Photo: Guido ten Brink/SB-Medien
BMW CEO Harald Kruger has been releasing snippets of information on the Bavarian brand's plans for its electric vehicle division and, as you'd expect, it's all good news.
We've already told you about the iX3 battery-powered SUV which is expected to debut in 2020, but has a pre-production concept just around the corner ready to shine under the lights of next month's Beijing Motor Show. This would be the model scheduled to follow the now (not to mention then) old i3 city car.
The iX3 will apparently be joined by another EV wearing the BMW badge the same year. According to Kruger, the second one will be based on the i Vision Dynamics Concept introduced at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show, which, if you consider everything the company has said about its electric vehicles ambitions, is a bit confusing.
The BMW i Vision Dynamics Concept was a very futuristic-looking sedan that, visually speaking, had very little in common with the current range of vehicles. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, except BMW said it would not produce separate designs for its ICE and electric vehicles, opting instead for a platform that can accommodate both without the need to modify the body.
Well, whether BMW will make an exception for the production version of the i Vision Concept (fingers crossed) or its powertrain will be slotted under the beautiful but not spectacular body of a 5 or 7 Series remains to be seen. We're definitely hoping for the former, and BMW must realize that even with this strategy, it still needs a zero-emissions halo car to help make this type of propulsion more visible.
However, the best thing about Kruger's EV logorrhea when talking to AutoExpress is that he mentioned the maximum range these vehicles would be able to achieve, and we're talking about anything between 340 and 435 miles (550 to 700 km). The best you can get today is a Tesla Model S 100D which as an EPA-rated range of 335 miles (540 km), which is pretty far behind BMW's promises.
The only problem here is that we're comparing apples to oranges (or facts to promises). If we were to bring this parallel to a common denominator we'd have to be speaking about Tesla's Roadster II and its 667-miles (1,000 km) maximum range, also scheduled for a 2020ish release. Still, 435 miles would be a great achievement for BMW, assuming it can maintain a competitive price as well.
The iX3 will apparently be joined by another EV wearing the BMW badge the same year. According to Kruger, the second one will be based on the i Vision Dynamics Concept introduced at last year's Frankfurt Motor Show, which, if you consider everything the company has said about its electric vehicles ambitions, is a bit confusing.
The BMW i Vision Dynamics Concept was a very futuristic-looking sedan that, visually speaking, had very little in common with the current range of vehicles. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, except BMW said it would not produce separate designs for its ICE and electric vehicles, opting instead for a platform that can accommodate both without the need to modify the body.
Well, whether BMW will make an exception for the production version of the i Vision Concept (fingers crossed) or its powertrain will be slotted under the beautiful but not spectacular body of a 5 or 7 Series remains to be seen. We're definitely hoping for the former, and BMW must realize that even with this strategy, it still needs a zero-emissions halo car to help make this type of propulsion more visible.
However, the best thing about Kruger's EV logorrhea when talking to AutoExpress is that he mentioned the maximum range these vehicles would be able to achieve, and we're talking about anything between 340 and 435 miles (550 to 700 km). The best you can get today is a Tesla Model S 100D which as an EPA-rated range of 335 miles (540 km), which is pretty far behind BMW's promises.
The only problem here is that we're comparing apples to oranges (or facts to promises). If we were to bring this parallel to a common denominator we'd have to be speaking about Tesla's Roadster II and its 667-miles (1,000 km) maximum range, also scheduled for a 2020ish release. Still, 435 miles would be a great achievement for BMW, assuming it can maintain a competitive price as well.
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