[Test drive of] 2017 BMW i3 94 Ah REx. The last bit of that name seems like a jumbled mess of letters and numbers so, for those who aren’t well versed in EV-speak, it means that [this] particular i3 had the newer 94 Amp-Hour battery and a gasoline Range Extender.
Read more: BMW Blog
In a “green” effort, the Metropolitan Police Department will start by transitioning 250 of them to hydrogen and electric cars. The new vehicles will be put in place over the course of the next 12 months.
Included in the initial plan is hydrogen fuel cell cars, specifically for emergency response vehicles, 30 plug-in hybrids for responding to “999” calls, additional larger vehicles (vans) for crime scenes, and 1o vehicles for Royalty protection officers.
The hope is that at least half of the police force is driving electric cars by next year. This is all part of a multi-million program which includes replacing about 700 vehicles. Monies are also allocated for infrastructure, and the capital area will get five hydrogen chargers.
The organization has looked into the BMW i3 and the Toyota Mirai as viable options. Hydrogen scooters are a possibility for specific patrol routes. At this point, officials aren’t ruling out any automakers or vehicles, as long as they are “clean.” Talks have included vehicles from Ford, Nissan, Mercedes, Renault, and Volkswagen, among others. All vehicle types are also being considered, from mopeds, to cars, and vans. The chief of police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, reportedly spoke personally with Elon Musk about the concept of using Tesla vehicles for “front line” operations.
Trials are already underway and more are planned. The BMW i3 REX has been successful in testing, specifically due to its acceleration. Hydrogen scooters manufactured by Suzuki are also being tested. Jiggs Bharij, the head of the Metropolitan Police fleet services, said:
“The response from police drivers to the BMW i3 has been very positive. It’s actually a very quick car.”
This is all comforting to residents due to the poor air quality in London. Many people have threatened to leave the area if changes aren’t initiated. Sian Berry, a member of the London Assembly Green Party concluded:
“A lot of new and positive ideas are being trailed and considered by the Met here … But what we need from them is a firm deadline for getting all diesel police vehicles off the road. Every organisation with a fleet in London needs to be making plans for this to happen as soon as possible, and this needs to start with the Mayor’s own bodies, including TfL and the Met.”
Source: Inside EVs
See how Christopher powers through his busy life with the BMW i3.
BMW has got all the ingredients right for it i3 electric car, despite its quirky looks.
Transport minister John Hayes CBE hands the award to BMW Group general manager, corporate sales Steve Oliver.
Although the fully electric version lost out to the more affordable Hyundai Ioniq in the zero tailpipe emissions category of our awards, members of our judging panel had plenty of praise for the Range Extender (REX) version of the i3, which has a small motorcycle engine to charge the battery when the plug-in range has depleted.
Made available with revised battery chemistry last year to boost its range, the i3 can now reach up to 195 miles on the official test cycle, or up to 243 miles with the Range Extender.
The i3 has played its part in the past three years to draw greater attention to EVs and make them desirable and aspirational. By far the most powerful compact EV on sale with 172PS, and using carbonfibre construction to minimise weight, the rear-wheel drive i3 has been very much the driving enthusiasts’ choice among plug-in cars.
Practical and with a striking design, the i3 Range Extender offers a decent range with the added security of the range-extender petrol engine. It is great to drive and has competitive running costs thanks in part to the clever use of carbon fibre technology for low-cost repairs.
Source: FleetNews
It’s just been crowned the inaugural 2017 World Urban Car Award winner at the New York International Show, but does the BMW i3 94 Ah (yes, that’s the model’s proper name, thank you very much) deserve recognition? Without doubt, the answer is a resounding yes. The attention is well-deserved.
Some car companies have taken charge (pun intended) and faced the future head on with the acceptance that either we like it or not, electric mobility is here to stay, while other car manufacturers are still in denial. BMW is among the leading manufacturers of this movement towards e-mobility.
The 2017 BMW i3 is amazing to drive, clean, elegant, subcompact (allowing you to park and maneuver easily), and widely available.
