Lifestyle: Motoring – BMW i3 road test
I have a confession. For the past 10 years I have driven a 1994 VW Golf. A keen student of bangernomics, I’ve squeezed the very last out of this remarkable car until it conked out in October.
Like someone waking from a coma I’m adjusting to a new motoring reality, where road tax is based on carbon dioxide emissions – I know it’s been a few years – and the industry is putting billions of pounds into electric technology.
BMW’s first model is the i3 which it has built from the ground up, rather than adapt an existing car. It looks like a concept car sketched out in one of my dad’s Motor magazines from 1983 – the kind of vehicle that you would not expect to become a reality.
And once on the road the penny drops. This electric car is more than just a niche product for the ecologically conscious. You don’t have to care about the environment to buy one – it looks good and it’s fast, with 172 horse power delivering acceleration of 0-62mph in 7.2 seconds. It will surely help to change perceptions of electric vehicles by tapping into the motoring industry’s most well-worn tool – desirability. It’s very nippy around town, comfortable to drive and responsive.
It has an energy conservation system so it brakes when you take your foot off the
accelerator, with the moving wheels generating electricity like a dynamo. This is quite disconcerting at first but once accustomed to the system, which BMW says “rewards anticipatory driving”, you only use one pedal as the gearbox is automatic.
You press a button to start but it’s hard to tell if it’s on because there’s no noise. There isn’t even a handbrake, just a button, which is becoming increasingly common. The whole experience removes any connection with the actual mechanics – even the wipers are rain sensitive and the mirrors and lights adjust depending on the steering.
This won’t appeal to everyone, particularly as driving a conventional car can be a very involved experience. For some it’s about feeling the engine lurch at the biting point, or the coarse sound of rapid acceleration, and the deep rumble as you change down to navigate a tight bend. Some detractors say electric cars have no soul, and I can understand that view, but it was unexpectedly exhilarating to accelerate very rapidly in total silence. The flip side is that pedestrians can’t hear you. I startled a few walkers on a country lane and realised the car could do with a second, polite horn – maybe one that mimics a bicycle bell.
There are two i3s, the all-electric and a “range extender” with a two cylinder engine for an extra £3,000. Like Vauxhall’s Ampera, which has a larger engine, this kicks into life when the battery is low. It doesn’t drive the car but charges the battery like a generator. This is a smart move as it means you’ll never run out of juice and assuages what’s become known as “range anxiety” in electric car circles due to the dearth of charging points.
It has the modish two tone colour scheme sported by the Citroen DS3 but that is the only similarity to anything else you’ll see on the road. In theory it’s a small car, but all cars are getting bigger and the i3 takes its cues from SUVs. Its alloy wheels are strikingly big and the main cabin is high, but unconventional styling gives it a fluid, rather than boxy appearance.
The car turns heads. People stare because it’s uncommon but also because it looks so unusual. Inside it’s spacious and light, a feeling enhanced by a very wide and deep dashboard. A carbon fibre body, which is fixed to an aluminium chassis, has allowed BMW to do away with central pillars and give the car coach doors. This looks good and makes more space for rummaging around in the back, but they interlock which means a rear passenger can only get out once the front door is open. The boot is also quite small and I only managed to fit in a pushchair after taking out the rear shelf.
It is packed with technology, accessed through a large screen on the dashboard, which is easily controlled by a dial where the handbrake would usually be. There is even a setting which allows you to programme the car to warm up so it’s ready for you in the morning.
So with my 20-year-old Golf at the scrapyard would I buy an i3? No, simply because most of the driving I do is long distance. I also don’t have a driveway up to my house. The i3 is really a city car aimed at commuters who have a second vehicle for longer trips – and a handy plug socket.
* The i3 costs £25,680 or £28,830 for the range extender, including a £5,000 Government grant. Our car was supplied by Williams BMW in Manchester which is offering a three-year lease deal starting at £369 a month with a £3,000 deposit.
I travelled on a family trip from Manchester to Llangollen, just beyond Wrexham, which is about 70 miles. The i3 has a range of 80 to 100 miles depending on your driving style. This can be stretched by the Eco Pro driving mode which limits some comforts such as the air conditioning and heated seats, or further in the Eco Pro+ mode to 118 miles, which also restricts the maximum speed to 56mph. I had the range extender model, which adds a further 70 miles, and the engine kicked in between Chester and Wrexham. It didn’t affect the performance but the engine noise was audible at 60-70mph which took the shine off the electric experience. But the car is designed for short journeys and ideally the engine would only be used to get to the next charging point.
There are very few in this part of North Wales. The GPS showed one at a Toyota
dealership in Wrexham but I politely asked to plug in at the mother-in-law’s which required a tricky reversing manoeuvre up to her front porch and posting the four metre cable through her living room window. This clearly isn’t what BMW have in mind. It takes about eight hours to charge through a normal 13amp plug socket but for £300 BMW will fit a charging point in your garage or to an external wall which will do it in three. A smart meter at the house showed about £4 of electricity was used while the car was plugged in, but this included all the other household appliances too.
Rapid charging points are starting to go in at some service stations and Greater Manchester, which has 250 three-hour charge points, is adding five this year that give a full charge in 20 minutes. But until fast charging is ubiquitous you would really need a charging point at home, or at least off-road parking and access to a plug, which rules out the millions of people who park on the street.
dealership in Wrexham but I politely asked to plug in at the mother-in-law’s which required a tricky reversing manoeuvre up to her front porch and posting the four metre cable through her living room window. This clearly isn’t what BMW have in mind. It takes about eight hours to charge through a normal 13amp plug socket but for £300 BMW will fit a charging point in your garage or to an external wall which will do it in three. A smart meter at the house showed about £4 of electricity was used while the car was plugged in, but this included all the other household appliances too.
