What’s hot?
- Some people love it and some hate it, but we think the BMW i3 looks great. It has the kind of concept car looks that have people craning their necks for another look. We even had people hanging out of their cars on the motorway for a picture.
- Inside is just as striking, with a couple of LCD screens and – depending on which ‘interior world’ you pick (Loft, Lounge or Suite) you get naturally tanned leather and untreated Eucalyptus wood.
Delicious inside – all natural materials in natural shades - Acceleration from 0-62mph takes 7.2 seconds, and from behind the wheel it even feels a lot quicker than that.
- There’s a one-pedal driving experience here as well, which sounds unusual but is actually very relaxing. As soon as you let off the accelerator the brake energy regeneration kicks in to slow you down. After a while you’ll find yourself going for hours until you touch the brake pedal.
- It’s rear-wheel drive and it’s got 50:50 weight distribution so it’s pretty fun to drive. The heavy batteries are mounted under the floor so it has a very low centre of gravity, too.
- Running the i3 as a company car comes with a few crucial benefits for both driver and company. There’s no company car tax to pay at all until 2015, and even then it only goes up to 5%.
What’s not?
- The range may be pretty good for an electric car, but it’s still short enough to limit the i3’s practicality. A full charge still takes as long as eight hours unless you can find a quick charger, which will do it in half that time. We haven’t driven the range-extender version yet but that will be better.
- The ride is a little on the firm side so you’ll feel ridges and bumps around town more than you might expect.
- The boot is a fairly measly 260 litres and there are only two seats in the rear. If you’re regularly carrying baggage or people then the i3 may not be the car for you.
- All this tech doesn’t exactly come cheap, with a starting price of £25,860 after the £5,000 government grant. For a Fiesta-sized car that’s pretty hefty but in the grand scheme of electric cars it’s about right.
- We haven’t seen all the business car lease prices out yet – the one we quote looks expensive. BMW has yet to release its own rates although a BMW personal car lease will be from £369 – see our news story