Compared with the original i3 (which has a battery capacity of 60 Ah), the 2017 BMW i3 has a larger battery in terms of capacity (94 Ah/33kwh), meaning increased driving range, but its physical size stays the same.
Another thing car enthusiasts are buzzing about the 2017 BMW i3 is the immediate response you get from the electric engine. It offers 150kW and 250Nm of torque, with both available anytime you want to use it.
One of the model’s biggest advantages lies in the way it is constructed. Underneath the 2017 BMW i3 is a carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) passenger cell. This feature helps the car maintain its high torsional rigidity but at the same time without putting too much weight.
The 2017 BMW i3 offers satellite navigation, automatic lights and wipers, and a rear-view camera among its standard features. Other features include a multimedia system that boasts of four speakers plus a digital radio, as well as an interior trim mostly made of recycled material, sticking to its eco-friendly routes.
The 2017 BMW i3 BMW i3 comes with the standard complement of safety features. These include six airbags specifically designed for a model that has slim as well as lightweight seat frames.
Read More: Electric Car Test Drives
Twenty years ago, if you had asked me what cars would be like in 2017, I’d probably tell you they’d be able capable of flight.
I always had this image in my head, as a child, that cars be able to just hover and fly around by the time I was old enough to drive. Maybe I watched too many sci-fi movies as a kid but that was always my vision. Fast forward to today and the automobile is a lot less sci-fi than I had previously imagined. Eight-year old me would be crushed. However, if there was ever a car that could get close to my childhood dreams, it’s the BMW i3 and I just spent a week indulging my inner child’s imagination.
Before we talk about that, let’s take a quick look at what’s new about the i3. BMW launched the i3 2013, as a 2014 model, and back then it was absolutely state-of-the-art. It had almost 100 miles of range, which was about standard for the time, but it was made almost entirely of carbon fiber and had looks like something from Minority Report, both inside and out. So it shocked the world and put BMW on the EV map.
Since then, though, the i3’s charms have wained in the EV community. Other cars had surpassed the i3 in terms of electric range, such as the Chevy Bolt and updated Nissan Leaf. So BMW was forced to give its i3 an update of its own, bumping up its range to over the 100-mile mark, which seems to be the point where customers’ range anxiety becomes less of an issue. So BMW swapped the standard i3’s battery out for a larger, 94 Ah battery that packs a very solid 114 miles of total range. The Bavarians also added some new colors and “Worlds”, as well as some new options, such as a moonroof in North America (finally). And now, the BMW i3 is more competitive in its current market. Though, it still gets some flak for its range. But I’m here to tell you that none of that matters. At least not to eight-year old me.
Stepping into the i3 is an experience unlike anything else in the automotive world. Firstly, just look at it. Nothing else on the road looks even remotely as funky, futuristic or interesting as the i3. It looks like it’s from another world and my eight-year old self would go insane over it, especially in the new Protonic Blue paint color. I know this because kids love the i3. They point and jump around, trying to get their friends to notice what seems like a spaceship to them driving down the street. When it’s parked, people take pictures of it at all angles, regardless of if anyone’s inside of it. It’s a head-turner, like it or not.
Read more: BMW Blog
Many people are in the market for a cheap car lease, and that’s something we can help with. We source our cars from around the UK and have negotiated some great deals, so talk to us.
We provide all of our cars on a monthly contract so it’s much like a mobile phone tariff. These contracts take two different forms and it’s worth outlining them:
We specialise in selling electric cars. With an electric car you get a new car at a low monthly cost, and it’s also especially cheap to run. The technology of electric cars is developing very fast with new models coming out all the time with longer range and greater performance. Our advice, therefore, is always to expect that you will give the car back at the end of the contract. Then you can upgrade to a new and better model.
Essentially you don’t want to be in a situation like someone paying off an iPhone 4 contract when everyone else is upgrading to an iPhone 8. That’s why for our purposes you can consider leases and PCP to be equivalent. They are just finance contracts where you get a new car with an initial upfront payment plus a regular monthly payment. The key thing is what the car is costing you per month.
The beauty of electric cars, of course, is that you can save a lot of money each month on fuel and road tax. This can virtually pay for the car, i.e. you can get a new car for free. It’s because of the low ‘fuel’ costs (i.e. charging with electricity) that many of our cars are offered with free charging. Specifically we provide the first 10,000 miles of charging at home for free. This, along with email and telephone support, is the Fuel Included service.
If you’d like us to work out how much money you can save with a cheap car lease on an electric car, try out the Fuel Included ‘total cost of ownership’ service.
If you just want to see how much an electric car would cost check out our most popular deals below. We provide both fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV):
If you’re looking to buy a new or used electric car then you’ve come to the right place. Electric cars are getting very popular very fast and we have lots of electric cars for sale from a wide range of manufacturers.
We are a leading independent broker with wide experience of electric cars so we are able to advise you about all the ones on the market and which ones would suit you best. We are based in Milton Keynes in the East Midlands and are able to supply electric cars throughout the UK.
In addition to pre-sales support we offer our special Fuel Included service with many of our deals. This provides ongoing telephone and email support as well as refunding the cost of your first 10,000 miles of charging.
If you don’t know whether an electric car would work for you economically then talk to us. We provide a ‘total cost of ownership‘ (TCO) service, for free, to help you calculate how much you might save by going electric compared to a fossil-fuelled car.
Just get in touch with us or fill in the form on our TCO page.
We source electric cars from all the main manufacturers including BMW, Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen, Kia and Mitsubishi. We get good deals and pass them on to you.
By being independent we can advise you best on what would suit you – whether it’s price, long range, performance, looks or a combination of all these. We can also help with installing a charge point.
Prices and details for the offers on our most popular cars are below. We provide both fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV):
Traditionally in the UK we have tended to buy cars outright and then run them into the ground. That has changed in the last few years so that most people buy cars on some form of finance, and there are some good car leasing deals available. The main kinds of finance are Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), and leasing also known as Personal Contract Hire (PCH).
These forms of finance both tend to come to be nearly the same thing for a driver who wants to change their car regularly. In both cases, there is an upfront payment and then a regular monthly payment and the term of the contract will typically be 3 years. It’s much like a mobile phone contract.
With a PCP you can keep the car at the end of the contract (by paying a larger final payment). With a lease you generally give the car back (though there are even exceptions to this). If you plan to upgrade at the end of the term, they basically come to the same thing. They are both a form of long term car rental (though there are some pros and cons). Therefore people may talk about car leasing deals and actually mean PCP deals or PCH/lease deals. Really they are just looking to get into a new car for a low monthly payment – which is what we do.
What’s interesting to note is that car leasing deals work really well with electric cars like the BMW i3 or VW e-Golf. They save you a lot of money on fuel (a fill up is typically about £3). Plus the fixed term contract means you get to upgrade your electric car every few years. So it’s just like upgrading to the latest iPhone 7 or whatever rather than being stuck with old technology.
With an electric car that means every few years you’ll get a new car with longer range and better performance. Yet they remain cheap to run and you don’t pay road tax (and often get free parking).
If you’d like us to work out how much money you can save with a cheap car lease on an electric car, try out the Fuel Included ‘total cost of ownership’ service.
If you just want to see how much an electric car would cost – and in many cases with the first 10,000 miles of fuelling included – take a look below. We provide both fully electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV):
The car that generated the most interest at our test drive event recently was undoubtedly the BMW i3. This is not surprising as the i3 is arguably the most advanced car in production at the moment, being both electric and constructed of carbon fibre. Certainly it was the car that was booked up fastest for test drives.
As before we had our own i3 on static display so visitors could look around it. In addition we had an i3 available for taking on test drives. We took a couple of brief videos of this one, the first one is a walkaround.
The second video demonstrates how quiet the i3 is as it leaves on a test drive.
Our thanks go to Rick of Wollaston BMW for bringing the car along and conducting the test drives.