BMW i3 To Be Released in 2017, the Model to Get a Redesign and An Improvement in Its Range!

BMW is trying to come up with a new i3 car for the upcoming year 2017. Reports also suggest that the company is trying to increase the range of the car as well as improving its design. Even though electric vehicles continue to gain popularity, BMW hasn’t had much luck in this department of automobile market till now.

The automaker has failed to see any sign of a huge demand in the market for its electric cars in spite of making i3 electric cars for a few years now. So, a cool new design and a longer range might provide the small electric vehicle with its much-needed boost for becoming more successful.

BMW i3 Renovation

A German publication by the name of Welt am Sonntag reports through Reuters the i3 model planned by BMW to come out next year will have its front as well as its rear ends redesigned. As there aren’t any leaked images confirming the car’s design, it is unclear how the next BMW i3 will look like.

Enlarged Range

It has been further revealed by the publication that BMW will install new battery technology in its generation next i3. This will enable the electric vehicle to operate for a longer range. On a full charge, the present version of BMW’s i3 can make a journey of 114 miles, but the range can also be extended up to 180 miles with the help of a Range Extender.

Even if Welt am Sonntag is unable to pinpoint how long the new range will be, it does, however, note that the increase would be less than 50 percent. What that means is that the i3 coming in 2017 from BMW will continue to offer a range below 200 miles.

The range offered by BMW’s electric vehicle is much less than that offered by Tesla’s Model S, but one must also take into consideration that BMW also comes at a much affordable price than Tesla’s. Powered by a P100D battery, Tesla Model S is capable of running up to 300 miles on a single charge.

However, it has a starting price of $134,000 before incentives. The existing BMW i3 with Range Extender, on the other hand, costs $47,450, which is, after not counting destination and other charges.

BMW Independent Vehicle Plans

BMW’s head of Research and Development, Klaus Fröhlich was recently asked by the German publication, what the automaker’s plans are concerning self-driving cars.Fröhlich stated that BMW desires to see a mutual standard for autonomous vehicles across the auto trade so that it can utilize the same systems and number of sensors.

To serve as a reminder for us, BMW had already teamed up at the start of this year, with Mobileye and Intel to create an open platform for independent vehicles by the year 2012. Mobileye has also collaborated with another of the industry namely Tesla before this, on the automaker’s Autopilot system.

Both the companies went their separate ways this September. While we wait to see, what BMW will offer next, chances are it might try its hand at getting other partnerships to expand its offers. One such example of a partnership is that of Fiat and Amazon.

2017 BMW i3

Amazon and Fiat, for instance, have partnered up to sell cars online, although the option is strictly available in Italy at the current moment.

Additional motoring news

Unnamed sources from BMW stated while speaking to the German weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag that despite the range of the new i3 car growing substantially, its increase will be lower than 50 percent.

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