Whilst we wait for some more concrete info on the i3 I thought I would share one of the confusing elements of the i3 Concepts vs Production...... and that's its size. Specifically it's width and internal accommodation.
Whilst the BMW i3 is a new model for the BMW brand it is not the first small premium Eco Car to come from Germany. Far from it, the Audi A2 and Mercedes-Benz A Class both proceed it and if you look at the footprint of the second generation A Class I think that gives us the best approximation as to the size and layout of the BMW i3 (I think the i3 will be only a few mm's different in height, length and width). Whilst the latest 2013 Mercedes-Benz A class is little more than a Renault Megan in a snazzy party frock the first two generations of Mercedes a class were ground breaking and use a very similar design principle to the BMW i3. That being the sandwich floor. The benefits of this arrangement is that all the area above the sandwich is passenger space (like the Tesla S). That’s why the Second Gen Mercedes-Benz A Class whilst being sub 4 m car, like the BMWi3, actually had been internal space of a Volkswagen Golf - which is what I expect from the i3.
I suppose the reason why I was confused was the mixed messages established by the proportions of the concepts. The initial concept car was 2 m wide which at the time a number of people remarked why make a city car so wide, in fact as wide as a Range Rover! The subsequent Coupe Concept was 1.7 m wide but again in all the associated blurb for this concept described the concept as being "lower and wider than the production car". Having seen the patent drawings my thoughts are that the production car will be in the width bracket of 1.6 m wide in other words the width of a mini. My only bugbear/criticism of the BMW launch so far has been the sexing up of the concepts to the point where the proportions are not the proportions of the production car and as a result some people may be disappointed by how narrow the car is.
I do appreciate that fuel economy is directly related the to frontal area of a vehicle and therefore the smaller the frontal area the better the economy but both concepts have raised are an unrealistic expectations of the proportions of the production car. I think to a certain extent colour choice will be able to mitigate the width issue of the car, i.e. colour choice will help to make the car wider (maybe that's why all bonnets will be Black) conversely the wrong colour choice could make the car look even narrower. I can understand why all the associated literature for the concepts always talked about a four seater car because if the production car is 1.6 m wide then you’re never going to fit three people across the back seat of the car. I don’t have an issue with this personally as long as there is enough legroom for normal size adults to sit comfortably in the back......and certainly with the coach door arrangement access and egress will be much easier than in for example a Mk 7 Golf which has very small rear door apertures.
So what I'm saying is .... I just wish the Coupe Concept had been the production car width then we would have a realistic expectation of the internal accommodation.
Just my 2p's worth
Here is an BMW i3 and VW Golf Plus next to each other - My thoughts are these two cars could be quite closely matched for internal capacity - except for rear seat width.
http://www.autogespot.com/bmw-i3/2013/06/18
Whilst the BMW i3 is a new model for the BMW brand it is not the first small premium Eco Car to come from Germany. Far from it, the Audi A2 and Mercedes-Benz A Class both proceed it and if you look at the footprint of the second generation A Class I think that gives us the best approximation as to the size and layout of the BMW i3 (I think the i3 will be only a few mm's different in height, length and width). Whilst the latest 2013 Mercedes-Benz A class is little more than a Renault Megan in a snazzy party frock the first two generations of Mercedes a class were ground breaking and use a very similar design principle to the BMW i3. That being the sandwich floor. The benefits of this arrangement is that all the area above the sandwich is passenger space (like the Tesla S). That’s why the Second Gen Mercedes-Benz A Class whilst being sub 4 m car, like the BMWi3, actually had been internal space of a Volkswagen Golf - which is what I expect from the i3.
I suppose the reason why I was confused was the mixed messages established by the proportions of the concepts. The initial concept car was 2 m wide which at the time a number of people remarked why make a city car so wide, in fact as wide as a Range Rover! The subsequent Coupe Concept was 1.7 m wide but again in all the associated blurb for this concept described the concept as being "lower and wider than the production car". Having seen the patent drawings my thoughts are that the production car will be in the width bracket of 1.6 m wide in other words the width of a mini. My only bugbear/criticism of the BMW launch so far has been the sexing up of the concepts to the point where the proportions are not the proportions of the production car and as a result some people may be disappointed by how narrow the car is.
I do appreciate that fuel economy is directly related the to frontal area of a vehicle and therefore the smaller the frontal area the better the economy but both concepts have raised are an unrealistic expectations of the proportions of the production car. I think to a certain extent colour choice will be able to mitigate the width issue of the car, i.e. colour choice will help to make the car wider (maybe that's why all bonnets will be Black) conversely the wrong colour choice could make the car look even narrower. I can understand why all the associated literature for the concepts always talked about a four seater car because if the production car is 1.6 m wide then you’re never going to fit three people across the back seat of the car. I don’t have an issue with this personally as long as there is enough legroom for normal size adults to sit comfortably in the back......and certainly with the coach door arrangement access and egress will be much easier than in for example a Mk 7 Golf which has very small rear door apertures.
So what I'm saying is .... I just wish the Coupe Concept had been the production car width then we would have a realistic expectation of the internal accommodation.
Just my 2p's worth
Here is an BMW i3 and VW Golf Plus next to each other - My thoughts are these two cars could be quite closely matched for internal capacity - except for rear seat width.
http://www.autogespot.com/bmw-i3/2013/06/18
