Thread: Got my i3 !
View Single Post
      02-16-2014, 07:33 AM   #18
Efthreeoh
General
United_States
16946
Rep
18,580
Posts

Drives: The E90 + Z4 Coupe & Z3 R'ster
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Virginia

iTrader: (0)

OP, congrats on your new i3. Not to harsh on the EV love fest going on in this tread, but lets be a bit realistic. It's not like BMW invented the electric car. The electric car is over 100 years old just like the ICE-powered car is. So the i3 is not the "future", but more just an old idea blessed with about 100 years advancement in technology; of which the ICE-powered car has benefited too. Hydrocarbon fuel is still a better energy storage medium than a metal-hydride battery and most likely will be for the coming future. The i3 may be less expensive to drive and maintain (maybe, depending on battery longevity) but that is factoring out the purchase price. Factor in the purchase price and the $20K premium paid has about a 200,000 mile payback period based on a similar sized economy car at 35MPG.

And just to be sure, some of the planet's population doesn't live in large cities, where the i3 is most adaptable to providing it's level of performance, that being useable range. For a lot of people, an 80-mile range is just not a realistic operating envelope. For all the glad-handing going on here, there is a very low probability that the i3 will be the transportation game-changer that the Model T was.
Appreciate 0