BMW's i3 city car spied testing

The Sneak peek

We got the first sneak peak in Scandinavia where BMW was doing some filming for its new "Born Electric" campaign and what a delight it is! With a distinctive body shape with short front and rear overhangs, a raised body and a narrow, low rolling resistance tyres, the first look is impressive.

bmw i3 2 37497

With an innovative new rear-wheel drive architecture, an aluminium chassis houses the powertrain, with lightweight but strong carbon fibre-reinforced plastic for the passenger cells. It will go on sale in 2013, it has targets of a range of around 100 miles and a 0-62mph time of 10 seconds.

The i3 car will be assembled at BMW’s Leipzig plant in Germany –along with an i8 supercar. The firm has invested £336million in the i8, allowing component crossover for the electric motors and batteries, cutting costs significantly.

One can look forward to the first public outing of the new i3 at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, due to kick off July 27, 2012, though we can expect to see more concepts and near-production versions at the intervening autoshows.

First take

Compared to other BMW models, this one looks different. The spindly, protruding LED tail lights are note-worthy while the similarly small front lights may actually be little more than beefed-up fog lights used for testing purposes, with the full headlight units to be mounted higher up the nose.

Speculations

Behind the façade there is a blue-rimmed version of the trademark kidney grille and for better aerodynamics, large but narrow wheels have been incorporated. It also has a ‘stream-flow’ C-pillar design which supersedes the Hofmeister kink.

The rumor mill

This vehicle created uproars all over the web. So, let's take a quick look at the opinions expressed by the reputed blogs from the web.

Autoexpress says:

The venture capital company is planning to allow the use of BMW Group’s wealth of resources, while also allowing the ‘i’ firm to make faster investment decisions as technology progresses.

Lastautonews avers:

BMW’s i3 city car spied. Our photographers grab the world first pictures of BMW’s new electric city car.

Motorauthority

BMW's new i sub-brand is "innovative, integrated and inspiring” and the company already has a range of vehicles planned, including the i8, based on the Vision Efficient Dynamics concept, and the vehicle spied here for the first time: the i3, previously known as the Mega City Vehicle.

Picture Gallery

BMW M3

BMW M3