BMW i3 and the E-drive revolution

THE BMW i3 shows the potential of an all-electric car: no ongoing fuel costs and a minimal carbon footprint.

The forward-opening rear door makes accessing the small back seat easier.

COULD 2014 be the year of the electric car?

Despite the fact that there's nothing particularly new about this sort of technology - electric vehicles first appeared in the 1880s and were popular into the early 20th century until advances in the internal combustion engine and the ability to produce petrol more cheaply led to their decline - interest in alternative car fuels such as electricity is growing even if the uptake from consumers is still relatively low. Last year, just 304 plug-in electric cars were registered in Australia with more than two-thirds of those belonging to fleet operators, which means that fewer than 100 were bought by private citizens.

Sales of electric vehicles, or EVs, in Australia are growing, however, even if from a low base. In 2012, 257 electric cars were registered here and in 2011 that figure was just 55 vehicles. Currently only three manufacturers import EVs into the Australian market: Mitsubishi, Ford and Nissan. This year, however, US-based electric carmaker Tesla will re-enter the Australian market with its new Model S sedan and BMW will launch its i3 electric vehicle here in the second half of the year. Pricing for the BMW i3 is expected to start at about $60,000, whereas the Tesla Model S is tipped to be priced at about $200,000. But success in the Australian market will have nothing to do with price; it will come down to the availability of electric car charging infrastructure, which at this point is poor, to say the least.

WISH was given a preview of the BMW i3 at the global launch of the vehicle in Amsterdam late last year. Why the launch was held in Amsterdam - a city better known for bicycles than cars - helps to explain one of the biggest challenges to the car's success in Australia. For potential buyers of electric vehicles, the biggest issue is range, or more specifically how many kilometres you can get on a single charge of the car's lithium ion battery. The longer the range, of course, the less frequently it needs to be charged. The BMW i3 boasts an all-electric range of up to 160km, depending on the driving mode (switching the car to EcoPro mode could extend the range to 200km), which is plenty for a day's driving for the average city driver.

Charging of the car can be done through a public charging station or at home using the domestic power supply. Here's the rub: to charge the car at home would take about eight hours, which means basically overnight (although that depends on where your house is situated in the electricity supply grid, so it could actually be longer). Charging the car at a 50kw fast-charging public station (domestic power is about 3kw) takes just 30 minutes to reach 80 per cent; at normal public charging points, it would take about two hours. Understandably, then, the second thing a prospective customer is going to be concerned about is how far they live or work from a fast-charging station; and in Australia, which has an area of more than 7.6 million square kilometres, that could be a very long way. At present there are about 80 public charging points in the country. This brings us back to Amsterdam, a city of about 220sq km, which has about 1000 public charging points and has plans to install another 1000 by the end of 2015.

BMW chose the Dutch capital for the global launch of the i3 to showcase the true potential of an all-electric vehicle. Amsterdam is like a model city for electric transportation. Its first public charging point was installed in 2009 and the city has set a target of installing 250 fast- charging points. In 2011, The Netherlands introduced a standard plug for electric cars, the type 2, which the European Commission last year declared to be the standard for Europe as a whole. Even though most people in Amsterdam park their cars on the street, the city has worked with residents' associations and public carparks to incorporate charging infrastructure into carparks. It has also has offered subsidies to companies to install charging points on their properties as well as offering subsidies to support businesses in buying electric vehicles. Charging your car in a municipal parking garage is often free (or cheaper than on the street). Owners of electric vehicles in Amsterdam have priority in applying for a parking permit and in certain places in the city there can be a waiting list of several years for parking permits for petrol-fuelled vehicles. Compare these initiatives to the situation in Australia and you begin to understand why the uptake of electric vehicles has been slow here.

