THΞ ΞYΞ THRΞΞ

So what are the first impressions owning the car for roughly two weeks now? As I have guessed from my former trips with the Drive Now i3s, the new car is just amazing. I have driven about 250km so far, mostly within the city and it's really impressive to see how easy it is to drive this car efficiently. My average consumption is now at 10.1 kW/h and the average recuperation is at 5.4 kW/h. Those are impressive values compared to other cars.

Finally ...

BMW plans to counter-attack Tesla’s model 3

Interesting article of the german Manager Magazin, that basically shows how BMW’s initial lead in the EV space has been lost due to managment mistakes and indecisiveness.

After the release of the i3 BMW's EV development has been put on hold, which caused many members of the initial BMW i team leaving the company, finding a new home at the Chinese Future Mobility Corporation startup, which has a location in Munich. Carsten Breitfeld is heading the team in Munich. Together with Dirk Abendroth, who was in charge of the BMW i electric power train, former Head of Design Benoit Jacob and Product Manager Hendrik Wenders, those guys are developing what's known by the name of Nio, currently a super sports car.

Can BMW catchup again after that talent drain and regain the lead?

A never ending story ...

June 30th is the big day when my new i3 will finally be delivered to me. Big thing in Berlin is registering the car, which requires usually 2 weeks. So, everything is set and more on the car in about 2 weeks ...

Update 7/8/2017: More than a month ago, my i3 arrived at the BMW dealer and since then the dealer is trying to register the car. July, 6th was the next attempt to pickup the car. Didn't work. Not ready. Next appointment was set to July, 10th, which they canceled today as the car isn't ready yet. I am sure I gonna remember this journey for the rest of my life. Update will follow

i3 arrived, but still not done

With my i3 still not being delivered, I just came across a new iOS app that's out there for BMW owners, now being able to code your car using an OBD2 WiFi dongle.

We all know how to tweak and customize our smartphones starting with the wallpaper, tweaking the settings of the device in terms of preferences up to installing new apps and helpers that work around some of the limitations of the standard setup.

When it comes to cars, there are rather limited options to do that. What's not available through the official settings that are usually available via the headunit, you as an owner are not able nor allowed to change some of the parameters of the car that can actually be reconfigured in the workshop through some rather expensive equipment. This is typically called coding of the car. Some of that stuff even requires software updates.

Ever since the introduction of the OBD standard around 2000, people always tried to use this on-baord diagnosis standard to hack the car one way or the other. What OBD allows you to do is, get access to non safety critical error codes, settings and realtime values of the car to allow workshops to diagnose and configure the car, even without deep knowledge of the vehicles.

What we see these days, that this connection to the car is now pretty much accessible by everyone, without major investments in hardware and software. With OBD dongles now supporting WiFi and Bluetooth, it's becoming even more easy to do the job, using a standard smartphone as a replacement for an expensive workshop PC.

That being said, there are actually quite a few apps out there that can be used to do the job. One of them just being released even supports the i3 and it's ECUs, giving you a simple UI that allows even you and me to change settings easily.

Here is what you need: * Download the BimmerCode App from the app store * Buy a Vgate iCar 2 Wi-Fi OBD adapter via amazon * Purchase the full functionality after testing with an in app purchase

Looks like the BMW i3 is already history

The BMW i3, also known as Mega City Vehicle, seems to be already history. At its annual shareholder meeting this week, BMW showed the EV roadmap for the next years and even though the i3 was still shown as part of the roadmap, there is no real successor of the car planned.

The next two BEVs are derivates of standard ICE vehicles (MINI BEV and BMW X3 BEV) and the next purpose build EV is the BMW iNEXT, which is also known as the i5, targeted towards TESLA.

It's a pitty that BMW lost its courage, which was demonstrated with the BMW i3. And no, I do not consider the MINI BEV a real successor.

Upcoming BMW i3 facelift

Looks like it's a bad timing to get a new i3, while the first real facelift is in its final stage. According to several rumors, the facelift is going to be announced at this years IAA in Frankfurt.

