The Goodwood Test: BMW i3S

Heritage

Launched in 2013, the BMW i3 was immediately the best looking and sportiest electric supermini on the market. yes, Nissan arguably got their first with the Leaf, and was joined by Renault with the Zoe, and later arrivals such as Kia’s Soul EV, but it’s the i3 that really is the desirable, sexy, premium end of the market. There are currently about 130,000 electric cars on the UK’s roads; much much more needs to be done in a very short space of time to encourage electric take-up, partly to stem the rise in CO2 emissions caused by the Government’s disastrous handling of diesel. While the public continues to look to the Government to keep the EV grant of £4,500 available, and to bodies such as Chargemaster to roll out more electric charging points in double-quick time, BMW has wisely added a range-extender version of the i3 to its fleet, which means a little two-cylinder petrol engine gets rid of range anxiety between charges (it powers the battery, not the wheels). We’re testing the facelift pure-electric i3 here.

Design

By far the pick of all EVs out there. While some have made their interiors as bland and “normal”-looking as possible, so as not to put off consumers worried about an EV being too high-tech, BMW has gone all futuristic on us, but in a good way, as it has also done with the i8 electric sportscar.

The two rear doors are suicide designs, opening from the front backwards. Inside, the dash floats around you and a screen rises out of the middle. The materials are a cunning mixture of premium woods and metals and eco/recycled materials in the doors. Plus, the seatbelt are an electric blue. Win.

You get a healthy dose of standard kit: an updated version of BMW’s iConnectedDrive (emergency call, navigation, online services, real-time traffic) plus DAB and Bluetooth, and heated seats (we dare you to put those on and watch the range plummet). Oh, and those skinny tyres for low rolling resistance still look hilarious to us.

Performance

It feels direct, reassuringly heavy, and positively peppy, with BMW’s signature great steering and all that lovely torque, the best character of electric propulsion, from a standstill. On the downside, that battery will take three hours to recharge, unless you find a ChargeNow public point which will do an 80 per cent charge in 40 minutes.

You would undoubtedly want the range-extender version of the i3, for another £3,000, certainly until public charging infrastructure improves dramatically, at which point you’d want to hastily switch back to pure EV, to jettison the weight of that small engine.

Passion

In a bespectacled, hooray-we’re-saving-the-planet way, the i3 evokes plenty of passion. If this is the future – a sexy, premium way of being sustainable – we’re on board. With both the i3 and i8, BMW has cleverly managed to transpose its dynamic, sporting DNA into an entirely new mode of transport. hats off to them for that, because the rest of the car world seems to have decided you must create the ultimate bland offering so as not to scare the horses. We prefer the carrot approach to saving the world: make it sexy, comfortable, desirable and glamorous, and they will come. Just make it a tad cheaper too, if you wouldn’t mind. 

Price from: £30,000 after £4,500 government grant