As sales of electric vehicles continue to surge, many new and prospective customers have questions about qualifying for federal tax credit on electric vehicles.

Whether you qualify is not a simple yes or no question… well, actually it sort of is, but the amount you may qualify for varies by household due to a number of different factors. Furthermore, there are other potential savings available to you that you might not even know about yet.

expand full story

German automaker BMW has announced an updated timeline to reduce carbon emissions throughout the entire life cycle of its internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, including the entire production process. In an announcement ahead of next week’s IAA Mobility conference in Munich, the local automaker announced its new goal of a 40% reduction of 2019 CO2 levels by 2030, up from its previous goal of 33.3%.

expand full story

BMW i3’s clock is ticking as the German automaker confirmed that it will stop selling the electric car in the US this year.

The end of the i3 comes as BMW is launching the i4 and iX electric vehicles.

expand full story

BMW has committed to keep producing its i3 electric car until 2024 even though the automaker is bringing its next-generation electric vehicles to market starting next year. expand full story

In this post, we review the portable EV charging cords that come standard with the following electric vehicles sold in North America: Tesla (all models), the Audi e-tron, the Nissan Leaf, the Jaguar I-Pace, the Porsche Taycan, the Chevy Bolt, the BMW i3, and Hyundai (all BEVs). This review is pretty wild; the specs (usefulness) of OEM standard charging cords are all over the place. Some car makers gave a ton of thought to this while others clearly gave none. That’s concerning, because “electricity is everywhere” is a major argument in favor of EV ownership, but that’s only meaningful if you can usefully tap the grid.

expand full story

With every year, buyers have more all-electric vehicle options and 2019 is not going to be an exception.

Here are the new all-electric vehicles coming in 2019. expand full story

The BMW i3 is generally considered an all-electric vehicle, but it is also offered with an optional gas generator that acts as a range extender.

The German automaker now says that it is killing the range extender in Europe due to the new battery pack making it irrelevant, but they are holding on to the feature in North America and Japan. expand full story

BMW is announcing today that it is introducing a battery cell upgrade to 120 Ah in the 2019 BMW i3, which should result in a range of ‘over 160 miles’ (260 km). expand full story

Over the past 3 years, BMW has been running a trial of its ‘ChargeForward’ program with BMW i3 owners willing to automatically delay the charging of their vehicle at the request of their local electric utility, PG&E, in order to offset peak demand.

BMW is presenting the results of the trial and says that electric car owners can turn i3 into ‘cash cow’ and use more solar power with controllable load technology expand full story

The BMW i3 is rumored to soon be getting a new battery cell upgrade to push the range ‘over 200 miles’, but Lion Smart thinks you can you push the vehicle a lot further.

They unveiled a BMW i3 with a 100 kWh battery pack for 435 miles of range as a proof-of-concept. expand full story

BMW has released a new video called ‘A glimpse into the future by BMW i’, which they used as a strange way to announce a new feature called ‘electricity dispenser’ coming to the i3. expand full story

The BMW i3 has mainly seen relatively small incremental upgrades and big battery cell updates since its launch back in 2013.

Now the all-electric car is rumored to get another battery cell upgrade to push the range over 200 miles. expand full story

The use of electric car battery packs to create large energy storage projects is becoming increasingly popular.

Now, a new one made of BMW i3 battery packs is connecting to the UK National Grid and has become one of the largest to date. expand full story

As BMW confirmed that it is about to unveil a series of new all-electric vehicles this year, a company executive said that they are considering getting rid of their current only all-electric vehicle, the BMW i3, and their plug-in hybrid of the same sub-brand, the BMW i8. expand full story

Norway’s electric vehicle association decided to put 5 popular all-electric vehicles to a thorough winter test to see how they performed under harsh conditions.

Between the Nissan Leaf, VW e-Golf, Hyundai Ioniq Electric, Opel Ampera-e (Chevy Bolt EV), and the BMW i3, the association tentatively declares the Ioniq as the winner. expand full story

When you are an executive at an automaker, especially the CEO, you generally drive a vehicle made by your company.

It was the case of Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann, but now that he left the automaker in the midst of GM selling the company to the PSA Group, the executive, who tried to steer Opel toward becoming an electric-only automaker, went all-electric himself with a Tesla and a BMW i3.

Here’s why it is interesting. expand full story

Pacific Gas and Electric customers in California can (now until May 31st) receive an additional $10,000 off the price of a BMW i3 via the instructions on the press release below. They join Southern California Edison customers and New Jersey’s PSE&G customers in getting the $10,000 rebate.

That’s in addition to the $7500 federal tax credit and the $2500 California State EV credit for eligible incomes as well as use of the HOV lanes and other incentives. PG&E throws in a $500 Clean Fuel rebate as well. That’s a total of $20,500 off the price of the BMW i3 which starts at around $44,500 making the final base cost of the i3 $24,000. Find BMW i3 inventory and lowest prices using this link.

expand full story

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) made a big deal of its announcement that it is leasing 288 electric vehicles, including 160 fully-electric vehicles (mostly BMW i3s) back in 2015.