Here is the current scope of what has been leaked so far:

New front spoiler

Updated infotainment system

New colors

New S version with:

10kW more power and +20 NM

Wider fender with "black frame"

195er tires

To be honest, other than the updated infotainment, there is nothing I would opt for. And I guess by only changing the spoiler, the "old" i3s are not looking old immediately.

An i3 Alternative?

I still don't have my BMW i3 yet, but looking at the mixed messages you hear from BMW, it looks like that there is not going to be a second generation in preparation. Obviously at some point BMW was surprised about its own courage to pretty much develop a completely new car, based on completely new technologies and with an not guaranteed success.

At this point, the development of the BMW i3 MkII should be in full swing and all you hear from the Bavarian manufacturer are rumors about a full electric X3, which basically copies the strategy of all the premium manufacturers. The Mercedes EQC is based on the current GLC and Audi is going into this direction as well.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about an SUV these days and I would rather like to see something revolutionary for urban areas with an affordable price tag.

Well, it looks like there is going to be an alternative in the near future in form of a new car developed by a new company: the e.GO Life developed by e.GO Mobile. The car looks like a version of the smart ED, just lighter, more basic and reduced to the max. Sounds familiar, right.

The car can be already pre-ordered with a 1000 EUR down payment and the car should finally be available in early 2018.

What makes the e.GO Life interesting to me is the basic concept of the car that pretty much followed the BMW i3 spec book: reduce the vehicles weight, use a smaller battery and achieve a great energy consumption (9,9 kwh/100km) that allows for a good range.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a TESLA hater, I really admire what TESLA has achieved in the last 10 years and their contribution to the acceptance of EVs as a viable alternative to combustion cars.

But I equally question the hype around this company, that recently lead to the fact that TESLA is now the most valued North American car manufacturer.

This latest Wired article highlights just one of the many challenges TESLA will be confronted with by becoming a volume car manufacturer: quality. It is one thing to produce 100.000 p.a. (which is already impressive for a newcomer), but shipping 5 or 10 times as much is a different story. With that number of cars, TESLA is no longer addressing early adopters and fans of the brand, it is finally reaching normal car buyers with quiet different expectations.

The more models TESLA is launching, the complexity of a broad model range is finally slowing down the company. TESLA today has only 2 models, in slightly different configurations. A premium brand like Mercedes, BMW or Audi has a product range of 40+ models, each of them sold in 100th of configurations. TESLA is just about to tap into that complexity and they will finally also be confronted to deal with the legacy they are already producing. The company is right now not prepared for that. Everything is focused on scaling what they do at this point.

In the end it all boils down to the question of: is it easier for the OEMs to also build EVS similar to TESLA or TESLA scaling into a mass manufacturer. As much I would like to see TESLA to succeed, I guess I would go for the first scenario. TESLA has a head start when it comes to the EV, but there is nothing TESLA is doing that can not be done by any of the premium OEMs.

Welcome to the EQ ... Mode

No, we are not talking about a new EQ model. You can almost say, that this is a desperate move by Mercedes: without a competitive EQ model yet in production, they are releasing a kind of ad blocker, to reduce the carbon footprint.

Here is an overview of EVs available in the US based on the EPA ratings. To be honest, I can't believe that 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric has a better EPA rating than the BMW i3. It is for sure an efficient car, but it is quite heavier than the BMW i3.

What's the Range?

Another trip around Berlin with a Drive Now BMW i3 and another new consumption record. On my first leg, I drove 54km with a consuption of 8,70 kWh/100km and a final consumption after 134km of 9,67 kWh/100km, which results in total range of 194km for the 60Ah version and extrapolated 302km for the 94Ah version.

The car I had this time had an total average consumption of 17.8 kWh/100km, which is also amazing given the fact that those cars are used by normal customers not really taking care of energy consumption while using those carsharing cars.

From the first idea to the final car

Before I forget, here is a nice and short documentary of how the i3 was born and what the required steps were to arrive at the final car. Once again, I am really impressed how a big corporation like BMW has layed the ground for the execution of such an idea at a time where even the TESLA Model S was not yet on the market. Very visonary.