Monday, March 31, 2014

BMW ///M i3: It's Coming - Soon!

A full range of official press photos of this semi-camouflaged Mi3 will be released a couple days before NAIAS in two weeks. This is the only one I was authorized to reveal. About six months ago, Eric Loveday of InsideEVs.com wrote this article that predicted the BMW M performance division won't be making an M version of the upcoming BMW i3 or i8. I've known for a while now that that was not true, but the information I got from BMW was under embargo...

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Bridgestone's "Ologic Technology" and the i3

Much has been made about the tall narrow tires on the BMW i3. They are really unlike any tire on any other car currently in production and they certainly don't look like they belong on a BMW. However BMW and Bridgestone did their homework on this, and accomplished the goals they set out to. That was to develop a tire that is not only efficient, but also delivers the performance expected of any BMW.How did they do it? Ologic technology. Yep, they...

Friday, March 21, 2014

Born Electric Guest Blogger: Meet Ross from The UK

 Ross and his new baby in front of  Chatsworth House, DerbyshireHello, I'm Ross from The UK and I was Born Electric on Saturday, March 1st, 2014.Why an i3?I will start this blog by saying that I am totally obsessed by cars.  I love cars, I always have, and the cars that find their way into our household are usually of the performance variety, ranging from TVRs to Hondas with even the occasional 4x4.  To be perfectly honest, electric...

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Comprehensive i3 Video Review By Nissan LEAF Owner in the UK

It seems that nearly every day now there are new short video clips of i3 reviews posted on YouTube. When I come across one that I feel is done very well, I'll post it here. Such is the case with the above video made by Grant Thomas from the UK. Grant maintains a blog called "The Grant Thomas Blog: Sustainability, Electric Cars & Technology News and Comment" where he posted this i3 video review.Grant owns a Nissan LEAF so he is an experienced electric vehicle owner and in my opinion that gives his review a little more credibility than some others...

Monday, March 10, 2014

Born Electric Guest Blogger: Meet Jon From Norway

So Far we've had Andy from the UK , Hil from Holland , Toni from Belgium, Jan From Belgium, and Steven from the Netherlands.   We'll now be traveling to Norway to see what Jon has to say about his Solar Orange BEV i3. Hello, I'm Jon from Norway and I was Born Electric on February 13th. Until now I’ve been "partly electric" by cycling once a week (not in winter) to work with an electric bike. It's 17km each way and...

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

State of Washington Approves BMW i3 REx For Sales Tax Exemption

A little over a month ago we learned that BMW i3 REx buyers in New Jersey wouldn't have to pay sales tax on the vehicle as the State was including it in the zero emission vehicle tax exemption. That will obviously help i3 REx sales immensely since it will likely save the average i3 REx buyer in New Jersey about $3,500. There was never a question of whether the BEV i3 would be tax exempt, since it is truly a zero emission vehicle, but the i3 REx isn't....

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

BMW i3 Places 2nd in European Car Of The Year Voting

Some say there are no moral victories and if you don't win, well, you just lose. I think that may apply to sports more than in other types of competitions, like say, the European Car Of The Year Award.The BMW i3 finished 2nd to the Peugeot 308, and it was in fact by a substantial margin. However it is worthy of noting that the i3 did finish ahead of the Tesla Model S, which is largely considered the best electric car available. In fact, some automotive...

Saturday, March 1, 2014

An Aerospace Engineer from the UK Compares the i3 and the i3 REx

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4  Lucas flying formation in the CrimeaLukas Willcocks is a member of the BMW i3 Forum and when I noticed that he posted about having the opportunity to take both an i3 and an i3 REx each for 24 hour test drives I asked him if he wanted to offer his thoughts and comparing them here. What I didn't know was that Lukas is an aerospace engineer. A few of my friends...