The BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf are designed to do the same job. But because neither German company built a car like this before, they are engineered completely differently. This next review from a Polish fellow you probably never heard of before will tell you what's what.
You guys might not know this, but there is a huge amount of car reviews on Youtube. Every European country has at least a dozen old "print" magazines and many more "freelance" channels or journalists. In the UK, which is like the reviewer's mecca, even some supercar spotters are asked to test cars by Audi or BMW.
Marek Drives is a surprising addition to my Youtube subscription feed, as both his English and logic are good. The fellow is from Poland and this week he reviewed the BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf, both fully electric vehicles. He got both in a place 300 kilometers from where he lives, considering their range wouldn't allow them to travel that distance without at least one recharge.
But enough about Youtube subscriptions and tricky reviews. What are these two EVs like? Well, the e-Golf is identical in most ways to a conventionally powered car. That's because the MQB platform was engineered to cope with an electric powertrain. The boot is larger than on the i3, and there is also more room inside.
All the controls are laid out in a simple, Golf-life arrangement. The BMW i3, on the other hand, is a space-age marvel. From the recycled materials used to the placement of the gear selector, it's like driving George Jetson's car.
Some might say that the e-Golf is a boring looking car. But when we drove the Renault Zoe around town a few months ago, we discovered most EV customers are in their 50s. For them, a classy Golf is probably better than a posh BMW. Which is not to say that we don't like the i3.
Speaking of the Renault Zoe, that car had a 22 kWh battery, almost the same as the e-Golf. We only managed a little over 100 kilometers, so you shouldn't expect Volkswagen's claimed 200 kilometers to be easily achievable. Still, the e-Golf has more power than the Zoe, and its gearbox allows you to increase or lower the amount of regenerative braking.
It's a neat trick, but the i3 does this better, and it has BMW's typical handling. Light on its feet and with a 170 PS engine place at the back, it will do 100 km/h in only 7.2 seconds. With those numbers, it's hard not to declare it the winner of this test.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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