autoevolution
 

The 2017 BMW i3 Will Have Better Range and Other Upgrades

In a recent interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Ian Robertson, BMW AG board member for sales and marketing, revealed that the 2017 i3 would come with an improved lithium-ion battery pack, which will make it possible for the car to have a better range, 50 percent more than the current one.
BMW i3 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
The official didn’t give exact figures, but 50 percent means somewhere around 120 miles (around 200 km) on a single charge compared to the current 81.

Thanks to this modification, the i3 will have a better range than Nissan Leaf’s 107 miles (172 km), but wouldn’t come nowhere near the 200 miles (322 km) of the upcoming Chevrolet Bolt, launched at CES 2016.

Bolt’s incredible range is due to a new cell and battery pack developed by the American engineers together with those from LG Electronics. The battery system includes a 60 kWh battery pack, 288 lithium ion cells divided into five sections, ten modules, and 96 cell groups.

The BMW I3 has been available for purchase in the US starting spring of 2014 and is currently listed at $43,350, including shipping. For an extra $3,850 you can have the model with a range extender.

The German carmaker sold 24,057 i3s worldwide last year, 50 percent more than in 2014. In the US, 11,024 cars were sold, and nearly 60 percent of them were with the range extender, as Automotive News reports.

Robertson has also said that the new model will get other improvements, but hasn’t clearly specified what they will consist of, leaving us to make suppositions.

It is a known fact that the German carmaker tends to follow the same pattern while its line-up is concerned, and it launches a facelifted model four years after the original version comes out. Based on this, we are tempted to say that the new i3 will come with a fresh new look and, who knows, maybe with some new technology on the interior, aside from the long-awaited battery improvements.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories