Rumor: All Electric BMW i8 In Development

Klaus Fröhlich, head of development at BMW, tells Autocar that the firm’s i division is working on a prototype that could lead the way to an all electric BMW i8 in the near future. At the heart of the prototype are three high revving but compact electric motors — two in the rear and one in front.

“Revs are the route to making electric motors smaller,” sources within the company say. “BMW has a great history of high-revving combustion engines. We’re looking to take this tradition into the electric car arena with electric motors that rev far higher than those seen in production today.” The proposal to build the prototype is said to be on Froehlich’s desk, awaiting approval.

The prototype will be based on the carbon fiber structure developed for the i division’s fuel cell concept car. In order to make room for the hydrogen storage tanks, it had a wider center tunnel than the production car. “The idea is to use the space within the widened center tunnel to house the battery instead of the hydrogen tanks,” the source says.

Even with the larger battery, ditching the internal combustion engine means the electric car will weigh the same as the current i8 at 3,274 pounds. Range is projected to be 249 miles in the European test cycle, which is considerably more optimistic than the US standard. That number would translate to about 185 miles in US numbers.

The production i8 has a total of 357 horsepower on tap. Autocar’s source says the new brushless motors may be capable of spinning out 268 horsepwer — each!

BMW is working on a revised i8 that incorporates many of the upgrades used in the safety car it provides for the Formula E racing series. The improvements include a larger 26 kWh battery borrowed from the X5 xDrive40e. The onboard wireless charging system from QualComm operates at 7.2 kW instead of the 3.6 kW power level in use previously. Reports are that the updated car will get a 10% increase in total power, a rumor that BMW refuses to confirm. The refreshed i8 is expected to go on sale next year.

Source: Autocar    Photo credit: Autoblog

BMW i8 Is Best Selling Hybrid Sports Car In The World

It’s official. The BMW i8 is the best selling hybrid sports car in the world, according to New Delhi TV. Of course, that news has to be tempered with the fact that there really aren’t any other hybrid sports cars in the world, at least since the Porsche 918 went out of production. You could apply that label to the weak selling Honda CR-Z, but there isn’t anything all that sporty about Honda’s sheep in wolf”s clothing.

BMW sold 5,456 of its sexy hybrid supercars last year. The i8 combines a turbocharged 3 cylinder engine driving the rear wheels and an electric motor for the front wheels. It is powerful yet economical and it looks terrific, especially when its swan wing doors are open. The motoring press is in love with this car. Top Gear named it the Car Of The Year in 2014. When it first went into production, people were paying as much as 50% over sticker to get one. Demand has leveled off somewhat, but sales are still strong.

Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, says, “The success of the BMW i8 speaks for itself. It is already the world’s most successful hybrid sports car and has comfortably exceeded our own expectations. I can think of no better illustration of the relevance of our young BMW i brand.”

Next month in Geneva, BMW will introduce a special i8 model called the Protonic Red Edition. I have no idea what the word “protonic” means, but there is no debating that this car is RED.  It has Frozen Gray metallic highlights plus BMW’s W-spoke 470 light-alloy wheels finished in gray with matte aluminum accents. On the inside, the upholstery features red double stitching.

Production for the limited edition car will begin in July at the factory in Leipzig. BMW has not revealed how much of price premium the Protonic Red edition will have over the standard car, which lists for $140,700.

BMW i8 Gets Race Car Rendering

With people willing to wait up to 18 months and pay 50% over MSRP to get a BMW i8 of their own, I think it’s safe to say that Bimmer was a winner on their hands. But is BMW willing to take its plug-in hybrid to the race track? So far we’ve got nothing official from BMW itself, but BMW Blog did come across this rendering by Jon Sibal of what an i8 race car might look like.

It’s everything you’d expect from a competitive version of the hybrid supercar, with a ground-scraping front lip, a lifted rear end, and a rear spoiler as big as a park bench. Sibal calls his creation the BMW i8 GT3, and though only a rendering, there’s reason to be hopeful if you’d like to see an i8 compete in motorsports. The BMW i8 has already been dubbed the official car of the Formula E series, and the automaker is also rumored to be working on a more powerful i8S or i9 to ring in its 100th birthday next year.

If it is going to happen though, it probably won’t be until 2016 at the soonest. With many potential racing seasons months, or even weeks away from beginning, BMW has yet to announce any plans for an i8 motorsports program. But that doesn’t keep us from hoping.

Source: Gas2

Is BMW 2nd Only To Tesla In Electric Car Focus?

With Nissan being the world leader in electric car sales, and its CEO amd Chairman (Carlos Ghosn) being bullish on electric car sales for years, we often put it and Tesla at the top when it comes to electric car leadership. However, new data show that BMW is perhaps now #2 behind Tesla.

Looking at the past three months (August, September, and October), when BMW was producing more of the BMW i3 thanks to good consumer demand in the US, the BMW i3 accounted for almost 5% (4.93%) of BMW’s US car sales (as well as 3.85% of all BMW US sales).

Electric cars on the whole account for less than 1% of US car sales. Nissan has this year seen 2.1% of its car sales coming from the Nissan LEAF. Ford has seen 0.9% of its car sales coming from plug-in models (the Ford Fusion Energi, Ford C-Max Energi, and Ford Focus Electric). And GM has seen 0.7% of its sales come from plug-in cars. Of course, 100% of Tesla sales come from 100% electric cars.

Electric Car Leaders

In the second chart, the % for BMW is only from the months the BMW i3 was on the market.

% of US car sales electric (past 3 months)% of US car sales electric 2014

Toyota

4.9

BMW

2.1

Nissan

0.9

Ford

0.7

GM

0.6

Toyota

Created with Datawrapper

Source: EV Obsession

Clearly, aside from Tesla, BMW is a step above the others. Even if you include the first three months of BMW i3 sales in the US, when things were just getting rolling, and as you can see in the chart above, sales were much lower than in the last three months, the i3 accounted for 2.3% of BMW car sales, asGreen Car Reports.

Interestingly, Tesla’s Chief Designer, Jerome Guillen, recently said in an interview that, aside from Tesla, he is probably most impressed in BMW’s electric vehicle program.

Here’s a look at more BMW numbers, from BMW via Green Car Congress: “In October, the i3 outsold the 1/2 Series (672 units); the Z4 (198 units); and the 6 Series (740 units). The 3/4 Series is still dominant in US sales, with 13,621 units in October, followed by the 5 Series, with 4,914 units.”

Worldwide, BMW sold over 10,000 BMW i3 EVs in the first three quarters of 2014, as well as 341 BMW i8 PHEVs from June through September. Worldwide, the BMW i3 and BMW i8 only represent 0.8% of its car sales.