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During the i3's development, BMW often used a large city as a backdrop for the concept i3 photo shoots.  Megacity: A metropolitan area with a total population in excess of ten million people. BMW has all along told us that the i3 was designed for urban transport, a glimpse at the future of personal mobility in the megacities of the world. Heck, the code name for it was even "The Megacity Car."  However now that the i3 has been available for over a year, BMW is realizing that the Megacity car is selling better outside the city limits. I've never really accepted that the i3 would do well in the megacity markets, at least in the US, and I've voiced that opinion on many occasions. Having lived with electric cars for the past six years, I've had the experience of driving and charging in the both suburbs and in the city, so I'm intimately aware of the challenges of public charging. I live about 50 miles from New York City and go there frequently. Driving my ele...

Lou Ann Hammond of drivingthenation.com recently spent some time with BMW of North America's CEO Ludwig Willisch talking about the i3. One thing I found interesting is Willisch said that BMW has tradmarked all of the numbers from i 3 through i9 for the use of future vehicles. I had always heard they had tradmarked i 1 through i9, and didn't start at i3 as Willisch indicated. A simple trademark search reveals BMW does hold the trademark for all the names from i1 through i9. So either Ludwig made a simple mistake, or perhaps he slipped and let out the fact that BMW doesn't have any plans to ever produce an i1 or i2. This of course isn't earth-shattering news, I just found it interesting that he indicated that the reserved names start at the number 3.  The other thing I enjoyed was all of the MINI-E and ActiveE footage in the video is of me driving my old cars. You see me plugging in at my restaurant, driving the MINI-E around in New York City and driving my ActiveE up m...

i3s sitting at a port in the US awaiting vehicle carriers to take them to dealerships BMW of North America issued a press release today confirming that US i3 deliveries have begun. Not such a surprise since as of yesterday dealers across the country began taking in i3s . BMW of North America's CEO Ludwig Willisch said of the i3 launch: “ Today marks a big day at BMW of North America – What started out as a dream for an innovative sustainable vehicle under the BMW i brand can now be found on streets across the U.S.” There are currently hundreds of i3s in the US, either at the port, dealerships or en-route to the dealership. However only the BEV i3 is being released at the moment. The range extended version (REx) is still being held up at the port for what is assumed finalization of the EPA certifications. That is expected to be finished very soon and the REx vehicles can then begin shipping to dealers also.  And so it begins...