Thread: Got my i3 !
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      02-16-2014, 09:58 AM   #19
cblandin
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Drives: 97 M3, Volt, XC60
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: United States

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh View Post
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.
I agree with Tom's comments above, and I think this is why electric will take off...it is simply a better DRIVING experience. EVs get caught up in all the political, environmental, and cost savings rhetoric, but, at the end of the day people buy CARS for how well they work as CARS. The tech is currently a bit pricey and has limitations, but that's temporary. The tech will improve, prices will come down, and adoption will become the norm simply because it makes for a nicer "car". One key to my assumption is where the early adopters are coming from. Sure some want to save the world, make a political statement, etc. BUT many are the "car guys" (like me, and most of us on these forums), and believe me, we are often as surprised as anyone that we are here in the EV space! I went from my M5 to a Volt. A buddy of mine traded his M5 for Caddy CTS-V...and is now getting a Focus Electric. Several owners on the Volt forums came from BMWs and while their initial interest was often peaked by the idea of saving money or HOV lane access, it is the driving that has surprised them. Heck, one guy traded his Jag in for one...and a Year or so later he traded in his CTS-V for a second one. The times they are a changin'...
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