Official BMW i3 thread

[TomMoloughney]

EVnow: It's definitely not as wide as the 79" that the original press info indicated. BMW still hasn't released the official dimensions and probably won't till they show the final production version (I'm guessing in the spring). I did however measure the concept i3 and came up with about 70-71".

Surfingslovak: I took a close up of the front tire and they were definitely 155/60 R20. I didn't think to look at the rear tires. I'm pretty sure this is a concept only thing just for looks but who knows?

 

[surfingslovak]

I took a close up of the front tire and they were definitely 155/60 R20. I didn't think to look at the rear tires. I'm pretty sure this is a concept only thing just for looks but who knows?

Right, they probably just did that on this show car. The front tire photo is a bit blurry, but it seems to have 155/60 R20, just like you said. Meanwhile, the rear tire is clearly 175/55 R20. I will sift through my photos later, and I'm hoping that Boomer might have taken some today as well.

 

[surfingslovak]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GkgRE3cDFI[/youtube]

On an unrelated note, Todd Crook posted his observations on the size and dimensions of the i3 yesterday:

For those wondering, here are the exterior dimensions of the Coupe and ActiveE. Despite the shorter length of the Coupe, the interior space appears to be way more spacious due to the flat floor, 5" inch extra height and the overall design.

Coupe:
156" Long
69" wide
61" tall

ActiveE:
172" Long
69" wide
56" tall

Click to open

 

[evnow]

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/bmw-i3-electric-city-car-concept-news" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While BMW claims the extender doubles the i3’s range to about 190 miles, thus eliminating range anxiety from the electric-car equation, it also eliminates some practicality as the engine, generator, and fuel tank reduce the seven-cubic-foot cargo space to something far less useful.

Mitsu i has a 13 cu ft trunc.

 

[TomMoloughney]

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/bmw-i3-electric-city-car-concept-news

While BMW claims the extender doubles the i3’s range to about 190 miles, thus eliminating range anxiety from the electric-car equation, it also eliminates some practicality as the engine, generator, and fuel tank reduce the seven-cubic-foot cargo space to something far less useful.

Mitsu i has a 13 cu ft trunc.

Yes, it doesn't have a large hatchback area unless you fold the seats down, only ~ 7cu-ft. There is a front trunk also, but again it's small and can only hold about one grocery-bag sized item. I don't think C&D has anything to substantiate that the addition of the REx will impact the current cargo capacity though. FWIW I don't expect it to, unless it uses some of the small area in the front trunk.

 

[evnow]

Yes, it doesn't have a large hatchback area unless you fold the seats down, only ~ 7cu-ft. There is a front trunk also, but again it's small and can only hold about one grocery-bag sized item. I don't think C&D has anything to substantiate that the addition of the REx will impact the current cargo capacity though. FWIW I don't expect it to, unless it uses some of the small area in the front trunk.

Yes - since i3 has some space in the front, it makes sense to use that rather than the already small trunk space. They do need some small space for the gas tank, which should go under the floor somewhere.

But, I've to say i3 as a car for my wife is probably a non-starter given how small the trunk space is. We have found that the Leaf trunk is the smallest we can live with. It needs to take the stroller and some space for grocery & water. Even with Leaf sometimes, I've to put the stroller in the back seat.

So, I'm back to looking for a different car for her - and i3 as an option for me in a year or so.

 

[MrIanB]

The i3 is on my top 3 list when my Leaf lease ends and I give it back. Infiniti LE is second on my list depending on range and Tesla at number 1 slot depending on lease rates at that point. If none of these fit my needs, an Audi A6 will be next.

Ian B

 

[surfingslovak]

Has anyone noticed how similar the i3 Coupé looked to the E1? It's funny how they would use almost the same exact paint color. History tends to repeat itself. There seem to be quite a few parallels between the Leaf and the Altra too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKjBr-QXWaI[/youtube]

I don't think C&D has anything to substantiate that the addition of the REx will impact the current cargo capacity though. FWIW I don't expect it to, unless it uses some of the small area in the front trunk.

Yes - since i3 has some space in the front, it makes sense to use that rather than the already small trunk space. They do need some small space for the gas tank, which should go under the floor somewhere.

