BMW i3 to recharge EVs

BMW Australia says the arrival of its new i3 battery-electric and range-extended city-car models will recharge Australia's moribund EV market.

Speaking at the first official Australian media drive of the ‘Born Electric’ carbon-framed four-seater in Canberra yesterday, BMW Australia head of product planning Sean Ticehurst said he was confident the $63K-plus vehicles would attract consumers back to electric cars.

“A lot of it [potential sales] is the focus on electric vehicles by car companies,” Ticehurst told motoring.com.au.

“We will do a lot around them [i3 and i8]. And it will attract people back to electric cars,” he stated.

According to VFACTs, just under 280 electric vehicles were sold in the first 10 months of 2013 — a tiny number versus the annual total of more than one million new vehicles.

But in the same period this year, even less EVs have been sold — 205. And that doesn’t include the seven i3 and two i8s BMW Australia has registered and are still to be accounted for by VFACTS!

BMW says local i3 sales will be skewed heavily toward the $69,900 i3 REx range-extender model. In addition to the same EV infrastructure and the pure-electric i3, the REx packs a 650cc twin-cylinder petrol engine (from a BMW scooter) coupled with a generator to charge the batteries on the move when and if needed.

Ticehurst says 80 per cent of sales will initially go to the REx. This is in spite of the research that BMW says shows the i3 BEV’s [battery electrical vehicle] range of 130km-plus will satisfy more than 90 per cent of consumers' daily automobile travel and trip needs.

BMW Australian spokespeople on hand would not be drawn on a sales target for the i3 or its electric-hybrid i8 supercar stablemate (which goes on sale in early 2015) at yesterday’s drive.

However, just last month BMW Australia marketing boss Tom Noble said  the brand would like to sell “15 [i3s] per month, in addition to two to three i8 monthly sales when it arrives.”

Although those forecasts include both BEV and REx versions of the i3, if BMW achieves them it could quickly become the largest seller of pure-EVs in the local marketplace. That said, there’s little doubt Tesla would like to spoil that party.

For the record, hybrid sales overall are essentially flat Down Under. To October YTD, overall electric vehicle (hybrid and EV) sales are only just up on the same period in 2013 — 10,818 v 10,154.