BMW

When Nissan released an “attack ad” against Tesla’s reservation process for the Model 3, they were mostly laughed at by Model 3 reservation holders – at least in the comment section of our article about the new ad campaign – but this new ad by BMW is arguably even worse.
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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.

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As we’ve often discussed before, the Chevy Bolt EV is often presented at the first real competitor to the Tesla Model 3 simply because they have a similar range – over 200 miles – and similar sticker prices – starting at $37,500 for the Bolt and $35,000 for the Model 3, but it’s really not that simple.

While priced like one, the Bolt EV is not a mid-sized luxury vehicle. If it wasn’t electric, it would be similar to Chevrolet’s Sonic, which is priced $15,000 cheaper. On the other hand, Tesla’s Model 3 is being marketed as a mid-sized sport/luxury vehicle and certainly looks more like one than the Bolt – which is more of a utility hatchback. Prior to its unveiling, Tesla CEO Elon Musk often talked about the BMW 3 Series as a reference for competition to the Model 3. That recently switched to the Audi A3.

Now it looks like the Model 3 will actually have to compete with an all-electric version of the BMW 3 Series. The vehicle could be introduced with the next generation 2018 models, but the all-electric version is expected later.
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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.
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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.
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Just a few weeks after we learned 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. We now learn that the automaker is reportedly about to announce an important partnership with Intel and Mobileye to develop its self-driving cars.
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Earlier this month, we reported on how BMW is putting electric vehicles on the ‘back burner’ to focus ‘i’ brand on self-driving cars. The German automakers announced its plan for electric vehicles and it looks like we shouldn’t expect much until at least the turn of the decade.

But now hope for BMW’s EV programs comes in the form of a new report claiming that the company is currently working on an all-electric version of the BMW i8, which is only offered as a plug-in hybrid with very limited electric range at the moment.
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You remember BMW’s crazy-looking electric and self-driving concept with flexible fenders unveiled earlier this year? Well apparently the automaker didn’t learn its lesson and expanded the platform to its Rolls-Royce brand to unveil a new concept: Rolls-Royce Vision NEXT100.

It looks almost as stupid and ostentatious as BMW’s version, but with a touch of RR.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In a surprising turn of event last month, several BMW executives in the automaker’s electric vehicle leadership, also known as the BMW ‘i’ brand, left the German automaker to join a newly formed Chinese EV startup, Future Mobility Corp, backed by Tencent Holdings.

Now Electrek has learned that two Tesla executive joined the BMW leadership at Future Mobility.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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It’s been long rumored that Apple has been in negotiations with BMW and Daimler for its electric car project, with Apple perhaps considering using parts from either of the carmakers. Now, German news outlet Handelsblatt reports that talks between Apple, Daimler, and BMW have ended, citing “industry sources.”

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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.
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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. 
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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.
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The BMW Group celebrated its centenary by highlighting its vision of the future, which will be electric and autonomous although the company is more ambiguous about the former. To embody the vision, BMW unveiled a new concept vehicle called ‘NEXT 100’, but never directly mentioned its powertrain, though it did make several references to its electric ‘BMW i’ division and its “Born Electric” moto.

The concept is reminiscent of rival Mercedes’ own autonomous vision concept unveiled last year, which is just as futuristic looking although in the shape of a minivan…
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I’ve hoped to see an electric Mini make it to market ever since BMW produced a few hundreds all-electric “MINI E” cars to test its electric drivetrain technology for what eventually became its “i” electric brand, but the vehicle never made it to a wide release.

Now although not fully electric, we should “pretty soon” see the first electric vehicle from BMW’s popular Mini brand, according to a brand representative.
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