Do you suppose that they would put the range extender in the area below the trunk floor, next to the motor and inverter module or is this space earmarked for the onboard charger. Perhaps it would be an integrated unit then? Wonder where the gas tank would go though.

 

[TomMoloughney]

Do you suppose that they would put the range extender in the area below the trunk floor, next to the motor and inverter module or is this space earmarked for the onboard charger. Perhaps it would be an integrated unit then? Wonder where the gas tank would go though.

Yes, that's my bet as there is plenty of room there. Since the gas tank is going to be very small, like 2 -2.5 gallon it can really fit into a lot of places. BMW could also fit the engine into the front trunk area, eliminating that as storage if they wanted to and put the gas tank next to the e-motor as seen in the photo. Keeping a near 50/50 weight distribution will probably factor into the decision.

 

[TomMoloughney]

A better view of the space next to the motor and power electronics:

 

[scottf200]

Yes, that's my bet as there is plenty of room there. Since the gas tank is going to be very small, like 2 -2.5 gallon it can really fit into a lot of places.

I didn't realize it was that small. Clever. I only put $10 at a time in my Volt so about the same amount of gas. Generally I only need a little extra gas on my farther days or cold winter days (40EV+80+gas=120+miles). I've taken a few road trips lately so obviously use more than 2.5 gallons on occasion.

 

[evnow]

Using i3 with REx will be interesting. You have to stop every hour or so and fill up. Almost like Leaf, except the fill up is fast & the stations are plenty.

 

[surfingslovak]

[Yes, it doesn't have a large hatchback area unless you fold the seats down, only ~ 7cu-ft. There is a front trunk also, but again it's small and can only hold about one grocery-bag sized item. I don't think C&D has anything to substantiate that the addition of the REx will impact the current cargo capacity though. FWIW I don't expect it to, unless it uses some of the small area in the front trunk.

I came across a photo from the older concept car, which corroborates what Tom said above. The trunk space might be perhaps 2/3 or 3/4 of what's available in 2011/12 Leafs. To be clear, the space behind the Leaf's backseat is rated 10.6 cubic feet using a German measurement method; the U.S.-standard Society of Automotive Engineers method is typically about 15 percent greater, which would give the Leaf an estimated 12.2-cubic-foot rating. The Volt has 10.6 cubic feet by the SAE standard. That's all I could find on the rear trunk space. I haven't seen a picture of i3's front trunk anywhere. Is there one?

i3 Coupé:
--------
156" long
69" wide
61" tall

LEAF
--------
175" long
70" wide 
61" tall

ActiveE:
--------
172" long
69" wide
56" tall

MINI-E
--------
146" long
66" wide
55" tall

Click to open

 

[evnow]

I came across a photo from the older concept car, which corroborates what Tom said above. The trunk space might be perhaps 2/3 or 3/4 of what's available in 2011/12 Leafs. To be clear, the space behind the Leaf's backseat is rated 10.6 cubic feet using a German measurement method; the U.S.-standard Society of Automotive Engineers method is typically about 15 percent greater, which would give the Leaf an estimated 12.2-cubic-foot rating. The Volt has 10.6 cubic feet by the SAE standard. That's all I could find on the rear trunk space. I haven't seen a picture of i3's front trunk anywhere. Is there one?

What is the difference between SAE & EPA methods ? EPA rates Leas as 20 + cu ft.

 

[surfingslovak]

]EPA rates Leas as 20 + cu ft.

Isn't that with folded rear seats? Not sure about about the difference in EPA vs SAE rating, I will try to find out more.

330 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 12 cu ft (2012)
370 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 13 cu ft (2013)

 

[evnow]

]EPA rates Leas as 20 + cu ft.

Isn't that with folded rear seats? Not sure about about the difference in EPA vs SAE rating, I will try to find out more.

330 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 12 cu ft (2012)
370 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 13 cu ft (2013)

No, EPA number is behind 2nd row of seats.

I wonder if the cargo cover is the culprit.

 

[surfingslovak]

EPA rates Leas as 20 + cu ft.

