The awards just don’t stop coming for the BMW i3.

The latest, from Wheels Australia, is one more “Car of the Year” award for 2014.

This adds to numerous awards the i3 has received over the past year and a half.

Deservedly so, the i3 is quickly becoming one of the most awarded electric cars of all time.

Source: Inside EVs

If there were ever a brand-reset button in the automotive business, the BMW i3 electric car is it.

It’s both a compact hatchback and an all-electric car, from the brand that claims to build ultimate driving machines.

How does it measure up to that lofty standard? Hi, I’m Joel Feder, and I’ll give you our verdict on the BMW i3 in our latest video road test.

Strip away the simulated twin-kidney grills and roundel badges, and you’d really never know the i3 is a BMW. It has skinny tires, and an odd side view with a dipped window line.

Inside, it’s unlike any BMW you’ve seen before—it’s more like a loft living room than a cockpit.

It’s dominated by a big screen that displays infotainment functions, controlled via the iDrive knob on the console. A smaller screen behind the steering wheel provides all the other driving information, including the speedometer.

Overall the interior is elegant and well put together, except for the renewable-fiber kenaf material. It’s fine on the far part of the dashboard, but the door panels look like they’ve been stripped of their covering. It’s the one sour note in the car.

This interior is far more spacious than you’d think. While the front seats have extremely thin backs, they’re comfortable and bolstered well. The seating position is upright and higher than some other small cars, and you get good view of the road.

The rear seats are a bit tight for full-sized adults, and it’s awkward getting in and out because the rear passengers can’t open their own doors. The front-seat passenger has to open the front door first.

The i3 breaks completely new ground in its drivetrain. It’s a battery-powered electric car with a 22-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack mounted under the floor. That powers a 125-kilowatt (170-horsepower) electric motor in the rear that sends up to 184 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels.

The EPA rates the i3 at 81 miles of electric range with an efficiency rating of 124 MPGe. That makes it the most efficient car of any kind sold in the U.S. today. BMW says you’ll see a real-world range of 75 to 90 miles.

Have range anxiety? Want another 80 miles as a safety net (give or take)? You can opt for the range-extending REx engine, as fitted to our test car. It’s a little two-cylinder gasoline-powered generator in the rear of the i3, next to the electric motor.

It kicks in to act as a generator when you deplete the battery, but it’s not connected to the drive wheels. You should know that opting for the REx model drops your battery range rating to 73 miles – and it’s only rated at 34 mpg while the range extender is on.

Read more: Green Car Reports

Generally, there have been two approaches to creating electric automobiles: Stuff batteries and an electric motor into existing gas-power cars, or start from scratch and create a new design. Not satisfied with either of those methods, BMW in a sense used a time machine.

Its new i3 is a deep dive into what the car of the future should be: efficient and sustainable. It’s transportation to be sure, but the i3 is also just as much an environmental think tank on wheels.

Its passenger cell is made from lightweight carbon fiber and reinforced plastic manufactured in a hydroelectric-power factory in Washington State. Interior panels use renewable Asian kenaf plants. It’s all assembled in a German plant amped up by wind power. It would be no surprise to find that the i3 is organic. And edible.

The motor provides 170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of instant torque. While the i3 can be purely electric, drivers seeking more range will insist on the model with the 2-cylinder gasoline-power generator for $3,850 more. At 1.9 gallons, the gas tank adds about 60 miles of range. At speeds over 25 miles an hour, road noise masks the engine drone. Pedestrians may think you’re mowing the lawn. With the generator, i3 weighs just 2,900 pounds.

BMW claims 80 to 100 miles on battery power alone. My average was 65 using the midlevel efficiency mode Eco Pro. My range was confirmed by a couple in a grocery store parking lot who have owned their i3 for a few months.

Rear-wheel drive, 50-50 weight distribution and a spunky 0-to-60 time of 7.5 seconds seem a God-given right for BMW (it’s slower in Eco modes and in range-extender operation). But a stiff ride and lack of any road feel should prevent the Bavarians from using the Ultimate Driving Machine tagline here. Tires not much wider than my foot don’t help much.

The brake pedal is seldom needed in urban driving. Power regeneration is so aggressive that lifting off the throttle slows things strikingly. One-pedal driving activates the brake lights. At higher speeds, the i3 coasts with less resistance.

Inside, the car makes me wary of the future. The power button location is awkward, and the unusual drive selector takes practice. Creative and renewable materials used on the base Mega World model — one of three, along with Giga World and Tera World — give off an office cubicle vibe. Nearly all my passengers viewed the kenaf fiber panels as trunk liner material. That couple at the grocery store bought the Giga World model with leather and eucalyptus wood trim. It’s highly preferable to the Mega’s budget plastic look (and sometimes feel) and adds a larger data screen. It’s a bargain at $1,500 more.

At $47,050 as tested (without tax incentives), navigation is standard; heated seats add $550. Note: A huge medical-grade electric heating pad can be found on Amazon for under $50. I’ll once again gripe that BMW’s rearview camera is part of a $1,000 grouping. Who knew that the future, and safety, was about option packages?

Getting to the two rear seats requires using cumbersome rear-hinge coach doors. Average adults will fit fine, and the i3’s floor is delightfully flat, though feet in back will be cramped.

Looking like the avant-garde offspring of BMW’s classic Isetta and 2002, people instantly know if they love or hate the i3’s design. Comparably equipped, the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt are easily $11,000 less than the i3. All of them will get you to work; the i3 takes owners into the future.

Source: NY Times

The i8 interior is very good, but the BMW i3 interior to me is the real winner. It’s just so different and refreshing and inspired.

Interiors are one of the most important aspects of an automobile. It’s the place where you will spend 90 percent of the time with your car. So the interior must be a nice place to be. A good interior is one that is comfortable, ergonomic, and aesthetically pleasing all at the same time. But the really special ones are the kind that are able to do all of those things as well as being very different and shaking things up a bit.

The interior that I think does this best is the BMW i3.

The i8 is very good too, but the i3 to me is the real winner. It’s just so different and refreshing and inspired. With its exposed carbon fiber, funky recycled seats, eucalyptus wood and incredibly open design, the i3 is like no other interior on the market. Which perfectly suits the i3, a car like no other on the market. It’s also so unlike any other BMW on the inside. The i8 sorta kinda feels like a typical sporty BMW from within those swan doors. But the i3 feels different. It feels happy and serene, not at all sporting, which was the idea to begin with.

Car and Driver recently sat down with the head of BMW i design, Benoit Jacob, and asked him some questions about its design. What he shared on designing the i3’s interior was quite interesting. When asked if there was an overall theme to the interior design of the i3, Jacob had this to say

“What if the interior would inspire a more relaxed driving behavior? It’s Zen, in a way. From a higher design level, that was quite an interesting challenge.”

Jacob also spoke about the use of the wood on the dash and how it pays homage to older BMW’s, such as the 2002 —

“I’m very passionate about cars, and I believe there is no future without history. Sometimes, if there’s a way to echo the past a little bit­—without any sort of retro design, because that’s absolutely not the point—why not? It just came by chance.”

It’s so refreshing to hear a designer trying to inspire a driver with the interior. Too often, these days, car interiors are so flooded with buttons and mobile phone connectivity that the car feels so detached, like a computer. They feel like they’re just there as vessels for the driver to control the car. While that is, technically, what a car interior is, I like an interior to give the car a mood. The i3’s does that better than any other. And I applaud BMW for straying from its sporting roots to try a different genre. It’s refreshing and I hope there’s more to come.

Source: BMW Blog