FUTURE MODELS
Revamp improves BMW i3 range and pace
The facelift of the i3 electric car adds straight-line speed and swings in extra power and handling with the i3s
Now that the diesel backlash has begun in Europe, the decision by BMW to build the i3 looks even cleverer than it did in 2014. And now its first ground-up electric car is getting even stronger, with more range and pace. The facelift of the i3 electric car adds straight-line speed and swings in extra power and handling with the i3s, plus the extra range from a new 94Ah/33kWh battery pack. It remains a brisk city car, rather than a blasting cap like the Tesla Model S, and it has nothing of the Californian brand’s marketing speed giggles, like its Ludicrous mode. Instead, the stock i3 reaches 100km/h in 7.3 seconds and that makes it eight-tenths of a second quicker than the range-extender model. The standard synchronous electric motor delivers 125kW and the from-idle torque peak of 250Nm, with BMW limiting its top speed to 150km/h. But that’s not as fast as the i3 range gets, with the new i3s model adding 10kW of power to that figure and stacking on another 20Nm of torque. To get there...
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