Isn't that with folded rear seats? Not sure about about the difference in EPA vs SAE rating, I will try to find out more.

330 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 12 cu ft (2012)
370 L / 28.31 L/cu ft = 13 cu ft (2013)

No, EPA number is behind 2nd row of seats.

I wonder if the cargo cover is the culprit.

Here is the official number for the Leaf from Nissan's US website, which states that it had 14.5 cubic feet of luggage space. This is with the rear seats up. I found another reference, which has 24 cubic feet of cargo space with rear seats down. I hope this settles it.

I looked up how trunk space is calculated in the US and in Germany, and the current standards seem to be both perplexing and archaic. There are definitely different methods for this across the globe, which might help explain why different numbers are being thrown around by car manufacturers for the same vehicle. That said, you might enjoy reading this. The current regulatory situation apparently provided more than enough material for a PhD thesis. I'm not even kidding!

New car buying decisions more often than not factor in the capacity of the luggage compartment. Using modern CAD systems, it's only possible to compute continuous volume. However, customers typically like to pack a few bulky objects, such as suitcases or bottle crates, into the trunk compartment. For this issue there are two different standards used to compute usable trunk volume.

In Germany, and the rest of the EU, DIN 70020 is used. It utilizes small boxes sized 200 x 100 x 50 mm, and the requirement is to pack as many boxes as possible into the cargo space. In the US, SAE J1100 is used. This standard asks that boxes of several types and sizes are to be packed. In contrast to the continuous volume computation, this represents an NP-hard problem.

Until recently, car manufacturers used CAD systems to compute trunk space manually, which with time-consuming and inefficient. Trunk capacity is determined very late during the car design process. If it was known earlier in the car design process, this data could be used to adapt the design, and facilitate more efficient space utilization.

In this dissertation we present new algorithms to compute valid trunk dimension according to the US standard SAE J1100. We developed a software package, which can handle these three-dimensional problems. This software can process CAD input data and computes packings according to the standards mentioned above efficiently. As well, we integrated an algorithm topack arbitrary geometries into the trunk.

The algorithm is graph-based, and produces maximum weighted independent sets on a so-called conflict graph. This graph can be derived froma grid discretisation of the trunk space. We present a framework to eliminate a large portion of the vertices of a graph without affecting the quality of the optimal solution.

Click to open

 

[evnow]

Here is the official number for the Leaf from Nissan's US website, which states that is had 14.5 cubic feet of luggage space. This is with the rear seats up. I found another reference, which has 24 cubic feet of cargo space with rear seats down. I hope this settles it.

Thanks for the desertation link.

This is what EPA says : 23.2 cu ft.

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Detailsresult.do?vehicle_ID=153381" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


And the explanantion for the luggage space is ...

For cars, this is trunk luggage volume. For hatchbacks and station wagons, this is the luggage volume behind the 2nd row of seats. (Ref SAE J1100) .

 

[surfingslovak]

This is what EPA says : 23.2 cu ft.

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Detailsresult.do?vehicle_ID=153381" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That is indeed very interesting. I found the reference for 24 cubic feet with rear seats down. It's on Nissan's US website. I looked at several other vehicles on the EPA site you referenced above, and their numbers were rarely in agreement with manufacturer data. That's very surprising, since SAE J1100 should be used for all officially reported numbers in the US.

I don't know what to think of this, and how one can arrive at such different results. The EPA has the Versa at 15 cubic feet, and the Leaf at 23.2. That's about 50% difference. Meanwhile Nissan lists both the Leaf and the Versa at about 14 cubic feet, with only 5% difference between the two.

Be that as it may, I would fully expect to hear different cargo space numbers for the i3, depending on the market and method used to measure it. Since we know now that it's not the continuous volume, but the combined volume of a number of boxes with certain dimensions that counts, perhaps it's worth taking all this with a grain of salt.

Please have a look at the photos below. I could be wrong, but I believe that the i3 will be fairly close to the Volt in terms of luggage space.


2012 Leaf

2012 Versa

2012 Volt

 

[TomMoloughney]

WorldCarFans.com captured the first pictures of an i3 with the range extender option. It also appears to be in production trim besides the wheels: