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The Introduction Of The BMW i3 Helped May Set A New Plug-In Selling Standard (Above: First i3 REx Delivered To US -mine!- shown) Note: This post was written by Jay Cole and first appeared on InsideEvs.com. The news was just too good not to share here! The times, they are a-changin! Since the start of the ‘current generation’ of plug-in vehicles in the United States, no one month has ever failed to delivered an improved result over the year prior.  Ever. Including this month, that number is at  42 and counting. More Than 3,100 Americans Hopped In The Front Seats Of A New Nissan LEAF However May still caught anyone who follows the EV selling trends off guard, as what had been expected to be a solid month turned out to be the best selling month of all-time.  Any month.  Any country. In total just over 12,000 plug-ins where sold, compared to the previous all-time high set in August of 2013 when and estimated 11,273 moved onto American’s ...

Breaking news from InsideEvs.com . The BMW i3 swept both awards it was a finalist for which were 2014 World Green Car And 2014 World Car Design Of The Year. Here's what InsideEVs had to say: From the shortlist of finalists, a winner in both categories emerged. Here first are the shortlisted automobiles: World Green Car - Audi A3 Sportback g-tron (+ Audi e-gas) - BMW i3 - Volkswagen XL1 World Car Design of the Year - BMW i3 - Mazda3 - Mercedes-Benz C-Class The winner, in both categories, is the BMW i3 . So, BMW can now add 2014 World Green Car and 2014 World Car Design of the Year to the list of awards the i3 has racked up. In regards to the 2014 World Green Car award, BMW’s Dr. Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Sales and Marketing, stated: “To have the BMW i3 named World Green Car of the Year is a great honor.  From the production process onwards, the BMW i3 is a truly sustainable vehicle, created with the needs of the 21st century city in mind.” Mean...

A little over a month ago we learned that BMW i3 REx buyers in New Jersey wouldn't have to pay sales tax on the vehicle as the State was including it in the zero emission vehicle tax exemption. That will obviously help i3 REx sales immensely since it will likely save the average i3 REx buyer in New Jersey about $3,500. There was never a question of whether the BEV i3 would be tax exempt, since it is truly a zero emission vehicle, but the i3 REx isn't. The range extended Chevy Volt, for example is not tax exempt in NJ. The reasoning behind the i3 REx exemption is two fold. First, the i3 REx has about an 80 mile all electric range which is more than double the Volt's. This means for most buyers the i3 REx will likely be driven on electric much more than the average Volt owner drives their car on electricity. Secondly, the i3's range extender isn't as robust as the Volts. You could easily drive the Volt all the time without ever plugging it in. I don't know why you...

Some say there are no moral victories and if you don't win, well, you just lose. I think that may apply to sports more than in other types of competitions, like say, the European Car Of The Year Award. The BMW i3 finished 2nd to the Peugeot 308, and it was in fact by a substantial margin. However it is worthy of noting that the i3 did finish ahead of the Tesla Model S, which is largely considered the best electric car available. In fact, some automotive journalists say the Tesla Model S is flat out the best car available, electric or otherwise. So in this case, while I'm sure BMW had hoped to win the award, I think the consolation prize of finishing ahead of the Model S was definitely something they privately celebrated. Autocar was the first to reveal the winner, getting the scoop on everybody. I'm actually here in Geneva now at the Geneva Motor Show covering it for InsideEVs and I didn't even know until I read what they posted! It seems Autocar may have in fact been...

Virtually every facet of the i3's manufacturing process is different and BMW is evidently struggling to manage setbacks According to Jay Cole over at insideevs.com i3 production is currently 50% lower than expected at this point in time. Cole's source is Manager Magazine Online , a German Publication, which states the high rejection rate of the carbon fiber parts made for the car. The article goes on to say that BMW's recent announcement that the company will be investing another 100 million euros to increase the production of carbon fiber is tied to this issue. Manager also says BMW is only churning out 70 i3's per day which is about half of what they were hoping to be making by now. BMW began i3 production in October so they are four months in and now have over 11,000 i3's on backorder. Plus, US sales are only just beginning so it would appear that even if BMW gets the current problems solved in short order (and that's a big "if"), it will still pr...

I'm heading off to NAIAS in a few hours to cover the show for InsideEvs and one of the things I'll be doing there is meeting Horatiu Boeriu of BMWBLOG and Samsung to review and discuss their new partnership with BMW and the BMW i3 Samsung Galaxy Gear App. The above Samsung TV video shot at CES in Las Vegas last week gives an overview of the features. Hopefully I'll get more info on the partnership at the show. You can enjoy this video for now.