Editor-in-Chief | Zhong Kun
Author | Hulu Man
Edit | Chen Shuhao
Reports from car hoist circles
If 20 years ago, the helmsman of BMW headquarters in Bavaria would not have imagined that Tesla, founded by Martin Eberhard and several engineers, would become bmw's strongest competitor 20 years later.
As the rings of the times entered the 2020s, with the influence of the Paris Agreement spreading further in continental Europe, major traditional car brands embarked on the road of transformation. Fuel fossil fuels are no longer the mainstream of the future; electric drives have long predetermined seats for the big ships of the future.
As the luxury car brand that knows how to handle the most, BMW knows that it needs to transform. So in 2022, BMW built an electric car called i3 on the basis of the "soul model" BMW 3 series, hoping to open the door to the pure electric market.
Also named after i3
But it's not a dream
For most of us ordinary people, the first time we came into contact with or heard about BMW's new energy vehicles was around 2014.
At that time, BMW launched the new energy i series for the first time, namely the million-class hybrid Coupe sports car i8 and the extended-range/pure electric small car i3. With the appearance of these two not very successful models, it indicates that BMW has entered the new energy track.
Coupe sports car BMW i8 Needless to say, based on plug-in hybrid, this guy's performance is comparable to that of a traditional V8 fuel sports car.
The bmw i3, even if it is a small car, also has a carbon fiber body as the foundation. The ultimate lightweight, coupled with the unique door opening design, makes this new energy car that is not very strong in performance have become a generation of models with great personality and tension.
With the suspension of the old i3, BMW's strategy in the field of new energy seems to have changed to some extent.
For example, the new BMW i3 is not a completely re-developed model, but a pure electric model based on the current G20/G28 fuel vehicle.
From the design level of the vehicle, the new BMW i3 directly follows the design language of the new generation of BMW 3 Series. Just as a new energy vehicle, it uses elements such as closed grille and blue sporty decoration. To put it bluntly, the new pure electric BMW i3 lost the maverick of the year and looks more like a product of "compromise with the market".
At the core three-electric level, this pure electric four-door sedan has a 210kW, 400N·m rear motor, which can complete 0-100km/h acceleration in 6.2 seconds. At the same time, the chassis suspension structure of the new car is also consistent with the fuel version of the 3 Series, continuing to use high-end McPherson front suspension and multi-link rear suspension. Therefore, the overall driving performance of this car is still no problem, and it is as stable as the BMW 3 Series.
In terms of battery performance, the new i3 has a 70kWh ternary lithium battery, and under THE CONDITION OF NEDC, its 100 km power consumption is 14.3 kWh, which can bring about 500 km of NEDC range.
Overall, whether it is the design of the new BMW i3 or the vehicle's three-electric system, its performance on the books is relatively decent, and it has not brought too many highlights. With these two points, can we directly draw conclusions about the BMW i3? Don't worry, this new pure electric vehicle, there are still many places worth exploring.
New energy for oil to electricity
Is it a good car?
In the current new energy market, there is a mainstream view, that is, the pure electric vehicle of "oil to electricity" will not have too good performance. The models built based on the exclusive platform of new energy, whether it is the stability of the three electricity or the intelligent performance, will be much better.
So, the new i3, which is "the same origin" with the fuel version of the 3 series, can not escape the fate of "oil to electricity"?
First of all, why do we reject oil-to-electricity models?
In fact, when new energy vehicles were just emerging, the country was full of many "fraudulent models". This type of model is based on the old fuel vehicle platform, but the engine, gearbox, and fuel tank are replaced by electric motors, reducers and batteries.
Due to the unreasonable design structure, the earliest "oil to electricity fraud supplement model", whether reliable or practical, can be described as "poor", completely unable to meet the needs of consumers.
But today, we need to look at things with a dialectical eye.
For example, when BMW built a new generation (G) model, it made a modular treatment for the rear-drive CLAR platform and the front-drive ULK/FAAR 2 platform.
To put it simply, when these two platforms were born, they were compatible with the diversified power layout of fuel, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric models.
Therefore, since the design was made, the CLAR platform reserved enough space for the three-electric system. Therefore, the body layout, chassis structure and battery safety of the new BMW i3 will not be affected. In simple terms, the car can still theoretically have a good range, a good handling performance and safety performance.
In the end, the new generation of "oil-electric compatible" platform adopted by BMW i3 is also a very astute product. This platform seems to be "oil to electricity", but in fact, it is more similar to BYD's car-making platform, which can achieve the compatibility of multiple power modes, reduce research and development costs and ensure the quality of the car, which is almost the perfect concept of "killing three birds with one stone".