A report published by the City of Amsterdam last year, titled Electric Mobility in Amsterdam, stated "there can be no cars without charging points, and no charging points without cars". In other words, it's something of a chicken and egg scenario. No one will build the charging infrastructure until there is enough demand for it, but no one will buy an electric vehicle until there is somewhere to charge it. The demise last year of the US-based company Better Place, which was to install a network of 500 charging stations in major east coast cities in Australia (it completed 20), has only made the task harder. It may also go some way to explaining why BMW has modest expectations for the i3 in Australia, which is a shame as driving is believing when it comes to electric cars.

The first thing I was asked after I told people I had driven the BMW i3 in Amsterdam was, "what does it feel like?" It's a fair question as it's a completely different experience to driving a petrol-fuelled car. First, it doesn't make any noise. The only sound the car makes is the sound of the tyres on the road and the wind passing by. In fact, the issue of wind noise, specifically the reduction of it, in part influences the design of electric vehicles. The car looks like no other on the road and that's precisely the point for BMW and other makers of electric cars. "The BMW i3's seats are decorated with an olive-leaf pattern - something natural, of course. That's what the customer wants: to see and feel the sustainability," says Simone Lempa-Kindler, project manager for BMW i, sustainability. "Customers are demanding openness from carmakers and asking what they do for the environment."

When you put your foot down on the accelerator you immediately notice that nothing is lost in terms of power when switching from a petrol-fuelled car to an electric one (0-100 km/h in 7.2 seconds with a top speed of 150km/h). It's when you take your foot off the accelerator you notice the second difference - the car comes to a speedy stop. BMW calls it one-pedal driving, whereby you can stop the car through deceleration - the strength of the braking depends on the speed of the vehicle and when the driver removes his or her foot. It's surprisingly easy to get used to driving with one pedal. And by stopping the car this way, the braking energy is recovered and converted into electricity, thereby extending the vehicle's range in city driving.

For the driver who suffers from what EV drivers call "range anxiety", BMW will sell the i3 with an optional range extender - a fuel-powered motor that generates additional electricity, which is then fed into the battery. The range extender will add about $10,000 to the cost of the car and can extend the i3's range to about 300km; as the nine-litre fuel tank is located in the front section of the car, the optional extra has no effect on the luggage space. And if you're planning a long road trip - which in Australia can be very long - and don't want to wait eight hours to charge your car every 200km or refill your range extender every time you pass a petrol station, BMW has come up with a unique option. BMW i3 customers can have the option of temporary use of a BMW with a conventional engine (for a fee) to use on a long drive.

BMW estimates that most Australian owners of its electric vehicles will charge their cars at home and use public charging for top-ups. Customers can buy a wall charging unit, designed to use the maximum strength available at the property to charge the battery in fewer than five hours. Your electric car, however, is only as green as the electricity you're charging it with and BMW is working with electricity suppliers around the world to use the greenest power possible to refute the accusation that electric vehicles just have a longer tailpipe. For a truly environmentally friendly alternative, the carmaker is also offering i3 customers the option of buying a solar-panelled carport that it claims can generate enough charge to last 25,000km each year (the Wallbox Pro charging unit can also recognise solar panels on your house if you have them and charge the car from power generated by them). And for another additional cost you can buy a "spare" lithium ion battery to store the energy collected from your carport's solar panels when your car isn't there.

With the range extender, the Wallbox Pro, the carport and the spare battery, you can drive a car that has no ongoing fuel costs and virtually no carbon footprint. BMW also claims that the i3 has the lowest repair costs of any BMW (15 per cent less than a standard car) and its maintenance costs are 20 per cent lower. It sounds like the future of motoring, doesn't it? And after two days of driving the car around Amsterdam we found ourselves doing the sums and planning on selling our petrol-powered car. Setup costs aside - for the full package including the solar carport you would get little change from $100,000 for this relatively small vehicle - a petrol-free driving experience is a nice thought and one that is tantalisingly within reach. The future of motor vehicles is almost here with the BMW i3 or the Nissan Leaf, Holden Volt or, if you have the means, the Tesla Model S. There is an inevitability to this kind of motor vehicle technology, but for it to move from the fringe and into the mainstream our cities will need to follow Amsterdam's lead.