Bucket Seat: BMW i3 Rex

As a kid, one of my favourite toys was my radio control car which my dad bought me for my 5th birthday. It was a Mercedes Benz 190E, scaled down to detail and one of the very few toys that lasted me a while before being dismantled to take a look at the inner workings of it. It seemed pretty simple, an electrical motor, battery being the key components to make it work. I then wondered why couldn't a normal car be made the same way? It was clearly evident that I wasn't the only one thinking this, there were problems to it though, at the time we didn't have much variety in the battery market with either lead-acid or alkaline on offer, both of  which were too big and weighed a lot. Not to mention the amount of charge either held was no where near enough to power a normal car for a kilometer let along an entire day. 

As time went on, technology evolved and whilst we all had fantasy's of what the future would look like for transport, whether a flying car would be a reality or even worth the effort or will scientist have found a way to teleport beings from one place to another? All that sounded cool but the fact is we're still miles away from inventing them right now and we have to look at what we can do now to improve something that the human race relies on so heavily on a day to day basis. With the increase in oil price and attention being made to pollution, car manufacturers were forced to develop cleaner, greener cars as way to stem away from combustion engines and find a new source of power for them. 

Step in BMW, they launched their electric BMWi range in 2013/14 and I've had the opportunity to drive both the i3 and the i8 during this time. Both of which are fantastic cars but for each one it was a short period so I couldn't really get a sense on how being an owner of such a vehicle would be like. Last week I was spinning around town in the i3 Rex, the Rex being the slightly pricey version which includes a petrol range extension engine should you run out of power in the batteries. My time with the car was nothing short of amazing, the car that BMW have created simply blew me away. 

STYLE

Quite honestly, every time I look at the BMW i3 or the i8 for that matter, I think it looks a decade ahead of its time and I think that's what they were heading for. It is the future of motoring so to capture that they had to break design barriers and create something to catch peoples eye out when it's on the road and boy did I get a lot of stares and pointing as I drove past people. Everything about the design still remains practical and pivotal to the car though, the cars design is to create minimal drag thus use less energy, the large wheels aren't for style either, when breaking the car uses the large brake discs to generate kinetic energy which then recharges the battery. The doors negate the use of a center pillar, hence saving on space as well as weight to the body. The entire car is made from a new weave of carbon fibre created by BMW for extra strength and minimise weight. They now feature this same carbon core for some of their other models in the range. 

PERFORMANCE

When talking performance on an electric car it is difficult because the motor is completely different and the figures it spits out might not seem as impressive as a normal day to day run around but driving it around will prove otherwise. The motor pushes out 125kW and 250 Nm Torque which doesn't raise any eyebrows but because the car only has 1 gear it's take of speed and reaction time is almost triple that of a normal car. On a 0-100kph sprint the i3 will out race many hot hatches on the road. The car comes with three driving styles being, Comfort, Eco Pro and Eco Pro Plus. Comfort making full use of the battery power as well as allowing the car to reach its' top speed of 160kph, move down a notch the Eco Pro, the cars top speed is limited to 105kph and on Eco Pro Plus mode it's brought down to 90kph and no use of the air-conditioning. Much like normal combustion cars, the more you put the foot down, the more juice it uses but with the i3 , it's always ready to shout you when doing so, helping you conserve the power.

COMFORT

The i3 is full of surprises, the car looks small but its more spacious than most cars on the market. The ergonomic and modern design of the cabin makes use of lighter and stronger materials which minimises space used and thus giving the passengers more much room. The seats are really comfortable and give of a good driving posture. The boot is pretty big as well, I managed to get a set of golf clubs in there with no hassle. Even though the car rides on 20"rims and rather large but narrow tyres, the ride quality is still great.

CHARGING

Now to the most important part, while the car does have a petrol engine, I never actually made use of it. Which I suppose is silly on my part seeing that I am testing the car and should have done so but the car tends to make you a better driver. I said earlier how it warns you when you accelerate too rapidly, well it also warns you when you brake too suddenly. Nothing about the i3 is like a conventional car, you hardly make use of the brake pedal when driving. Soon as you take your foot of the accelerator, the car instantly starts braking on its own to build up a reverse charge to recharge the battery. This helps when driving around urban areas with many stop streets and slow driving and will work well in inner city commuting. when you feel the range anxiety is going to hit, charging the car is as simple as popping the hood, take out the charge cable and plugging it in to your wall socket. While I didn't have a BMW wallbox installed at home, I had to opt for the long charge which takes about 8 hours to fully charge the car. With the wall box this figure is halved but for quick charging, you can head down to you BMWi dealership and make use of their DC fast charge station which charges the car in 24 minutes. 

COST FACTOR

Once fully charged the car will give you roughly 110km on comfort mode with this range extending when switching to either of the Eco modes. Having the car for a week made a big difference in how I found the car out, you will learn quickly how it works and you will adapt your driving style to suit the car. It ends up almost as a game where you see how much charge you can build up and in the end I found myself going 3 days without having to charge it. BMW say an over night charge will cost you in the region of R60, I'd say the most you can do is about 160km on a single charge if you really drive carefully. Thats about 40c a kilometer, which essentially is peanuts. The car is a bit pricey but you have to take into account not only the technology but the materials used to manufacture this car and it can do everything a normal car can do and more! The return on your investment is there, it will just take a little longer to show it.

