BMW i3 Drivers Now Get More “Flexibility”
If you read CleanTechnica regularly, you know that I’m a big fan of busting the myth that electric vehicles (EVs) aren’t already adequate (and a better option) for the majority of people with a place to plug in at home.
I’m not the only one. This article and this article are two that I loved on the topic.
But I’ve never argued that non-Tesla, 100%-electric vehicles are the best option 100% of the time. If you are driving a very long ways and there aren’t good, fast-charging stations along the way, something else is needed… unless you are fine taking your time and trickle-charging along the way.
The key is that this is a seldom need for most people. If you travel to Florida two weekends out of the year, that doesn’t mean you need to buy a house down there. You can simply rent a hotel room or crash at the home of a friend or family member. It’s the same story with cars. It’s generally more logical to drive a better, cheaper, cleaner car 350 days a year and rent or swap your car with a friend for the other 15 than to say that you have to live with a gasmobile.
In some cases, however, maybe that’s not actually the best option for you. Also, that requires a different way of looking at things, and many people have a very hard time changing how they look at things.
This is where electric car manufacturers should really jump in, and some of them have started to. Fiat (ironically), despite not being an electric car leader and only offering up a tiny number of Fiat 500e compliance cars to people in a small portion of the US, has a program in place whereby 500e drivers can get a free car rental 12 days per year for the first three years.
It’s a commonsense incentive and can easily be rolled into the price of the EV without anyone noticing, or it can just be an incentive used to help a manufacture develop itself as an EV leader.
Another thing I love about this is that it let’s gearheads* drive a variety of cars during the year, something to value in itself.
Long story short: BMW is now offering such a “flexibility” program for owners of the BMW i3. Though, it’s a bit different than Fiat’s, and I think probably saves BMW a bit of money. “Unlike Fiat, which provides $500 in credits for rental cars from Alamo, Enterprise, or National to its 500e buyers through rental-car locations, BMW has chosen to administer its program primarily through its own dealers,” John Voelcker reports.
“That required the company to get the dealers to opt in to offering loaner cars–and the language that the program is available only at ‘participating BMW i Sales Centers.’ ”
In situations where the BMW i3 owner isn’t near any participating dealers, then a discount at a nearby car-rental company is going to be available.
However, there are a number of issues with the program that are not ideal. For example, the incentives for BMW dealers to join the Flexibility Mobility Program don’t look like they are designed well enough to get a lot of dealers participating. And if a nearby dealer isn’t participating, the the BMW i3 doesn’t get a free loaner/rental car, as was promised three years ago when BMW first unveiled the plan, but just a discount… and not even necessarily a BMW. Head on over to Tom Moloughney’s BMW i3 blogspot to read more about issues with the program.
All in all, it’s a step in the right direction, but it looks like it may be more of a trip than a strong and steady step forward.
Images by Zachary Shahan | EV Obsession | CleanTechnica (CC BY-SA 4.0)
*This article was generously supported by Gearheads.org.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
