More range, no more money for electric BMW
Thursday, 22 November 2018
In this job you sometimes get the chance to drive a car before literally anybody outside of the company that made it. And sometimes that is very exciting indeed.
And to be completely honest about it - I actually couldn't care less.
While some might like to slather a shouty and excitable 'WORLD EXCLUSIVE' exclamations all over any resulting articles or reports, all it really means to my slightly cynical world-view is an exclusive chance to do something embarrassingly stupid in a car which, while potentially amusing in a social media sense, isn't all that appealing.
But this was different - on a recent trip to drive the all-new BMW 3 Series that we aren't allowed to tell you about yet (big international launches can take place over a number of weeks, so have embargos to be fair to everybody) I had such an opportunity - a world-exclusive first drive of a car no-one outside BMW had ever driven before. And that car was the new 120Ah version of the BMW i3 BEV.
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So what's so new about it? Well, the 120Ah refers to the new 42.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack that now powers the i3. That's right - our exclusive, world-first drive was essentially of a vehicle with a bigger fuel tank. It's not all Lamborghinis, y'know…
Anyway, the bigger battery rather obviously gives the i3 a bigger range, and that was the thing we wanted to check out, so rather than a quick 45 minute run to the airport from the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (or the Algarve Motorsports Park, more commonly known as Portimao after the Portuguese region it is located in and a none-too-subtle hint about where we drove the new 3 Series) we headed off an a 2 hour-plus blast through the winding hill country of the Algarve that, while not stretching the ultimate range, would certainly give it something to think about.
The i3's range - according to the new WLTP test cycle (and converted back to the previous NEDC figures for easier comparison to the older model) - is 359km, with BMW claiming a 'real world' range of 260km.
This compares to an NEDC figure of 295km for the previous i3 with its 94Ah battery and a real world claim from BMW of 200km. It also represents an effective close-to-doubling of the i3's original range when it was launched in 2013.
Jumping into the slick black-with-blue-highlights i3 at the Portimao circuit saw it showing a distance to empty of 185km and a distance to our destination of around 130km, meaning we had plenty of range without even taking regeneration into account, so the full-throttle take off was a mere indication of what was to come.
One of the biggest changes to the i3 - aside from the larger battery - is the availability of an optional Sports Package that features the 10mm lower suspension, wider wheels and pumped-up wheel arches from the i3s, which was fitted to our test car. A new range of interior trim and exterior colours also mark the i3's refresh, otherwise everything else remains familiar.
As such, the i3's punchy electric pick up is still every bit as smile-inducing and satisfying as it belts off the line producing a nicely sci-fi-ish whine. Likewise the ride remains firm and less than perfectly suited to the rugged and occasionally broken back roads of Portugal.
Apart from the seal, the roads in Portugal are broadly similar to New Zealand B-roads, so it came as no surprise that the i3 felt remarkably similar there. While it is clearly far happier on a smoother city road environment, it still took bumps and surface irregularities largely in its stride, albeit not without the occasional fidgety protest from the rear end.
It must be noted that we were driving the i3 with similar levels of enthusiasm - and some of the same roads - that we had just driven the new 3 Series over, so it should have theoretically been well out of its comfort zone, being a city car.
So what about that range then?
Well, after an initial dropping at basically the same rate that we covered the mileage, the depletion of the battery slowed considerably thanks to the energy recovered from the equally enthusiastic braking and by the time we reached the airport, it was showing a remaining range of 123km after a fast trip that totalled 129.2km, with fractionally under half a charge left.
This is a fairly robust indication that BMW's claim of a 260km range in real world driving would be easily achievable, given that the trip we did (all open road, lots of hills, not being gentle in any way) was well outside where EVs are at their most frugal, as well as being well outside the 'real world' parameters of daily driving.
While an exclusive first drive of a car with a bigger range is hardly earth-shattering, it did certainly show how much more usable and useful the new battery and associated extra range will make the i3 when it arrives here early next year.
BMW New Zealand says prices will remain the same as the current 94Ah i3 ($77,200 for the standard car and $85,900 for the i3s) when it hits our shores, despite the larger battery and the addition of wireless phone charging, adaptive LED headlights and BMW's Professional navigation system (that brings a larger screen and a touchpad on the iDrive controller) as standard.