VERDICT

I said at the very beginning, this car is a decade ahead of its time, it not only looks that way but theres no other car like it on the market. Yes in due course there will be other competitors but what BMW have done here is put down a marker and other manufacturers have taken up the challenge which can only spell good things for this segment. With more of them investing time and money into this technology it would only mean making this technology better and and the rapid rate we're creating new things, we could have this perfercted sooner than we think. It really is an eye opener of a car and if your daily commute is nothing more than 50km, I suggest you give this car a try. I've convinced quite a few people with my time with it and I'm sure it will continue to not only turn heads in the feature but also get people being more proactive in it. 

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine	Electric
Gear Box	Single speed automatic
Power	125kW
Torque	250Nm of torque
Top Speed	150 Kph
0-100kph	7.2 seconds
Price	R630,000

Bucket Seat: BMW i8

Today was the opening of the Internationale Automboil Ausstellung, or for us regular folk, the Frankfurt Motorshow. Over the years IAA has been the key show for many, if not all the German motor manufacturers, it is after all their home territory and they are expected to impress!

One of the cars to début at the show was the production model of BMW's i8. The car which is the second model of the BMWi brand was one that was eagerly anticipated by many. It is the first plug in hybrid from BMW and continues from the i3 with its futuristic design. The cars ground braking aerodynamic design body is constructed from carbon fibre reinforced plastic, ensuring that while the car is strong but it is light weight as well. Add to that the aluminium chassis along with the drive train and batteries brings the total weight of the vehicle to 1490kg's.

The interior looks like something out of Star Trek and you might consider yourself a Captain Kirk in your Starship Enterprise with the LCD screens and emotion LED changing lights in the cabin, just don't call out for Spock. The  rest of the cabin is pretty standard BMW with the centre console and trimmings. The sports leather seats look rather cool and with its 2+2 configuration BMW say you can get two passengers in the back, hope they don't mean midgets though.

How it works? Simple... sort off, the car uses a combination of BMW TwinTurbo and BMW eDrive technology to power itself. BMW Efficient dynamics for the first time has introduced a 1.5 litre, 3 cylinder petrol engine with an output of 170kW and 231bhp with a maximum torque of 320Nm sent to the rear wheels via a 6 speed gearbox. Combine that with with the electrical engine, the total output will be 266kW, 362bhp and a max torque of 570Nm. Not bad for a hybrid eh?

The technology used here is the latest stage by BMW Efficient Dynamics and works similarly to the their Active Hybrid models where the two power trains are able to work in tandem thus giving the i8 the performance levels of a pure bred sports car. With the i8, its all about carbon emissions and fuel saving, so while a 0-100 sprint would just take you 4.4 seconds, the inner hippy in you would be glad to know that it used the same about of petrol as a small car, approximately 2.5ltr/100km. That is insane statistics and would make any petrol gasp and smile at the possibilities. That being said, if you can afford a car like this, should the price of petrol be a concern to you? 

Well the short answer is yes, whilst you are able to afford this vehicle you would be using less of the commodity, hence lowering its demand...as margin-able as it maybe, it might be able to put a dent in the sales figures and the main thing is you're being a good human and looking after the environment. 

I personally think that this is currently the way forward for cars, whilst we still haven't perfected the full electric car as yet, this type of plug in hybrid technology is welcomed. Offering the driver the option to drive a sports car but with the efficiency of a hybrid. I spoke about pricing earlier and while its still not known, expect this one to be at the million or over mark. There really isn't any competition to it but the closest I can say is the Audi R8 but we still await to see if they release their R8 e-tron.

Bucket Seat: BMW Active Hybrid 3

The hybrid car, potentially the biggest advancement in the vehicle industry to help stem away from the combustion engine and the stepping stone to the full electric car, yet the average buyer wouldn't actually consider it as an option when thinking of purchasing a new car, why though? It saves you fuel and is good for the environment, that doesn't sound that bad, I guess the perception of the buyer is that a hybrid car is a bland, over priced hippy-mobile and judging from the first few production models, I'd tend to agree with them and as a young prospective buyer, it could severely damage your street cred if seen driving one... but not any more.

The Car

BMW Active Hybrid 3, long name for a car and it has a long badge to suit but to save time I'll refer to it as the AH3. My first encounter with this car was at the E Mobility summit that was held in George earlier this year. From the few hours we had with the cars, it was hard to get a true indication of just how good this car is. Yes it is a hybrid but it doesn't look bland or boring, it looked like your standard BMW 3 series, it had all the comforts you would find in a standard BMW 3 series and just to make sure it didn't pose a threat to my street cred, during my time with it, I paid a visit to the local drags on a Saturday night. No I didn't race it, I just wanted to see the reaction. First thing the guys will look for is the rims, on the AH3 BMW have fitted an exclusive 18" mag wheel that is designed to slightly enhance aerodynamics and brake cooling, they look the pretty awesome as well. Apart from that and the badge, one really can't tell the difference so your reputation is safe.

