The newest niche to be conquered by BMW is filled by the 2 Series Active and Gran Tourers.
These front-wheel drive hatchbacks mark a couple of firsts for BMW, namely the front-wheel drive and transverse engine mounting. These two cars aren’t going over very well with enthusiasts, but are doing great in sales in Europe. Well, BMW has decided that the new 2 Series Active Tourer is doing well enough that it wants to give it a new model. An eDrive plug-in hybrid model.
The 2 Series Active Tourer eDrive will feature BMW’s 1.5 liter three-cylinder TwinPower engine, transversely mounted powering the front wheels through a six-speed automatic, and an 88hp / 136 Nm/100 lb-ft of torque electric motor, powering the rear wheels through a two-speed transmission. This essentially makes the 2 Series Active Tourer eDrive a backwards i8, as the i8 uses a similar setup, but with the engine at the rear and motor at the front. Compared to a 225i xDrive model, this adds some 150 kg or 330 pounds. The gasoline engine produces 100 kW/136 hp and 220 Nm/162 pound-feet of torque/electric.
Like the i8, the 2 Series AT eDrive will deliver its power instantaneously, thanks to the torque fill effect of the electric motors adding power while the turbocharger gathers boost. This will shuttle the 2 Series AT eDrive from 0-62 mph in 6.5 seconds. Not bad for a front-wheel drive hybrid.
CNET has recognised the Tesla Model S and the BMW i3, giving them the top two spots in its Top 5 Cars of 2015.
Both vehicles are deserving of their rank. The Tesla Model S P85D redefines the electric car segment due to its sheer power and speed, while the i3 makes its mark by being the world’s most efficient electric car and perhaps the most exotic electric car out there today with its use of carbon fiber, available REx and more.
Only one plug-in vehicle was selected by Ward’s Auto for its “10 Best Interior Award” and that vehicle is the BMW i3.
BMW i3 interior
Here’s why Ward’s deems the i3 worthy of this award:
The i3 electric vehicle comes across as the type of interior seen in concepts at auto shows, often followed by production versions that lose some of the far-out edginess.
The i3 boldly goes where many automakers have yet to tread: deeply into the future. WardsAuto editors pick the i3 for its utility, use of recycled materials and for breaking ground with clever new interior design elements.
From a materials perspective, editors consider the i3 an absolute moonshot, not only for its carbon-fiber tub and thermoplastic exterior body panels but also for the recycled pop bottles and hemp used extensively throughout the cabin and the leather tanned with olive-leaf extract.
It’s a wild, surprisingly roomy interior that manages to be beautiful while fitting with the offbeat exterior
The 10 best ‘eco friendly’ cars of 2015 — as determined by the editors over at the noted vehicle valuation and information source Kelley Blue Book — were recently outlined in an interesting new list.
The top spot for the year was (not completely surprisingly) nabbed by BMW’s all-electric i3 model — following on the i3 grabbing other such honors elsewhere as well, and sitting at the top of all cars in the US in terms of “fuel” efficiency.
The new list from Kelley Blue Book is part of its yearly practice of compiling a ranking of the most efficient vehicles for the year, across all price ranges and power train variabilities.
“The list of ‘green’ vehicle standouts continues to blossom, and with strict Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements coming down the pipeline, auto manufacturers are making stronger advancements each year in creating more environmentally friendly vehicles,” stated Jack R Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com.
“Topping this list for the second year in a row is the BMW i3 – an electric car that can sprint to 60 mph in just over 7 seconds, and is made in a factory powered entirely by four wind turbines. And if 81 miles of electric range doesn’t work for you, the i3 can be had with a small gas generator that lets you go as far as there are gas stations.”
Other vehicles that were ranked highly by the list include: the Volkswagen e-Golf (2nd); the Nissan Leaf (3rd); the Toyota Prius (4th); the Honda Accord Hybrid (5th); the Tesla Model S (6th); the Chevy Volt [Vauxhall Ampera] (7th); and onwards through the rest of the top 10.
Overall, a pretty ‘safe’ ranking arrangement — the e-Golf, the Leaf, and the i3 all got due recognition, as many other lists have been providing them. I suppose you could always contest Tesla’s position further on down the list, but all things considered, I’d say it’s probably fair. Myself, I’m heavily biased towards the Leaf, and would have placed it higher.
April this year, Kelley Blue Book (KBB) compiled a list of the most efficient stand-out cars of the year that are chosen based on efficiency, price, practicality and powertrain, just in time for Earth Day.
KBB’s “Best Green Cars of 2015″ list includes 10 vehicles, 5 of which are plug-in electric cars.
For 2015, the BMW i3 is the repeat winner. It captured the top spot from KBB last year too.
BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf
In #2, we find the Volkswagen e-Golf, followed by the Nissan LEAF in third. The two other plug-ins to make the cut are the Tesla Model S in sixth and the Chevrolet Volt [Vauxhall Ampera] in seventh.
And here’s the ranking:
KBB.com’s 10 Best Green Cars of 2015
Rank 2015 Model-Year Vehicle
1 BMW i3
2 Volkswagen e-Golf
3 Nissan Leaf
4 Toyota Prius
5 Honda Accord Hybrid
6 Tesla Model S
7 Chevrolet Volt
8 Toyota Camry Hybrid
9 Ford C-Max Hybrid
10 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
A cracking little wagon and a declaration of intent
Vulture at the Wheel I didn’t have high hopes for the Kia Soul EV. I assumed that it was a bit of a lash up; a regular Soul with the engine and gearbox ripped out and a battery pack and electric motor rudely bolted onto it. Wrong.
Kia Soul EV in puddle (Image: The Register)
In many ways it is quite the equal of the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf if not quite the ground-breaking BMW i3.
What you think of the Soul EV’s looks will depend on what you think about the aesthetics of the conventionally powered version. Personally, I’ve always quite liked it and I like the EV version even more. Granted, it is not as pretty as the Zoe but it’s a darned sight less frumpy than the Leaf and considerably less jarring than the BMW i3, which is a shape you either love or loathe.
The very slightly restyled rear light clusters and blanked-off grille – which houses the recharge ports – give it, again, to my eyes, a modern and resolved appearance. The EV-specific detailing, like the wind-cheating alloys and LED-running lights, look right at home too. The funky styling really shouldn’t come as a surprise because the Soul was styled at Kia’s California studio.
In terms of battery capacity and motor power, the Soul has the Zoe and Leaf beaten. It boasts 27kWh and 81.4kW to the Zoe’s 22kWh/65kW and the Leaf’s 24kWh/80kW. Kia reckons that the Soul’s battery energy density of 200Wh/kg is a class best. I can neither confirm nor refute that for the simple reason that I’m not sure how Kia arrived at the figure.
What I can confirm is that the Soul can hit 60mph in 10.8 seconds and waft on to a top speed of 90mph. That acceleration figure means the Soul is noticeably faster than either the Renault Zoe or the Nissan Leaf. Granted, a BMW i3 will leave it for dead (the BMW can hit 60 in 7.5 seconds) but the Soul is still a rapid little pup, especially at lower speeds.
The Soul is quiet as well as quick. At all times the electric motor is as silent as the grave. In fact, I think it’s the quietest electric car I’ve driven. Kia has done a good job keeping wind and road noise at bay too, considering that the Soul EV has a semi-detached drag coefficient of 0.35. That is an improvement on the regular Soul’s 0.38.
Electric Cars Are City Cars? Not In U.S.: They’re Suburb Cars Here
Automotive journalists who write about electric cars hear the phrase “city car” a lot.
As in, “Battery-electric cars are perfect city cars, but [fill in different powertrain] is required for other uses.”
There’s just one problem: No one in the U.S. has ever turned to their better half and said, “Honey, let’s go buy a city car.”
A recent blog post by electric-car advocate and restauranteur Tom Moloughney points out that, in fact, electric cars are largely used in the suburbs here in the U.S.
His article expands on comments to trade journal Automotive News by BMW’s U.S. CEO, Ludwig Willisch, that the company’s BMW i3 battery-electric car has not caught on in the “big urban centers in the Northeast,”
Instead, BMW sells the largest numbers of i3s in areas of California, Texas, and southern Florida.
2014 BMW i3 REx vs Chevrolet Volt (Vauxhall Ampera) comparison (Image: D Noland/T Moloughney)
(Willisch also then suggests that Northeasterners aren’t particularly concerned about the environment and sustainability–conflating desire for electric cars with solely environmental concerns, while overlooking the practical challenges of owning and recharging them in city centers.)
Moloughney notes that dense urban centers–like those of Boston, Manhattan, and San Francisco–are some of the most challenging places to own any car, let alone a plug-in electric car that requires a charging station.
The BMW i3 Moloughney drives was originally developed as the “Megacity Car,” intended for use in future cities of 15 million or more people that are even more densely packed than today.
But his arguments underscore a unique challenge to selling electric cars with ranges of 62 to 100 miles to U.S. drivers: We don’t buy “city cars.” We just buy cars.
In Western Europe, where local, regional, and long-distance mass transit is common, clean, punctual, and a regular part of travel patterns, a much smaller car for short local trips can make sense.
That was the idea behind the 8-foot-8-inch-long Smart ForTwo (which has been completely redesigned for the first time since the late 1990s for the 2016 model year).
