After Cornering Tesla, BMW Is Going For The Kill

Those who sacrifice substance for image are known to have a poor "self image" issue.

There are those who but a ten year old Corvette, BMW or a Porsche with high maintenance and reliability issues, when they can buy a brand new reliable car.

Good "self image" and self worth comes from within, NOT from others.

If your self worth depends on the unreliability of someone else's opinion of your worth, then you are poorly mistaken.

Ill treatment of others is a sign of weakness; NOT strength. Kindness is.

 

Wait a minute...that sounds like /some/ Prius owners.

 

When I got my Prius"v" in early 2012, I hated the extra attention hat I got.

Now, with so many Priii out there, I don't see any extra attention.

Unfortunately, too many of those who have very little extra money and perceived social standing are ready to spend that money for vanity license plates.

For me, I wish I could show a "blank" or no license pate and get absolutely NO extra attention.

The first thing I did was to remove the dealer "free advertising" sticker and its accompanying license plate frame.

 

That is one way it could play out. Tesla has been making improvements to the S as they go along. They do offer a battery upgrade for the Roadster. So the S of today won't be exactly what the i5 is competing with when it arrives, and the Roadster upgrade shows that Tesla isn't telling their current customers that they necessarily have to buy a whole new car to get improved performance.

That said, I think the i5 can take back some lost car sales from the S, but BMW will lose SUV ones to the X.

Another is that there won't be much direct competition at all. It's a PHV v. a BEV. Those two compete down in the lower price segment(Volt v. Leaf) because the EV ranges there require an analysis of the individual's driving pattern to determine if the BEV can meet those needs. The BEV will lose sales to the PHV simply for not having enough juice to kept where they need to go. The Model S on the other hand has plenty of EV range. Even in winter the 60 has over 100 miles on a charge. Then there is access to the Superchargers for long trips. Those buyers that can afford these cars, and want to ditch petroleum fuel, don't have to make the level of sacrifices that a Leaf owner does in order to do.

So the usual benefits of a PHV over a BEV aren't going the be as big between the S and this i5. People that will pick the i5 over the S will do so because of aesthetics than the limits of BEVs v PHVs. Most choosing the i5, I think, will be traditional BMW buyers taking advantage of the tax credit.

I am curious about BMW's progress in lowering the cost of carbon fiber in these cars.

The criticism of the i3 REx performance may not be BMW's fault. In order to satisfy CARB and have it qualify for ZEV credits, BMW had to limit the range extender to coming on only when the battery was low on charge. The European models don't have this limit, and the driver can choose to engage the range extender whenever they want. I don't know how much that will help in terms of mountain passes, but it will do better.

 

my question is, do bmw ev's capture any bmw drivers attention?

 

The 3 series are great handling cars. The top of the 3 line, the M3 always comes out as the best handling car with a usable back seat. Nix the usable backseat and others handle better. BMWs other cars don't handle as well as the 3 series, but I bet that much more expensive i8 might ;-)
The Best-Handling Car in America for Less Than $100,000 Comparison Tests - Page 5 - Car and Driver

Drive a 3 series and you get close to a porsche in handling, which is incredible for a very usable 4 door sedan. BMW does have high mainenance costs for older cars, and are expensive upfront. That is why tesla is targeting the 3 series with its high volume model 3.

BMW though has excellent engineers, and I think they can increase market share by bring a 3 series phev which is due out soon.
2016 BMW 3 Series eDrive PHEV Review
I don't think it will be great in the first model, but perhaps 7 years from now they can have a really great model 3 like phev designed from the ground up as a blended phev sports sedan. That phev along with a model 3 bev, could both grow sports sedan market share (eating into traditional mid sized sales), but make most future daily driver premium midsize sedans plug-in.

 

AutoWeek Review Rips BMW i3 To Shreds

 

Maybe . . . but only if it's the i8;



I might not mind looking like an arrogant - rude - self entitled - mid-life crisis s.o.b. if I was driving one of these eco-bad boys. does that make me shallow?

.

 

Go chase down a BMW forum for their i3, read and form your own opinion.

Owned only one, a 1970 2002A which I considered a fine car and she thought always in the shop. She didn't appreciate the reason it was in the shop were upgrades I was having done. She barely maintained her rustbucket Ford Falcon.

 

no more than usual...

 

If you can afford this...who cares.

 

Mixing personal social opinion into car talk is gregarious

Wife's got an X1 in the driveway, very steep hills on a very back road at 1480' in the NE, it rocks, 7" of clearence 32mpg, all wheel drive(4 studded nokians), thinking of getting another. For me...

Audi, great finish, soft ride
Mercedes, great reliability, soft ride

 

So, regular ICE BMWs are not that reliable, how about a more complicated plug-in hybrid?

 

You would think less parts mean BMW can screw up less. i3 owners are having issues, and switched to Rav4ev. Rav4ev is not the model of good quality. But former i3 owners raved about Rav4ev quality. hahaha.

Most of the BMW EVs have problems what Tesla has with the drive motor. Except their failure are way worse than Tesla.

Now thinking back, the Rav4ev version 1 has owners still running around with original everything. Why can't car makers do that any more?

 

because the best one doesn't make ev's anymore.

 

Looking for an Ev to compare BMW i3? Compare Side-by-Side

Review: 2015 Kia Soul EV