This topic is causing a lot of fatigue

Give Chris Bangle the Chair! Give him the chair!

ITS ELECTRIC!!!

welcome to BMW’s Mercedes’ and Audi’s new electric war.

Well, every automotive manufacture sooner or later is going to have to offer hybrids or electric, or whatever alternatively fueled or powered vehicle. BMW is no exception, and they should have started this a while ago.

They’re in the business to make money and stay in business. Whatever makes the most business sense to them would be the right thing to do.

Its a quick way to lower their EPA average.

If BMW actually produces an electric vehicle to lease or buy, I for one will be on the list. BMW builds excellant vehicles, and this Bimmer will sell out quickly. Now that I stop dreaming about it, I wake up to reality and notice that BMW doesn’t even have a Hybrid with electric drive, so will it actually happen….like the VOLT…probably not. It will be the battery’s fault.

do these cars even have any range? I would need at least 100 miles on a single charge per day.

they have the 7 series hydrogen in that honda fcx like lease, right?

For a lot of people, plugging a car in overnight and then driving it 30 miles to and from work in thick traffic using no gas would be great. The car would not have to be especially fast or have first class handling, just be stylish, fun and somewhat affordable. BMW could pull this off, but maybe under another brand name to avoid soiling their performance image.

Anyone know how an electric car helps to offset the CAFE mileage? Does the EPA attach an MPG number to an electric car?

a bmw electric car would cost at least 50,000
gm should have never killed the EV 1

Bye-bye Tesla.

yeah 441Zuke I agree, Chances are if BMW does come out with an electric car it’s going to be way out of a lot of average consumers price ranges which kind of defeats its purpose. Because most people that are going to want a electric car are more than likely going to want it for its practicality. Unlike some Idiots that I’ve seen that have bought the Prius just to be seen in. I even saw one with limo tints and some DUBS on it. Wow.

driver54: take the total number of cars you sell including electric (a) and multiply that by the average mpg of those cars that burn fuel (b) and divide the result by the number of cars that burn fuel (c).

(a*b)/c=d being your CAFE.

“While we’re all familiar with clean diesels, …” Sunny CA sure isn’t familiar with that technology.

Every manufacture is racing to build all electric cars to meet CAFE standards and promote an image of being ‘green’ so bubbleheaded enviridiots won’t target them in smear campains … who cars.

opps, freudien slip, who cares.

By the way, global warming is bull****, it was 38 below zero this week in Alberta - thats without a wind chill of 51 below!

In order for all-electric-drive to succeed it would have to be marketed in a manner that has absolutely nothing to do with environmental consciousness and everything to do with demonstrating quite publicly that all-electric drive is simply better in every respect than a petro- or diesel-burning engine given the power of a water-cooled brushless motor, and the potency (“range”) of a silicon-anode lithium-iron-phosphate battery cluster.

First, a thorough denouncement to “Zap!” and their utterly stupid-to-the-point-of-being-a-crime design philosophy. I don’t what mauve-handed nincompoop thought a three-wheeled penis/schnoz/Dutch clog would sell to the American public that electric is a better way to go, but after more than a decade in business it seems only a few years from now, with the “Zap-X” crossover concept finally looking like a Mazda-ish real car, will the company correct this and finally win them some real friends who aren’t simply fanatical old ‘greenies’. Zap! Has managed, in the mean time however, to set the example for companies like Gem, Commuter Car, and numerous “Neighborhood Vehicle” manufacturers who also are more than content to make cutesy glass pods, science projects, and schnozes themselves. And what is the problem each and every one of these companies seems to have?

Funding. Investors. Legislation. Consumer Interest. Marketing.

Everyone and their dog seems to have a few pre-production prototypes and concepts, but honestly, if the ‘go green’ aspect of electric drive doesn’t fire a synapse with you (‘Green’? What is this, Fifth Element? How is ‘green’ supposed to be ‘cool’?), you’re going to have a hard time forking over $40,000-$100,000 for a highway-speed single- or two-seater schnoz car with a 50-100 mile range and a five-hour recharge time. Far worse are the prospects for NEVs with their 25-maximum-mph cap. Only the most hedonistic Paris-Hilton twit would want to hold up traffic with a maximum speed of 25 mph. How green do you feel when everyone else wanting to go a proper 40-50 miles per hour is piling up behind you, blasting their horns and making daring overtakes in midday traffic to get around? Are the tree-huggers responsible for those ‘carbon emissions’? Never mind planning your trips around a highway restriction.

Perhaps they simply drive with their nose in the air thinking “It’s not *my* fault these *other* people are in such a hurry…”

Second, the paradigm of an electric car’s speed must be overcome, which may only happen if someone is willing to go fender-to-fender in an all-electric touring car against petro- and diesel-powered opponents in a televised, widely reported event. Rallye could be a good start given the instantaneous low-end torque of an electric motor. A top-ten-in-class finish at LeMans around the Nurburgring would be better. The problem is golf carts and radio controlled toys have actually built the hill that NEVs can’t climb, and Tesla’s production setbacks and eventual third-of-a-house price haven’t done much to alleviate concerns that electric cars are just too slow.