BMW always had a rich heritage in performance cars and instead of reinventing the wheel they're sticking to what they're good at and what their customers want, so under the hood along with the electric engine you will find the massive 3 litre, twin turbo, 6 cylinder engine taken from the 335i. Now thinking about it logically, hybrid = go green, protect the planet, etc... by slapping in a massive engine this car has the potential to be either utterly stupid and pointless or mind blowingly brilliant and leave you with a massive smile on your face.

When you start the car the cabin is greeted with the silence from the electric motor, it takes you around at speeds up to 80kph with ease and when need be the transition from the electric to combustion is almost seamless, even when a sailing speed is reached, the engine cuts off and allows the car to continue at that speed with the electric motor. The various driving modes it offers is tailored to suit your driving style, If I had to, I'd say this car has a Jekyll and Hyde complex. Not that its a bad thing, as when driving, it can be cool, calm and collected but when need be you can unleash the monster it and boy does it sound good! The performance only gets better when you realise the electric motor aids the petrol engine with the clever e-boost function that activates when going up hill, thus saving the trouble of it down changing in its 8 speed gear box to a lower gear and as a result using more fuel. 

You can monitor which engine is in use from the heads up display in dashboard, which is controlled from the control panel located next to the hand brake. Other info regarding the car can be accessed from there including things such as oil level, tyre pressure and other general things from the car.

With the electric engine, there has to be batteries to power it, these can be found in the boot just behind the passenger seats. They do add a more weight to the car but with the perfect 50/50 weight distribution this doesn't prove to be a problem at all as the car handles beautifully around any corner you point it at. The batteries recharge when the car is slowing down or braking, again all the info is displayed on the info screen in the car. 

The claimed fuel consumption is said to be 6.5l /100km if driven diligently on the Eco Pro mode, which is brilliant for a car of this size, and during this time with the forever increasing petrol price, any owner would love those figures! However, realistically many will be doing a lot of mixed driving much like what I have done but still I managed to keep it to an average of 9l / 100km and eventually end up doing 750km's on the 57 litre tank. That is still is pretty darn good if compared to other cars in its bracket. 

Space wise, the car is big and spacious whether you're sitting at the back or the front there is plenty of space for it to seat four adults comfortably, you can try squeezing five but better hope the person who has to sit in the middle at the back doesn't mind being cramped up. The ride is smooth, even with the 18" rims the car seems to glide over any bumps on the road.

The Extra's

The car I had was loaded with extra's, being part of the press fleet I guess BMW wanted to show what they had to offer. Most of the extras sound like a waste of money but as I learnt they all are pretty handy. Park distance control or PDC as its most commonly known is taken a step further with a 5 camera system fitted to the car. When parking you get an aerial picture of the car and its surroundings, at first you head is trying to get around how they actually do it but with camera's cleverly located under the side mirrors and on the boot lid, they help give the driver a better perspective of the area he is in. The other two camera's are located on the sides of the front bumper to help avoid you bumping into any low lying obstacles. All of this was pretty cool to have and made parking a piece of cake even in the tightest of bays.

Other extra's included electric lumbar support seats that made driving all that more comfortable. Satellite Navigation, very simple to use and extremely accurate.  Heads up projection on the windscreen, which I quite liked as it displayed very subtly to the driver info on the speed he is doing, the speed limit for the area and also displayed other info such as instructions from the SatNav, phone book info and media info on the track or radio station you're listening to. Active speed cruise control, which was also wasn't rocket science to use, all the functions could be found easily on the steering wheel. I'm not a fan of a sunroof but the glass one it came with is very neat and looks good. The Harman Kardon surround sound system was a winner in my books though the 6 DVD shuttle in the boot didn't serve much relevance to me. Bluetooth syncing was straight forward, combined with the voice command prompt search for phone numbers and having your texts and emails displayed on the info screen was a major plus. USB and Aux ports were available but many already have their favourite playlists on their phone so streaming it via Bluetooth was a major plus. 

Specifications

• 3 litre, 6 cylinder twin turbo engine + electric engine
• 8 speed automatic, step-tronic gear box
• 250kW
• 306bhp 
• 400Nm torque
• Consumption: 6.5ltr/ 100km
• Top Speed: 250kph
• 0-100kph: 5.3 seconds 
• Price: R639 000

Overall I don't think I could some up this car properly in words. What BMW have managed to do here is mind blowingly brilliant, so yes I was left with a huge smile on my face as I thoroughly enjoyed driving the car and it lived up to their slogan of Sheer Driving Pleasure. I even tweeted the night before I had to give the car back, if it was possible for one to form an emotional connection to a car because essentially that's what happened during the 7 days I had it. The car although so high tech, was a pleasure to have around and totally changed my perception on hybrid cars. The price is a little out of reach for my budget at the moment but it is a worthy investment if you consider how much you'll end up saving when filling up. To see BMW make such an advancement in the technology used in this car, I cannot wait to see what the performance hybrid i8 has to offer!