On January 1, 1985, BMW established a subsidiary of BMW Technik GmbH with the internal code ZT, which is responsible for the development and design of concept cars. At the 1993 Geneva Motor Show, the ZT department released a concept car called the Z13.
This concept car has a lightweight design, with a weight of only 830 kg and an engine at the rear. Counting that the driver can seat 3 people, the driver is in the middle and the passengers are on the sides.
Because this concept car has no energy production in the end, but from some follow-up actions of the BMW Group, you can still watch the leopard, and see that BMW is optimistic about the future development path of compact models. In the 1990s, BMW acquired the MG-Rove Group, which owns Land Rover and Mini. It sold the Land Rover to Ford in early 2000, but kept the Mini. The concept of the compact car city travel conveyed by the Z13 concept car was also followed by ten Several years have been extended.
In July 2010, BMW released a “LifeDrive” concept structure with a full carbon fiber composite body and an aluminum alloy chassis (including a battery pack). These two have become the “Life” module and the “Drive” module, respectively. Its biggest feature is reduced body weight. Then in 2011, the BMW i brand was released. Two years later, the i3 and i8 were officially unveiled.
The battery capacity of i3 is not large, the mileage is not high, and the cost of carbon fiber body is too high, so the price cannot be too low. These can be regarded as fatal injuries at the consumer level. There are still many product flash points, such as the extremely light and strong body made of carbon fiber, which can minimize the battery endurance pressure, and at the same time provide as much space as possible inside the car. Although the body is not long, the door can still be designed to open the door, which is quite friendly to the second-row passengers of such a small size car.
From its official launch in 2014 to today, the i3 has been in the BMW product series for 6 years, following the common logic of car companiesIt is time to remodel this car, and if i3 is now sold, ordinary car companies will choose to give up this model. However, in fact, after several minor modifications and enhanced battery life to a certain extent, BMW still intends to extend the life of the i3, even to 2024, completing a full 10-year life cycle.
In fact, the reason why BMW insists so much is easy to guess. As a compact pure electric vehicle, the short board and advantages of the product are too clear. The short board is nothing more than the battery capacity is too small. It was solved by the subsequent higher energy density battery, but the product advantages of the i3, such as the lightweight carbon fiber body, and the futuristic interior, coupled with the door opening and the interior space beyond the same size models, obviously It can continue to be used, even in the second decade of the 21st century, this design is still outdated.
At CES in 2020, BMW also made an interior renovation of the i3, making the i3 a mobile hotel, and displaying the concept car i3 Urban Suite.
In fact, there are still a lot of car companies that show a concept design by changing the interior space of the car. There are also business class seats with straight legs, let alone concept cars, and mass production cars. , Luxury car flagships can be achieved. But doing this kind of interior in the size of the BMW i3 is indeed BMW’s grasp of the strengths of the i3.
First treasureIn addition to retaining the driver’s seat, Ma removed all the remaining seats in the car, put them back into a comfortable and spacious seat, and a footrest, and made a small table and lamp next to the seat, so that A four-seater compact model turned into a double room. Passengers can adjust the front and rear positions of the footrests by using the buttons on their hands, or they can lower the large screen in front of them with a button to watch some online streaming content.
The reason why the i3 is most suitable for this design is because of the inherent advantages of this model, the open door and the spacious interior space. The opposite door allows passengers to get on and off the bus very directly, and will not be blocked by the B pillars that common vehicles have. In addition, because the space in the car is very spacious, passengers will still feel comfortable after doing it.
I also experienced this concept car during CES. The only regret should be that the seat is still a bit too high. Sitting at my height of more than 1.8 meters, my head is still a bit top, and Ge You was seated. The high probability is because it is still limited by the battery and motor layout, and the seat cannot be placed too low. But the width of the left and right hands is very good, because of the jet lag and the traffic jam in Las Vegas during CES, I even slept for half an hour in the car.
BMW ’s purpose in making this car is not to show off design skills just like most car companies do for concept cars, but to show a possibility of comfortable travel in giant cities in the future.
First of all, in larger cities, larger cars mean less flexibility in the city, so making cars as flexible and compact as possible may be a trend in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai in the future. However, the body is too small for the car to travel, so it ’s awkward. That ’s why BMW chose the i3 to optimize the riding experience as much as possible by taking advantage of the existing advantages. And it is clear that this two-wheeler is not built for home users. BMW also made an app similar to Didi Taxi, which allows the media to taxi directly through this app during CES. In fact, this also foreshadows BMW’s idea of using this car in its future travel service layout after better solving the i3’s endurance shortcomings in the future.
After all, I prefer the i3 Urban Suite to be a compact luxury taxi rather than a mobile hotel as defined by BMW. Although it may not be practical at first glance, in fact, if I go out on my own, and if there is such a special car during peak hours in Beijing, I estimate that I can squeeze a lot out of my commute time of 80 kilometers a day Make up for sleep or chase time.