BMW i3 is Official Now

Details of BMW i3. i3 was a bit mystery, it was the BMW’s first step to enter to electric world with a brand range of vehicles. BMW named the range with “i”. And i-Series does not share any designed or infrastructure similarity with the existing BMW vehicle range. It is a brand new range with a brand new perspective. 

That’s why everyone was curious about the BMW i-Series, hopefully BMW released the official details of the i3 today. BMW i3 shares the same 50:50 weight distribution like all other BMWs. i3 is made the passenger cell from carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP). It is powered by a 50-kg, 170 HP / 250 Nm electric motor. Zero to 100 km/h acceleration is only 7.2 seconds and the range of electric driving is around 130-160 KM. BMW i3 also features a tiny on-board generator to avoid running out of charge. 0.65-lt two-cylinder engine is placed at rear axle for better weight distribution and it produces 34 HP to charge the batteries and extend the range up to 300km. 

The interesting feature of BMW i3 is the single-pedal concept. According to press release, there will be only one pedal acts as throttle and brake at the same time. As I understand, when you leave your foot gently, BMW i3 will be coasting. Basically, if you leave your foot from the pedal gently, it will be coasting; if you leave your foot very rapidly it will be braking and someone will crash you from the rear. Because, we always leave the throttle very rapidly. This feature was never used at any type of vehicle and hinders potential accidents! I am definitely sure, BMW will remove the single-pedal drive concept. This system may sound very efficient on paper but when you consider the average drivers, it will be a huge disaster!

Anyway, BMW opened a new chapter in premium electric car market with i-Series!

Photos Credit

BMW

Assistir Filme »

Renault Twizy in Dubai Police Fleet

Renault Twizy in Dubai Police. During last few weeks, Dubai Police department revised their police fleet for car speed chases. As you all know that, the fleet is revised with Bugatti Veyron, Mercedes SLS AMG, Bentley Continental GT, Aston Martin One-77,Lamborghini Aventador. After the Bugatti Veyron, I was expecting to see a F35 jet fighter inside this fleet but Dubia Police decided extend the range with electric Renault Twizy. 

Renault Twizy is powered by a 20 HP electric motor with 57 Nm of torque. The top speed is 75 km/h, thus there is no 0 - 100 km/h acceleration. And the range is 100 KM with a 3-hour charge with 220 Volts.

Assistir Filme »

How to Charge an Electric Car for Free? Free Electricity?

How to charge your electric car for free? This is one of the biggest question silently goes around everyone’s head, who are planning to buy an electric car. 

Some of the electric cars come with on-board generator like Opel Ampera, so you don’t need to find a socket to plug your car. But you will still use petrol to charge your car, that’s the problem. And some electric cars come with nothing more than batteries and no generator on-board. So, you have to find a plug to charge your car. 

Using electricity to charge your car might be cheap in UK, but there is a global perspective. In many countries electricity is very expensive and people try to reduce their electcity consumption in many different ways. For those people, charging their own car from their house is not a very brilliant idea! If someone is trying to reduce electricity consumption by replacing light bulbs, you cannot sell them an electric car! This is the ugly truth.

So what to do? There are couple of tricky ways to charge an electric car for free. You can visit your friend and plug your car to their socket and you will be the loneliest person on this planet surrounded by six billion people. This option is not very plausible and a bad attitude. Another option is to visit a university campus and try to charge your car for free. In some universities they offer free chargers but not in every university so keep in mind. There are some other ways to charge an electric for free but you may end up in police station very quickly.

The fundamental solution to charging an electric car for free is to have a solar panel installed at your home. Sun is free and solar panels transfer the sun light into electricity. Of course they do have limitations; solar panels provide the best efficiency at 25 degrees Celsius. Extreme hot and extreme cold reduce their performance but still you will have the free electricity. 

You may find solar panel instalment is a very good solution but it is not cheap as well. When you invest a serious amount of money to an electric car, you will not be happy with the price solar panels. 

My suggestion, automotive industry should create funds to provide free solar panels to customers who buy electric cars. However, creating a fund for solar panels is not easy. There should be a government incentive and automotive industry should be motivated as well. I have some doubts about that, because automotive industry is designed to take money not to cash-back to customers. Finance industry does this very well, give money and take it back ;)

But the solar panels are one of the most fundamental parts of the electric cars. Without providing free electricity, why people should buy electric cars?

Another solution is, automotive industry can manufacture solar panel but it won’t go well.

Back to basic, make a contract with solar panel companies and provide them for free to customers. Thus, motivation to buy an electric will dramatically increase. I don’t think anyone will say no to free electricity :)

Will it come true?

Assistir Filme »