French review of the i3 + my drive in an Active-E!

[Lolotte]

Finally, it seems that some French journalists tried the pre-production i3!
Here is the link, if you want...

http://www.lefigaro.fr/automobile/2013/07/16/30002-20130716ARTFIG00413-bmw-i3-premieres-impressions-de-conduite.php

You have a nice pictures...

Here are the main facts:

"Even without moving the front seats, you can easily slide on the back seats."
"When you look up, you can see two glass roofs, a little bit like a plane cockpit"
"A metallic and rotary button is what you can call the transmission. If you turn it clockwise, you activate the Drive position. Going the other way is activatiing the reverse mode"
"It starts off like a rocket"
"The maniability is without limits"
"Not as good in long and large curves if you are going too fast"
"The electric direction didn't convince us at great speed because of its lack of consistency and exchange of information. Its softness (smoothness?) will still be a great thing in city trips"
"Sofisticated energy recovery system when you decelerate"

Seems great!

One French article is also saying that the price will be announced on Monday 22th, but it is very hard to believe...

http://www.latribune.fr/entreprises-finance/industrie/automobile/20130717trib000776178/vous-voulez-absolument-la-nouvelle-bmw-i3-electrique-reservez-la-sur-internet.html

And the 3 events will be from London, New york and somewhere in Asia!

Anyway, just to finish.. I tried the Active-E and it is just an amazing experience... The silence is just so good and I just loved the one-pedal feeling...
One funny thing is, while I was driving, a Fluence ZE was just in front of me... So I could compare the acceleration, and of course, the Active-E is way better!
On my trip of 38km, I used less than 20km of autonomy. I guess that people driving the car before me were not as gentle as me, so the autonomy was not really accurate...

 

[Parker]

Great review. Shame I couldn't make the photos any bigger, they show stuff we haven't seen before.

The way information has been dripping out it wouldn't surprise me if the pricing was available on the 22nd - I was told customer orders can be placed on the system on the 29th ...... also where would that specific date have come from if they hadn't been told - it does seem as if each reviewer has been given their own special snippet of information or picture to make their review unique.

The 3rd location for the launch (I read somewhere) will be Shanghai ( I thought it might be BMW Welt) but looks like its not.

I suppose London, New York and Shanghai are Megacities.

I do wonder though if that's where this car will sell first off until the charging infrastructure catches up.
I think its much more likely that it will be the suburbs of the Megacities where people have drives and garages where this car will first find homes.

 

[Lolotte]

I do hope that orders could be placed as early as the 29th of July...

Unfortunately, I don't think it will be the case, or there will be a different policy from one country to another, which seems quite odd!

I read or heard that in England some people already placed deposit to their dealers for the i3.
In France, we don't even know who they are!!

But we can pre-reserve the i3 and they say it will give us a space on the assembly line, and that we will configure the car later.

Wait and see, I guess!

 

[Parker]

I read or heard that in England some people already placed deposit to their dealers for the i3.
In France, we don't e. n know who they are!!

My understanding is that all UK cars for 2013 have a £1000 deposit against them.

I cannot understand why such a big deal was made about the UK dealers, only 40 odd are i dealers here, I would imagine 100% of Dutch & Norwegian BMW dealers will be, plus loads more than 40 in France & Germany. I found the publicity around that announcement odd.

BMW must know the i networks in other countries by now, why no announcement about them.

 

[BeepEe]

Here in Belgium i recieved an invitation for THE "avant première of THE BMW i3 , had to chose a time frame , slots of 1h30

The avant première is organised during 2 Days, August 1th and 2th in Knokke, BMW beach lounge. http://www.bmwbeachlounge.be/

Since today it possible to reserve a i3 online, so i reserved me a production spot...