Where is the 155mph-limited four-dour family sedan with a top speed of at least 90mph? Always ‘just a year away’ from production it seems.

BMW looks to be the company that can break all the rules with a car that looks like a car, goes like a bastard, gets a respectable 150+ miles to the charge (silicon anode technology is said to centuple such range), with a label and build quality to justify the price, and God-willing in a well-sorted rear-drive package. Those of us who see the futility of the ‘go green’ marketing strategy are nearly-screaming for such a genuine electric car. Not a car with all-electric gimmick, but a car that’s ready to drive NOW, and not with some tragic lifestyle adjustment such as ‘never on the highway’ or an ‘overnight‘ recharge time.

My advice?

1. A water-cooled brushless electric motor with a standard HVAC system.
2. Nothing less than lithium-ion nanophosphate will give consumers acceptable range and charge-time
3. ‘Carbon-fiber-look’ solar panel roof and/or hood as an option. Commute, park in the sun, auto air-conditioning maintains cabin temperature when battery is charged.
4. Look into photovoltaic glass.
5. Manual transmission option (much longer gears due to low end torque, possibly fewer as well) to better remind consumers it’s still ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’
6. Market the vehicle not on the irritating ‘go-green’ platform, but on cost of ownership and performance, again, with a few touring cars to back performance image. Avoid marketing purely on the gimmick of all-electric drive.

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Of course many think the ‘evil oil companies’ will do everything possible to stop the widespread proliferation of electric vehicles, but the simple truth is they’ll survive just fine, because they’re *energy* companies and not just *oil* companies. They’ll still make a buck from petroleum-based plastics and electricity. They’ll still make a buck from their other chemistry innovations. They will not ‘go out of business’ if in ten or twenty years electric cars become more common than combustion-powered cars. That would make them look extremely short sighted and stupid. Some of these evil ‘Big Oil’ companies are even *collaborating* their so-called demise:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/01/21/daily36.html

Maybe a few countries whose primary industries are crude oil production may encounter a slight setback or two, but their economies won’t be absolutely devastated either, unless they’re run by stupid, short-sighted idiots more concerned with their next Ferrari purchase and crushing those ’evil Zionist pigs’ than building infrastructure and preparing for the eventuality that petroleum gasoline may not matter as much in the next century. But Chevron and ExxonMobil are hardly in any real trouble when the EV’s come a-callin’ no matter what ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’ and Michael Moore may have told you.
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Here’s hoping this isn’t just more contemplation, more research and lollygagging , and more ugly concept cars. I’m ready for the real thing.

CAFE chomped BMW on the butt.

Viktor King: Yeap, Americans need to start reading about what the arabs do with their money. They invest on businesses other than oil to make even a lot more $.

Thats all very nice and everything…but… how many of you actually drive an electric car, bicycle,scooter,Segway, or NEV?? I do, and I love the “no sound” of electric drive. What I observe about people that go out “postal” on the global warming issue, or the poisoning of the earth scare stuff, is that they are not walking the walk of what speak should be done. Everybody can consume less, and consume smartly by using idems that consume less. I am happy to listen to people that are concerned with the enviroment as long as they are doing there MOST to be part of the solution. That means being an “early adopter” of new technologies at a high price, so others can benefit at a lower price through volume. For example, I ride my red Segway once and awhile to town instead of driving a car. It only has a range of 12-14 miles with my fat ass onboard, but I get quite afew looks and thumbs up, but no one else buys these around here. 10miles for 10 cents of power…lots of fun, but most would say too expensive for the low range of travel. I say, anybody that can afford these, please buy them, so everybody can own one sooner than later. Too expensive…to little range….not reliable…and too weird. Bmw, GM, Ford, and others are toying with electrics, but they know the early adopters will also be winers and in their face when the car is not absolutely perfect. Low production numbers equals low customer complaints and the press release of “we have one, go get one”. Bull****. Try to buy a Ford Escape Hybrid right now. Every dealer is out with a 6 to nine month waiting list, and they are pounding the airwaves with advertising of it. Low numbers = high price. So I say, when they come out with a plug in electric car, if you can afford the price, call it half charity to the cause of the good for all, and half the price of the car. Do it for the others that need the total price to be lower, in order to drive it. And don’t whine when it breaks, just get it fixed like any other car you would own. Remember how many times the first computers crashed?? Now they rarely go bad.

Sorry LargePenis … no comparison intended … I should have use pencil dick instead.

being a fat virgin isn’t half bad - I’ve been called worse.

If you blow yourself up to get your virgins…are they fat ????

“We will only bring this if it makes sense”

Glad to hear!!, now halt most if not all your factories… who needs to buy a ’second best’ german car anyway??

I’m gonna be a rock
and roll star
Gotta groove from night to day
Gotta blow my honey jar
Gonna blow my blues away
I’m gonna make a stand
Gonna make a million
Gonna make it with you
I’m gonna be wild, my friend
I gotta push it through
It’s electric
It’s electric
It’s electric
It’s electric