http://timesfreepress.com/news/2014/sep/27/bmw-i3-zippy-and-thrifty/ TEST DRIVE: BMW i3: zippy and thrifty September 27th, 2014 by Mark Kennedy
[image http://media.timesfreepress.com/img/photos/2014/09/26/0927_WEB_c_Test_Drive_t618.JPG The new BMW i3 electric vehicle is said to save owners about $9,000 in fuel costs in the first five years of ownership. Photo by Mark Kennedy. ] Remember back in 2000 how the Toyota Prius [hev] was something of an odd duck? It was hard to know what to make of the Japanese gas-electric hybrid and its otherworldly (for the time) fuel efficiency. In 2000, Toyota sold about 5,000 of the funky Priuses here in the states. Today, the Prius is a solidly mainstream automobile selling about 140,000 units a year in the United States alone. Meanwhile, I have a premonition that today's new wave of plug-in electric cars, such as groundbreaking Tesla Model S and the cute-as-a-button BMW i3, may represent the world's next red-hot automotive segment. This week I drove the 2014 BMW i3, a zippy little electric car that, to the naked eye, could be mistaken for the offspring of a VW Beetle and a golf cart. But the i3 is much more than a novelty product. It's a world class EV with solid driving dynamics and a host of earth-friendly design elements. Descriptions of the i3 include adjectives you don't often associate with automobiles: words like "sustainable," "emissions-free" and "silent." Some people may see the i3 and think green. Others look at its 137 MPGe city rating and see greenbacks. By the way, that 137 MPGe rating means its efficiency is the equivalent of getting 137 miles per gallon of gasoline. Not too shabby, huh? Here's an interesting fact: Were you to buy an i3 and drive it for 10 years as a daily commuter, you'd save approximately $18,000 in fuel costs over the average new car, the government estimates. The i3 is said to be the most energy-efficient car sold in America today. Its range between electric charges is about 80 miles, which can be lengthened to about 150 miles with an optional range extender ($3,950) -- an on-board gasoline-powered motorcycle engine that recharges the drive battery. Our test car this week, a 2014 i3 provided by BMW of Chattanooga, comes in Mega World trim and stickers for $48,895. Before any options, the i3 starts at about $42,000. STYLING AND COMFORT For those used to BMW's elegantly sporty styling, the i3 is a bit of a departure. Proportioned like the city car it is, the i3 has a blunt nose, a two-tone paint job, and body lines that take a moment for the brain to process. For example, the doors open and shut in clam-shell fashion -- the rear-seat doors open from front to back instead of from back to front. The window line dips sharply below the back seats to improve rear-passenger vision. The overall design is eye-catching. On our test-drive on Highway 153, several rubber-neckers attached to our left-rear blind spot to check out the i3. You could almost see their jaws drop when we goosed the electric motor and the little hatch-back shot ahead like some sort of Star Wars go-cart. The combination of a black hood, a black lift-gate and darkly tinted windows give the i3 the appearance of wearing a large, black belt. Narrow wheels help eliminate rolling resistance and contribute to the i3's astonishing fuel efficiency. Inside, the i3 is an environmentalist's dream. Portions of the dash and door panels are made of recycled materials. Weight is reduced by combining a welded-aluminum chassis with many carbon-fiber body parts. If you haven't noticed, carbon fiber, the super light-weight composite material, is the gold-leaf of the 21st century car-maker's craft. On most new cars the carbon-fiber accents are fake. Not so on the i3. Seats are firm and supportive and sight lines are generous. The dash architecture is full of peaks and valleys with two display screens for gauges and telematics functions. If you go out for a test drive, BMW Chattanooga tech specialist Aaron Gentry will be happy to show you the ropes. The i3 comes in three trim levels: Mega World, Gia World and Terra World. Our Mega World (base) trim test car is painted Capparis White and Frozen Black on the outside with Carum Spice Gray seats inside. The main options on our test car were 20-inch sport wheels ($1,300), heated front seats ($350), DC fast charging connections ($700), and a Harman Kardon premium sound system ($800). The $2,500 Driving Assist Package combines navigation with a few other tech features such as a BMW online apps package. DRIVING AND COMFORT You might assume that a car with this much fuel-efficiency would be rather dull in the driving department. But you would be wrong. The i3 can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 6.5 seconds -- for those of you from the muscle car-generation (like me) that's the same as a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302. My favorite i3 performance spec, though, is the time it takes to go from 30 mph to 50 mph -- a mere 2.3 seconds. That's crazy quick (and fun). Lift your right foot off the accelerator and the i3 virtually brakes itself -- an odd sensation that leads to a lot of single-leg driving. There's a brake pedal, of course, for the times when you need to stop on a dime. It takes about 3.5 hours to charge the i3's Samsung lithium-ion battery using an optional wall-mounted home charging station -- a wise upgrade. Unless you're an urban-dweller with short commutes, the range extender gasoline engine also makes i3 a much more versatile vehicle. It holds just under two gallons of gasoline, but effectively doubles the car's range. The Samsung battery is rated a 170 horsepower, and transfers power to the back wheels almost silently through a single-speed, direct-drive transmission. The aluminum chassis and carbon fiber hatch combine to keep the curb weight at a low 2,853 pounds, which makes the i3 handle like a dream. The drive battery has an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty. BOTTOM LINE The bottom line on the i3 reads like this: fun, fuel efficient and earth-friendly. The price of admission is helped by massive fuel cost savings and available federal tax credits on some i3's with range extenders. If you're in the market for an electric vehicle, you can't go wrong by being an early adopter of BMW's cute and competent i3. 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