RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Tom Harrison
EV tech has moved on a great deal since 2013, when BMW introduced its rather excellent i3. Back then, the 22.6kWh, 60Ah battery meant it could only do around 80 miles on a charge. Maybe 100, if you switched the air-con off and at no point exceeded 40mph. Good enough by the standards of the day, but not really acceptable in 2018. Today"s Nissan Leaf has a 40kWh battery and a 168-mile range, remember. Good news, then, that BMW has just given the i3 a bit of an update. Besides new optional equipment and interior/exterior colour schemes, it"s fitted a brand-new lithium-ion battery with more than double the usable energy capacity of the original, but the same physucal dimensions. That means 192-miles of range from 42.2kWh, or 120Ah in the standard i3, and 177-miles for the quicker i3S a massive increase over the 2013 originals, and a 30 per cent increase over the 33kW, 94Ah models introduced just last year.
Date written: 28 Sep 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 13489
EV tech has moved on a great deal since 2013, when BMW introduced its rather excellent i3. Back then, the 22.6kWh, 60Ah battery meant it could only do around 80 miles on a charge. Maybe 100, if you switched the air-con off and at no point exceeded 40mph. Good enough by the standards of the day, but not really acceptable in 2018. Today"s Nissan Leaf has a 40kWh battery and a 168-mile range, remember. Good news, then, that BMW has just given the i3 a bit of an update. Besides new optional equipment and interior/exterior colour schemes, it"s fitted a brand-new lithium-ion battery with more than double the usable energy capacity of the original, but the same physucal dimensions. That means 192-miles of range from 42.2kWh, or 120Ah in the standard i3, and 177-miles for the quicker i3S a massive increase over the 2013 originals, and a 30 per cent increase over the 33kW, 94Ah models introduced just last year.
Date written: 28 Sep 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 13489