But now that the fleet has been in operation for over a year, a report shows that the all-electric vehicles are barely being used. expand full story

Earlier this year, BMW unveiled its new 2018 i3 electric car with a small design refresh and new sport package.

Today we get to take a look at the new EV with a twist – through augmented reality with BMW’s new app using Apple’s ARKit. expand full story

The BMW i3, which is the German automaker’s only all-electric car, is also offered with a gas-powered range extender and the option is now putting the company in trouble with the UK’s consumer watchdogs.

The automaker is being asked to pull an ad that markets the vehicle as “clean” and “zero-emission.” expand full story

BMW celebrated today the production of its 100,000th i3 electric car at the Leipzig plant in Germany today.

While that’s a cool milestone, that wasn’t the coolest thing happening at the Leipzig plant today. For the occasion, they also inaugurated a new battery storage facility powered by old BMW i3 battery packs. expand full story

This week, BMW unveiled the 2018 version of its flagship all-electric vehicle, the BMW i3.

Unless you are a true fan of the i3 program, you probably won’t see anything major with this new version, which doesn’t feature any significant powertrain upgrade, but there are a few new nice changes.  expand full story

On the new electric vehicle front, BMW had nothing to offer since launching the i3 and i8 almost 5 years ago and they are not expected to have a new EV built from the ground up to be electric until the end of the decade.

But they could be releasing updated versions of their current EVs in order to compete with new longer range electric cars coming to market. expand full story

After Zero Motorcycles’ e-bike powertrains being used to power electric jetskis, now BMW’s i3 battery packs are powering electric boats.

The German automaker confirmed today a deal with Torqeedo, a German boat manufacturer, to use their battery pack in a new electric boat powertrains. expand full story

The opinions of people on the BMW i3 seem to be very divided. They either love the car or simply hate it. It is either good or bad. Black or white. Is that accurate though? Can it be placed in a box like that or is there more to this little EV?

I think there is a lot more to this car than meets the eye. The i3 seems to be the only car over a long period of time where BMW actually took a risk and thought outside of the box. BMW went all out and built a car that was entirely new from the ground up. And when I say new, I don’t mean new, like the new 5 series is new. No, I mean new as in using a new approach with new materials, based on a new design and with a new way of propulsion, i.e. electric.

BMW thought way outside of the box and built a very efficient and lightweight electric vehicle. I lease an electric-only i3 from 2015, and over the last so many months I have put more than 10,000 miles on it, driving it all over the NY metro area. I drove it during warm summer days, during torrential downpours and during the Stella snowstorm. By now, I think, I have enough miles under my belt to know (and share) what it is like to daily-drive the BMW i3. The last twelve months have changed the way I see this car and it is anything but simply black or white. Some features, I love and some others I don’t. Read on and find out what it’s like to drive in, and live with, the BMW i3.

expand full story

Vattenfall, an important energy company in Europe, unveiled last year a new 2.8 MWh energy storage facility built with batteries from over 100 BMW i3 electric cars.

It was an interesting project since they are using used battery modules from electric vehicles, but now the company has announced a different contract with BMW this week to buy brand new i3 battery packs directly from them for the same reason. expand full story

It has been quite difficult to follow BMW’s position on electric vehicles over the past year. The German automaker’s electric vehicle leadership under ‘BMW i’  left to join a newly formed Chinese EV startup, and they announced having put their EV plans on the “back burner.”

Now comments made by Stefan Juraschek, Vice President of Electric-Powertrain Development at BMW, are giving us a better understanding of the reason why the company is holding back when it comes to EVs. expand full story

You have to give it to BMW for being at the forefront of smart charging programs for electric vehicles. The German automaker has been running several special programs to get more out of an electric car fleet, including offering grid services in California as we recently reported.

This week, BMW announced yet another electric vehicle charging program, BMW Digital Charging Service (DCS), to manage charging sessions in order to save money and get more out of home solar installations. expand full story

At a time when almost all automakers are announcing upgrades to their mid-range electric vehicles under their 2017 models, like VW with the e-Golf or Ford with the Focus Electric, you will not hear about an upgrade to BMW’s i3 since it was actually announced earlier this year – when they introduced their new 33 kWh battery pack upgrade.

It was a welcomed upgrade, but not the next generation design refresh that people have been waiting for. Now sources say that the German automaker is working on a design refresh for the 2018 BMW i3 to be released next year and it will again feature a range increase – up to 50%. expand full story

While automakers like Renault and Mercedes are unveiling new battery pack options and brand new electric vehicle models at the 2016 Paris Motor, BMW is unveiling a new color option for its lineup of electric cars.

It’s kind of disappointing, but to be honest, I find the new paint job to be so stunning that I almost forgive them for not having anything else new on the EV front for the Paris Motor Show. expand full story

After unveiling its ‘Vision NEXT100’ plan, BMW was reportedly “putting electric vehicles on the back burner” in order to focus on self-driving. The company only officially announced a new BMW i8 in 2018, hopefully all-electric this time, and its iNEXT all-electric and autonomous car in 2021. The iNEXT will be based on a concept unveiled earlier this year.

