BMW was first out of the box when it came to small EVs, at least as far as upmarket Euros were concerned. Its radical i3 city car, produced from 2013, had unique carbon-fibre bodywork, forward-opening rear doors and large diameter skinny wheels to reduce rolling resistance. Alas, it never really caught on.

Part of the problem was that the range of the original version was low (about 145km, though that more than doubled during the car’s production run).