Being of the most luxurious and sought after brands, BMW has introduced a lot of high quality, high-performance luxury sports cars. However, their steps to move into the electric vehicle industry may not be well lit as 2015 sales of the all-electric BMW i3 only reached 25,000. Unofficial reports claim that BMW may be doing a refresh of the i3, which is set to unveil by mid or late 2017.
A Refreshed BMW i3
According to German weekly newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, BMW will have rework done to the i3. The refresh should give the electric car a new look by having both the front and rear ends replaced with a new design. The company is hoping to increase the battery range as well as their current i3 only have 114 miles of range. A battery range extender will be added to increase the current one up to an 180-mile range.
The i3 Compared To The Model S and The Bolt EV
Comparing the BMW i3 to the Tesla Model S, the latter is already running on a new type of battery that lets it have a 300-mile range on a single charge. A range that is already more than double the current range of the i3 and is still much better than the new goal of BMW to increase to 180 miles. The rear wheel drive version of the Model S will cost about $68,000 dollars and $1200 dollars for destination fee, while the i3 with range extender is rumored to be priced at $47,450, not including destination and handling fees.
The BMW i3 is also being compared to the Chevy Bolt EV, which was named car of the year by Motor Trend. The current Bolt EV still leads in terms of range as it can go up to 238 miles of range. Bolt's current range is still far beyond what BMW is promising to offer, and Chevy's electric vehicle still clearly wins with a price of only $29,995 dollars. Although no press release have been made yet by BMW, the German automaker needs to be more competitive with the leading manufacturers if they want to succeed in the electric vehicle industry.
