BMW wants to redesign their I3 electric car for 2017.
Not all companies that dominated the conventional car industry were able to translate their previous success to the electric car market. One case is BMW, which hasn’t seen much demand for its I3 electric car. However, the company hopes that a redesign coupled with some new features will provide the vehicle the boost it needs to attract more customers.
Despite the company’s reputation, BMW has only sold around 25,000 units of their I3 hatchbacks in 2015. For this reason, BMW’s plans for the 2017 version of their i3 electric car includes both a front and rear end redesign, probably to make the car look a bit more modern. Unfortunately, no images have been released or leaked as of yet, so it remains unclear how the car will actually end up looking once BMW is finished.
The report issued by the German publication Welt am Sonntag, which has revealed the company’s plan, also shows that among the changes planned by BMW for the I3 electric car, a new battery technology stands out as a better reason to consider buying the car. The current version of BWM I3 has a range of 114 miles on a full charge which can be increased up to 180 miles through a “range extender.”
Unfortunately, the report doesn’t precisely specify what the future range will be, but it does mention that it should be an increase of less than 50 percent. As such, I3 2017 standard range will still very likely be under 200-miles. Although the higher range can lead to a wider appeal, the I3 electric car is still well below what other EV’s can offer such as Tesla’s Model S with its 300-miles range. However, the fully-featured Model S also costs almost three times as much as the $47,450 i3. It is unknown if the price of the redesigned i3 will remain the same or if it will be slightly increased.
BMW hopes that their future autonomous cars will have better luck than their electric cars. The company has started a collaboration with Intel and Mobileye in order to create an open platform for self-driving vehicles by 2021.
What do you think of BMW’s plans for their I3 electric car?
Image source: Wikimedia
Michael Turner
