BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve

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Sun 16 Feb 2020 18:05
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - Steveieb
Good news , plans to halt production of the I 3 have been scrapped !

James Mays recommends them and has one in his garage.

With a body made carbon fibre, sets made from recycled bottles, even the key is made from castor beans in a factory powered by hydro it should be renamed the Greta.
I loved the idea of the BMW motorcycycle engine in the rear just in case the charge runs out, this car is an icon. Brilliant performance but expensive to make, even the £31,850 price tag with the government grant which dissapears soon, doesn't cover the manufacturing costs.
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Sun 16 Feb 2020 19:21
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - Zippy123

I missed a huge bargain on one of these about 4 years ago.

Some company was disposing of a fleet of them, all a few months old with about 1,000 miles at £18k each for the pure electric and £20k for the range extender version.

I was thinking about it for too long as I was still in a company car at the time.

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Sun 16 Feb 2020 19:23
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - badbusdriver

While I’d stop short of using the term “icon”, I do really like the i3. It also happens to be one of very few current BMW’s I like!.

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Mon 17 Feb 2020 07:46
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - craig-pd130
I loved the idea of the BMW motorcycycle engine in the rear just in case the charge runs out, this car is an icon.

Having a range-extender (REx) fossil-fuel engine is a great compromise, if I remember right the car only carries just over 2 gallons of fuel but that's an extra 100 miles of range. Although many owners of the i3 REx on the SpeakEV forums report niggling reliability problems with the bike engine.

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Thu 20 Feb 2020 15:56
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - Steveieb
Will the i8 also get a reprieve ?
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Thu 20 Feb 2020 16:27
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - badbusdriver

From what i have read, the i8 will get replaced, but by what exectly is unclear at the moment. Initially there was word of all electric, then a similar setup to the current one, but with a 2.0 instead of 1.5 engine for a total of around 600bhp (current one has around 360bhp). The M Vision concept seems to be considered a good indication of what the next i8 will look like and while it isn't a bad looking car, with more than a passing nod to the M1, it doesn't seem anything like as radical as the current car.

cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/4gRnJ/s1/bmw-vision-m-ne...g

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Thu 20 Feb 2020 16:24
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - Brit_in_Germany

A colleague had one of these - daughter had a "little bump" and the repair costs for the carbon fibre part were horrendous.

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Thu 20 Feb 2020 16:38
BMW i3 - An icon gets a reprieve - badbusdriver

A colleague had one of these - daughter had a "little bump" and the repair costs for the carbon fibre part were horrendous.

Should have considered that before buying a carbon fibre bodied car then (or at least before giving a loan of it to his daughter!). It has a carbon fibre intensive structure to keep the weight down to a very impressive (for a hybrid) 1500kg. Otherwise it would be neither as fast nor efficient.

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