By: Denis Droppa in Amsterdam
When we wrote around a year ago that the first mass-production electric cars would soon go on sale and would one day change the face of motoring, it provoked an angry letter from one of our readers. How dare we sing the praises of electric cars, he asked, given that they only have about a quarter of the range of a petrol or diesel-powered vehicle.
It’s true, they do, and we said as much in our article, but his reaction underlined the fear and mistrust that accompanies any radical change.
But this much is fact: fossil fuel is finite. One day, if not in our lifetimes, petrol and diesel engines will be but a fond memory as power sources like electricity and hydrogen will turn our wheels.
Electrically-powered cars like the just-launched Nissan Leaf, and the BMW i3 (pictured) which goes on sale in South Africa next September, represent a starting point. Right now they can barely travel 130km on a single charge (or a claimed 160km if you drive with the patience of Ghandi), but by the time the earth’s oil wells run dry one day, their distance between plug-ins will increase greatly as clever scientists invent better batteries.
Is it premature to put electric cars on the market before that day arrives? Perhaps, but companies like BMW, Nissan and VW (among others who are manufacturing electric cars) believe there are early-adopting customers who, like Alice in Wonderland, are ready to leap down this rabbit hole. Although its local launch is still nearly a year away, BMW’s i3 was introduced to the world’s motoring media in Amsterdam, Netherlands, earlier this week, and we got behind the wheel.
WHAT’S IT LIKE THEN?
What gets you is the silence. After a lifetime of driving cars that roar or at least hum when you press the throttle, the total absence of any sound from under the bonnet is at first quite odd, spooky even. All you hear is the background whoosh of the wind and tyres as the BMW i3 tiptoes along like a stalking Ninja.
You quickly get used to it from an acoustic point of view, but you need to be extra careful around pedestrians and cyclists who can’t hear you coming. In certain countries (hopefully in South Africa too, where pedestrians are notoriously inattentive), electric cars will be required to make a noise from external speakers to warn of their approach.
Apart from its lack of sound the i3 doesn’t require any paradigm shift by the driver, and feels more or less like a regular car to drive except for a significant “engine braking” effect when you come off the throttle. This energy-recuperation system decelerates the car so effectively that there’s seldom a need to use the brakes except when coming to a dead stop.
SPARKY PERFORMANCE
There are no unsatisfied power cravings and the battery-powered Beemer is strong and willing, more so than its outputs of 125kW and 250Nm suggest. There’s no lag as electric motors don’t need to be revved, and the instant torque serves up some spirited acceleration and hill-climbing performance.
A super-light bodyshell made of carbonfibre reinforced plastic adds an extra spring to the car’s step, leading to a respectably swift 0-100km/h claimed figure of 7.2 seconds. Top speed’s governed to 150km/h.
Despite looking top-heavy the rear-wheel drive car corners well and the skinny but high-profile tyres (155/70 R19s – try finding those at your local tyre dealer) felt decently grippy on Amsterdam’s rain-soaked roads, and contributed to a fairly comfy ride quality.
The compact, Mini Countryman-sized car has a tight turning circle and a pleasant surprise was that the steering has that typically meaty and responsive BMW feel.
RANGE ANXIETY
Much of the driving time is spent glancing nervously at the range-meter in the digital instrument panel. When I got into a fully-charged test car the meter showed 128km remaining, not the claimed 160km, but the range can increase if you drive like you’re trying to pass your K53 test, or you switch to the most mileage-friendly of the three available modes (which restricts top speed to 90km/h and disables power-sapping features like the aircon and the heated seats).
The range is good enough to cover most people’s daily commute to and from work (and perhaps dropping off the kids at school too), but the i3 is no long-distance car. It can be charged at a regular wall socket where it takes about eight hours to fill the lithium-ion battery pack, or as little as three hours (on a three-phase electrical system) with a fast-charging “i Wallbox” that BMW will supply with the car. Fast-charging stations set up at BMW dealers and a small public network will charge the battery to 80 percent in just 30 minutes.
A smartphone app tells you the charge status of your i3, and allows you to remotely switch on the aircon before you get to the car.
The i3’s styling – both inside and out – is quirky and bears minimal resemblance to BMW’s family tree. It has suicide rear doors which swing backwards and, because there’s no B-pillar, can’t be opened without the front doors being opened first, which is rather impractical.
Inside the cabin you’ll find good head and elbow space but limited rear legroom. The boot’s a fairly decent 260 litres, but there’s no spare wheel. Interior decor sees modern digital screens juxtaposed with rough-grain wood – an effect I kinda like – but the plant fibre material on the dash and doors looks rather cheap.
The million watt question is what it will cost to run an i3.
The price is still to be confirmed but it should be under R480 000 when it arrives here, and even at Eskom’s high tariffs it should cost around R25-R30 to fully charge the car – about a third of what you’d spend on running a petrol or diesel. With the i3’s selling price around 30 percent higher than a regular BMW 1 Series, the break-even point should come at around 50 000km.
Less than 100 BMW i3s will be launched here in the first year so they won’t cause a big drain on our fragile power grid.
The i3 has a much greenter footprint than a combustion-engined car but as electricity is supplied by coal, it can’t be called a zero-emission car. Battery-powered vehicles of the future will need cleaner power stations to make them truly planet-friendly. -Star Motoring