Photo: BMW
A recent study showed that nearly 40 percent of luxury car owners in the UK say they would buy or seriously consider buying an EV but it would have to be capable of doing 300 miles (483 km) on a single charge.
The researchers from WeLoveAnyCar, an UK-based website, asked 24,227 Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz owners what they think about such a vehicle and the response was surprisingly positive, especially in BMW’s corner.
Nearly half the people that confirmed their interest in such a car were BMW owners (17 percent to be more precise), possibly hinting at the i3 and i8. However, the two new cars from Munich don’t necessarily stick to the 300 mile range criteria.
The i3 will do up to 100 miles on EV mode alone and another 100 miles (if you’re lucky) if you go for the Range Extended model that comes with an auxiliary internal combustion engine that recharges the batteries, allowing you to basically cover double the electric range with only one tank.
As for the i8, it’s a completely different breed, this one being a plug-in hybrid sports car that wasn’t focused only on offering the best efficiency but also on providing enough thrills. In this regard, the coupe will do up to 35 km (22 miles) on EV mode alone and at speeds up to 75 mph (120 km/h). But there are other things to consider when looking into an i8.
For the moment, the only car that fits the description is Tesla’s Model S. The 85 kWh model will cover a claimed distance of 500 km (312 miles) even though, at times, it falls short as it did in our test drive. That doesn’t mean that other manufacturers won’t step up their game, especially BMW that is known to be working on an i5 that could very well rival Tesla’s creation.
Nearly half the people that confirmed their interest in such a car were BMW owners (17 percent to be more precise), possibly hinting at the i3 and i8. However, the two new cars from Munich don’t necessarily stick to the 300 mile range criteria.
The i3 will do up to 100 miles on EV mode alone and another 100 miles (if you’re lucky) if you go for the Range Extended model that comes with an auxiliary internal combustion engine that recharges the batteries, allowing you to basically cover double the electric range with only one tank.
As for the i8, it’s a completely different breed, this one being a plug-in hybrid sports car that wasn’t focused only on offering the best efficiency but also on providing enough thrills. In this regard, the coupe will do up to 35 km (22 miles) on EV mode alone and at speeds up to 75 mph (120 km/h). But there are other things to consider when looking into an i8.
For the moment, the only car that fits the description is Tesla’s Model S. The 85 kWh model will cover a claimed distance of 500 km (312 miles) even though, at times, it falls short as it did in our test drive. That doesn’t mean that other manufacturers won’t step up their game, especially BMW that is known to be working on an i5 that could very well rival Tesla’s creation.
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