Now a new report on the German automaker’s updated electric vehicle timeline claims to give more insights into vehicle releases over the next 5-6 years, and it is just as disappointing as BMW’s official timeline. expand full story

BMW released its July US sales report this week and the German automaker confirmed a significant increase in BMW i3 sales, which is especially surprising considering the upgraded 33 kWh battery pack has been confirmed for the 2016 i3 set to be available in the coming months. expand full story

Earlier this year, Germany announced its first electric vehicle incentive program to spur adoption of green vehicles in the country. Financed by both the state and the local auto industry, the program offers a €4,000 discount at the purchase of an all-electric vehicle and €3,000 for a plug-in hybrid.

The program is capped to electric vehicles with a starting price of less than €60,000, which prompt Tesla to respond and claim that it was purposely left out by the auto industry since its vehicles start at over €60,000. While the program is not helping Tesla, it is certainly helping BMW as reports are coming out claiming that sales of the BMW i3 are somewhat unsurprisingly significantly rising in Germany since the launch of the program earlier this month. expand full story

As we discussed before, electric car fires are fairly rare and nothing points to them being more frequent than in gas-powered vehicles, but this instance is particularly unusual because it actually occurred in a BMW i3 owned and operated by the Italian state police in Rome. expand full story

Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a commitment to convert the city’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. He announced that several of the city’s department will lease or acquire hundreds of all-electric (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) vehicles with a significant number going to the police department (LAPD).

Today we learn that BMW won its bid on an LAPD contract to supply 100 all-electric BMW i3 vehicles. expand full story

In a not so surprising but disappointing report for EV enthusiasts today, we learn that BMW is putting its electric vehicle programs on the “back burner” in order to focus its ‘i’ brand, under which the German automaker has been releasing its electric vehicles, on self-driving cars instead.

The company reportedly will not release a new all-electric vehicle until 2021. expand full story

This morning a reader brought to our attention that the Tesla.fr domain, which is not owned by Tesla but is a premium domain in France, was redirecting traffic to the BMW i3 page of the German automaker’s French website. expand full story

It sounds like a car thief is moonlighting as a BMW marketing representative. An all-electric BMW i3 was recently stolen in Highgate, north London. As the thief was making his getaway, he called his buddy to invite him to his “proper flat”, where he keeps his “curved tele”, to take a look at his new car.

He didn’t realize that he was being recorded with a dashcam. The result is a pretty funny video and a happy ending. expand full story

Several German automakers held their annual shareholders meeting this week and just like during Daimler’s last month, the subject of competing with Tesla in the luxury segment with long-range electric vehicle came up. German premium automakers like Audi, BMW and Porsche are admittedly about 6 years behind Tesla with the first few 200+ miles range electric vehicles coming to market starting in 2018 – versus Tesla’s Model S which launched in 2012.

BMW took the occasion to clearly lay out its electric vehicle plan under its ‘i’ sub-brand. The company confirmed that it will launch the new electric and autonomous iNext model in 2021. The vehicle is based on the recently unveiled ‘NEXT 100’ concept – picture above. expand full story

Last week we reported on BMW advertising its new 2017 BMW i3 as having “50% more range” and now the automaker makes its updated all-electric vehicle official and confirms a 33 kWh battery pack – making it one of the biggest non-Tesla pack currently on the market.

The automaker is now referring to the i3’s new range as “up to 114-mile”, which is not exactly a 50% increase depending on the standard. expand full story

BMW has been talking about introducing a higher capacity battery pack for a while now. At first, we were talking about a roughly 25% improvement on the EPA-rated range of 81 miles, which would have increased the range to about 100 miles.

Later, the increase was then said to be closer to about a 50% increase based on comments by BMW AG board member Ian Robertson. It looks like BMW is now sticking to that number and even used it to advertise the next generation, which should be made available this summer. expand full story

Several executives in BMW’s electric vehicle leadership, including 20-year BMW veteran Carsten Breitfeld who reportedly developed the i8, left the German automaker to join a Chinese EV startup, according to a new WSJ report.

The startup in question is Future Mobility Corp, a newly formed EV company backed by Tencent Holdings.

Tencent is an important holding company in China with significant investments in several of the country’s biggest internet, video game and social media companies. expand full story

BMW announced an updated version of its car-sharing program today. The new service called ‘ReachNow’ is officially launched in Seattle with an initial fleet of 370 vehicles,  including the electric BMW i3, the BMW 3 Series and the MINI Cooper. The German automaker confirmed that it has plans to launch the program in 10 cities, including 3 more by the end of the year.  expand full story

At an annual BMW Group meeting earlier today, CEO Harald Krüger seemed to have completely recovered from his accident with the Model X Falcon Wing door earlier this month, and announced the automaker’s next step in electric mobility: Project i 2.0.

Krüger confirmed that the BMW i brand (i3 and i8) already sold more than 50,000 vehicles and now with “i 2.0”, the group plan to expand the market with a new i3, a convertible i8 and an electric Mini. expand full story

Car Magazine claims to have unveiled BMW’s long-rumoured third “i” electric vehicle; the BMW i6 – the magazine published the rendering of the vehicle featured above. The report is somewhat odd and it should be taken with a grain of salt in my opinion. expand full story