Although much of the hype around the i3 will be its electrified propulsion, perhaps even more exciting is how widespread use of carbon fibre might make future fuel economy and emissions regulations reachable even for gasoline-fuelled cars.
As for the i3’s performance powered by electricity, it checks most of the required boxes. The range is claimed to be up to 160 kilometres, though 120 km would seem more realistically attainable. Performance up to about 125 km/h is sprightly, but drops off thereafter. You won’t have to worry about exceeding the 50 km/h “stunting” law on major thoroughfares, for instance, as the BMW, for all its low-end spunk, can barely break 150.
Handling is similarly spunky. Body roll during hard cornering is minimal and, despite having 155/ 70R19 tires narrow enough for a rickshaw, there’s plenty of traction. The steering, electrically boosted of course, is a little numb and can occasionally feel like you’re piloting a flight simulator, but it never proves really annoying. Ditto for a ride that is typical of lightweight, sporty cars; sharp-edged bumps — and don’t we just have a few of those after this year’s deep freeze! — will challenge its compliance but otherwise things are tickety-boo in the comportment department.
Truly annoying, however, is how much regenerative braking BMW has built into the i3’s drivetrain.
Too much re-gen means the car slows disproportionately when you take your foot off the gas. Indeed, the i3’s throttle is very sensitive; just feathering the throttle looking for the slightest decrease in speed has the i3 slowing down like you hit the binders.