BMW Retires The i3 With A Golden Parachute (Kinda)
After an impressive run that saw more than 250,000 examples of the high-tech, composite-bodied BMW i3 find enthusiastic owners in more than 70 countries, the little EV pioneer is being retired to make room for the more mainstream iX1 crossover … but before that happens, BMW is sending off the i3 in style!
BMW held a special delivery ceremony for the BMW i3 in Munich, Germany, where the automaker lined up the final 18 examples of the i3 for family pictures before sending them off to their lucky new owners. Each “final edition” i3 was covered in the same, deep Galvanic Gold paint with glossy black trim with a unique, BMW Racing Blue interior as tribute to the i3’s success.
Final BMW i3 Gets “Racing Blue” Interior Trim
“At the start of its series production eight and a half years ago, it was considered a visionary and exotic,” BMW said in a statement. “Since then, the compact vehicle with electric drive has established itself as a pioneer for locally emission-free driving pleasure and holistic sustainability.”
It Was Too Good For Us
The i3 was a strange bet on BMW’s part – back at the dawn of the modern electric age, automakers like GM, Nissan, and (obviously) BMW thought that the way to win the EV sales war was by offering consumers ever greater levels of efficiency. To that end, the i3 was developed with every bit as much in the way of exotic materials and top-shelf engineering as the most ultimate of ultimate driving machines.
The i3’s range-extender, too, was incredibly clever. Delivered by Taiwanese scooter experts at Kymco, the engine was designed to hold at its most efficient, low-emission RPM, spinning a generator that supplied a much-needed range boost to the tiny German EV that made it genuinely practical, even in rural areas.
As Tesla and, more recently, the sold-out Ford F-150 Lightning eventually proved, however, efficiency isn’t a hot seller in the US. We tend to buy for low use cases here – which is why we have more gun stores (“You might need it one day!”) than McDonald’s (“You need to eat.”). Oh well.
Good bye, then, little i3. You were always too good for us.
Source | Images: BMW, via Motor 1.
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