You see Smarts all over Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Rome, sometimes parked end-in at the curb.
In the U.S., not so much. They’re no cheaper than larger subcompact cars, so they’re almost entirely restricted to those same dense urban centers where minimal length is a huge advantage for street parking, but recharging is scarce and expensive.
In fact, very small cars of any kind have largely been a sales flop in this country. Toyota’s Smart competitor, the Scion iQ “3+1-seat” minicar, has now been pulled off sale.
Moloughney’s post is worth reading because it underscores the challenges facing all automakers as their executives grapple with the very real challenges of understanding who buys electric cars, how they use them, and what specific challenges they face in making them practical.
Upcoming longer-range battery electric cars–including the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, for which 200 miles of range has been promised, and the second-generation Nissan Leaf–may make electric cars more broadly palatable to buyers for whom a range of less than 100 miles is a dealbreaker.
But for North American marketing, we’d suggest that automakers simply eradicate the phrase “city car” from their lexicon.
Thus far, electric cars are largely bought by relatively affluent suburban buyers for whom off-street charging at their homes is possible.
Urban dwellers, meanwhile, are starting to participate in car-sharing programs that eliminate the need for them to pay for and store a vehicle they may not use for commuting.
And until there are far more publicly-available plug-in vehicle charging stations–and most likely the far faster DC quick-charging stations–the city centers of Boston, San Francisco, and so forth will remain a far more challenging place to own electric cars.
BMW dives into the electric vehicle waters with the first of a new dedicated model range.
Our view:
All too frequently these days automotive manufacturers profess to have invented/enhanced/created (delete where you see fit) the next great revolution in motoring. In many cases it is merely a misuse of the very word revolutionary, and at worst it is the result of a delusional marketing department. But then, a few times a decade, a truly revolutionary car comes along. And now, it’s the turn of BMW to stand up and proudly count itself as a game-changer.
The BMW i3 is a compact, electrically powered car, which doesn’t exactly sound revolutionary, but in terms of both form and function BMW has absolutely nailed the brief. It has looked at the problems associated with personal transport in built-up environments, studied the habits of its inhabitants and pushed the boundaries of its engineering and technical expertise to create what will undoubtedly be seen as a pivotal car in the German firm’s history.
It is certainly one of the most divisively styled BMWs in the post-Bangle era leaving aside the similarities in overall shape to the born-too-soon Audi A2 – itself a ground-breaking car for its decade. The i3 is a car that demonstrates some clever packaging with design flourishes the likes of which usher in a new era of BMW design. With next to no overhangs at the front or rear, the city-car credentials are abundant. Seeing the car in person is oddly different to seeing it in images. It’s larger than you’d expect. It is tall and rolls on 19-inch alloy wheels that are shod with surprisingly skinny 155/70 tyres.
Overall the i3 is a busy design whose abundance of lines, bends are curves are far from what we are used to seeing from BMW. From the contrasting two-tone paint to the back doors that are rear-hinged to reveal a large, B-pillar free aperture into the cabin. The doors also feature a large glass area and a distinctive design that some could see as a new interpretation of the Hofmeister Kink. Its short, stubby bonnet also incorporates a new interpretation of those iconic kidney grilles, which now exist merely for aesthetic reasons rather than functional.
Under the clamshell-like plastic bonnet isn’t an engine, but a small storage compartment just big enough to carry a spare charging cable. In the i3, BMW designed a car that is built around a carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) passenger cell, which has allowed it to sandwich the batteries underneath the floor and within the wheelbase to the benefit of the car in two key areas: occupants can enjoy a completely flat floor free of drivetrain tunnels and, more importantly from a handling perspective, the centre of gravity is considerably lower.
This particular i3 is also equipped with the 657cc ‘range extender’ engine, which adds another dimension to the BMW. This compact petrol motor is located in the rear of the car, underneath the floor of the 260-litre boot and its sole purpose is to act as a generator to either maintain the battery level or to recharge it, thus effectively eliminating so-called ‘range anxiety’. With the range extender option you do gain an additional 140 or so kilometres, and as long as you keep filling up the nine-litre fuel tank in the front of the car you can prolong having to plug in and charge the car. The only downside to choosing this option is that you do miss out on half of the €2,500 VRT relief, meaning it will cost a private buyer €41,040 as opposed to €34,010 for the electric only version. A substantial enough price.
It is when it comes to driving that the i3 really proves itself as a game changer. Many electric cars give an enhanced perception of performance due to the lack or an audible engine, but the i3 really is noticeably swifter than any of the other mainstream electric cars currently on the market. From a standing start the i3 silently hits 100km/h in just 7.9 seconds, though it feels faster than that.