But the problem is that the vehicle's car-making platform not only determines the mechanical quality of the vehicle, but also determines whether the vehicle's electronic and electrical architecture is advanced...
For a very simple example, the traditional electrical and electronic architecture is still a CAN bus system, this type of design is relatively simple, but correspondingly, it will also be due to the slow transmission speed of information, low computing power and other reasons, resulting in vehicles can not adapt to the problem of high-tech intelligent equipment.
Some advanced electrical and electronic architectures, such as cadillac LYRIQ's VIP electronic architecture, not only support highly intelligent interactive systems and intelligent driver assistance systems, but also realize wireless information transmission between various systems, so that the level of intelligence of the vehicle and the stability of the intelligent system are taken to a higher level.
So, bmw i3, a pure electric model that uses the same platform as fuel vehicles, is not intelligent enough?
To put it simply, as a pure electric vehicle model, the BMW i3 is not much more intelligent than the fuel version of the BMW 3 Series. However, thanks to the new generation of electronic and electrical architecture launched by BMW in 2018, all of BMW's current models have a high level of intelligence. Therefore, the BMW i3 also provides FOTA, high-end intelligent auxiliary driving and other functions, and its intelligent performance is almost the same as the current mainstream new power electric vehicles.
Soul Question: i3 with low battery life
Does it mean that BMW is not technically sufficient?
After watching the PPT of many new power brands and listening to the stories of many new power brands, I believe that many consumers will feel that the new power brand is more bold and more courageous to innovate. Therefore, the technical reserves of the new power brands will be above the traditional car companies...
Such an understanding may have a lot of deviations.
Put it this way, on the core technology of Sandian, the traditional automobile brands represented by BMW have begun to explore as early as the last century.
At the 1972 Munich Olympics, two orange BMW 1602 Elektro-Antrieb electric vehicles ran as support cars on the marathon. Although the two BMW's earliest electric vehicles have a range of only thirty kilometers, although they were not mass-produced in the end. But it is undeniable that the accumulation of half a century is enough for BMW to have a powerful electric drive technology.
At present, the new BMW i3 is equipped with BMW's fifth-generation eDrive electric drive technology. The new generation of technology not only brings an integrated motor with a drive efficiency of up to 93%. At the same time, the new Three Electrics technology is also committed to creating performance that is closer to the daily car scene.
Many friends question the BMW i3 or other models "not far away", compared to the new forces model often 600, 700 or even 800 kilometers of cruising range, BMW i3 and other models only more than 500 kilometers of cruising range is simply pitiful...
But did you know that behind this, it is not that BMW is unwilling to "heap capacity" and "heap endurance".
Looking at the pure electric vehicle models created by traditional car companies, most of their cruising range is fixed at about 500 kilometers. Behind the scenes, the biggest reason is that the car-making thinking of these traditional manufacturers is more conservative, and they always take the word "stable" as the head when developing. To ensure the safety of the battery, BMW would rather sacrifice a portion of the endurance in exchange for greater stability.
At the same time, if you take apart the battery pack of the BMW i3, you will also find that the energy density of the car's battery pack is indeed not high. Because when designing the battery, BMW also designed a buffer structure inside the battery module to ensure that the vehicle is in extreme situations such as collisions. Similarly, sacrificing data for security is a relatively safe approach at present.
If we put aside the safety of the battery and only talk about the practical performance of the vehicle, you will find that models such as bmw i3 or iX3, although the NEDC mileage is not high, but the emphasis is on the "real" endurance. For example, the power consumption of bmw i3 can be controlled within 15kWh, and it is relatively stable in most road conditions.
And such a performance can actually avoid the emergence of "endurance anxiety disorder" to a certain extent. After all, when the driver sees "400 km remaining", the car can really run 400 km or close to 400 km. And some new forces models, when the driver looks at the endurance of the watch, he also has to do a calculation by himself, and he can get the real endurance by 80% or 70%.
epilogue
In the price range of 350,000 yuan, the BMW i3 pure electric car is indeed not cheap.
However, if we dissect this car, we will find that this "oil to electricity" luxury car still has many advantages, such as its control, its three electric quality... Both are enough for luxury car consumers to have a reason to buy it.
Finally, in a sentence given to XiaoBei by "World Football", he sent to BMW i3: "He is a darling and an outcast, he is chased and exiled." He regained respect in weightlessness and gained more respect in respect."
Although the previous generation of BMW i3 suffered Waterloo, we believe that the new generation of BMW i3 will be favored by the market.
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