BMW i3

This is an exciting time for electric car enthusiasts. From just a handful of choices only a few years ago, buyers in some states now have access to as many as a dozen different plug-in vehicles. It's set to get even better--over the course of the next few years, another six electric vehicles are...

The upcoming 2014 BMW i3 electric car is generating a lot of quiet excitement--especially for its optional "ReX" range extender, a tiny two-cylinder engine that fits under the rear deck to power a generator. The i3 will be only the third high-volume dedicated battery electric car on the market...

Rightly or wrongly, many potential electric car owners are a little put off by the fear of occasionally running out of electricity before their destination--a condition termed "range anxiety". In reality, it's something that existing electric car owners grow out of, once they're used to their...

With the 2014 BMW i3 electric car launch getting closer, the rumor mill is heating up. BMW will unveil its first production battery electric car at this fall's Frankfurt Motor Show, after showing a number of concept cars in both four-door and coupe forms. It has already given rides in BMW i3 test...

Two of the most exciting electric vehicles due over the next few years both originate from German automaker, BMW. The i3 city car and i8 sports car are both clean-sheet designs, developed from the ground up as plug-in vehicles. With carbon-fiber chassis, purpose-designed interiors and unique...

If you're a fan of electric cars, there's a fair chance BMW's i3 urban electric car is one of the vehicles you're most looking forward to in 2013. When it goes on sale in the fourth quarter of 2013, it's set to be one of the most advanced vehicles on the road--not least for its lightweight...

Which car are you most excited about for 2013? If the BMW i3 electric car isn't near the top of the list, we'd be surprised. Its bare figures may not be headline-grabbing, but on design alone it makes even BMW's current production cars look a bit half-hearted. You can see this better than ever...

Think BMW, and your first thoughts may turn to sports sedans, luxury cars and sports cars. None are known for being particularly green, but BMW is set to change that when it launches the i3 electric compact car, and the upcoming i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. In fact, BMW has been developing...

BMW is committed to creating a full line of electric and advanced plug-in hybrid models—so much so that it's establishing them apart from BMW (and MINI), as an 'i' sub-brand, revolving in part around the idea that 'premium' and 'sustainable' aren't mutually exclusive. But design will have to...

Automakers don't give up profits easily. So when one of the world's most profitable, BMW, commits to building a range of electric vehicles, they have to be taken seriously. BMW Chairman Dr. Norbert Reithofer has reaffirmed this commitment during a recent teleconference. "We consider electric...

Just how do you keep occupants of an electric car warm? That’s the question that automakers have been tackling for many years, as they bring mass-produced plug-in cars to market. Now BMW thinks it has the solution to keeping occupants warm in the middle of winter: infrared heating. The use of...

If you're selling a futuristic vehicle, why not sell it using futuristic means? That's the strategy BMW is looking to take with its i3 and i8 plug-in cars, when both go on sale in Europe in a few years time. The German automaker may well have just opened a specialised showroom for the cars in...

If you’ve ever visited central London in England and visited its famous Hyde Park, the chances are you’ve also seen one of BMW’s most prestigious showrooms, located along the highly-expensive and exclusive Park Lane. Now, weeks ahead of the BMW-sponsored 2012 London Olympic games...

Put most people behind the wheel of an electric car, and you can guarantee one of the first things they'll talk about is the silence. Unfortunately, that silence has led some legislators to require EVs to emit a sound in order to warn pedestrians of their presence, stifling one of the genre's...

Last week, we were 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, putting the Volvo C30 electric through its paces. But we weren’t the only people driving electric cars in the Arctic Circle as our colleagues over at Motor Authority found out earlier today. As our own Viknesh Vijayenthiran reports...

If you’ve ever wondered why BMW’s upcoming 2014 all-electric i3 mini car and 2014 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car are numbered the way they are, it’s because BMW plans to fill in the gaps with other plug-in models in future years. We all know that the BMW i3 and i8 are due in...

We’re less than a week away from the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and that means automakers are eagerly dropping hints about what we’ll be seeing next week. For BMW, that means posting six screenshots from its unreleased iOS smartphone application for the 2013...

At the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show, BMW introduced its press conference with a preview of the next installment of the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie series. BMW features prominently in this production, with its plug-in hybrid supercar i8 as one of the team’s advanced tools. The movie's...

Yesterday afternoon, BMW hosted a Special Sneak Peek Preview Event of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 concept electric cars in New York. Both cars will make their official U.S. debut at next week's Los Angeles Auto Show. After an hour-long photo session, we were addressed by Richard Kim, exterior designer...

The world of car-branded merchandise has resulted in some unusual items in the past. Ferrari, for instance is well known for its scarlet-clad teddy bears and a hugely expensive carbon fiber measuring stick. On the other hand, Porsche Design, a company affiliated with the sports car maker, makes...