Clear Doors option like the prototype

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Scoot

Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2013
Messages
9
I think BMW would be getting a lot more respect from the design press (and potential buyers) if they had offered a few of the same design features they had in the prototype. Most notably those clear door panels. As it is, the production model design they ended up with is somewhat boring. The same with the rear tail lights. The originals looked like they were hanging in mid air. But for some reason even though the production model still has a glass exterior surface they felt the need to cover the inside with a black coating. If security was a concern it seems like it would have been fairly easy to design an additional screen. Heck, I would have paid a premium for all of those features just to have that cool cutting edge design. I don't think BMW will have trouble with this car because they pushed the design too far, I think they'll have trouble because they took the guts out of the original design.

Why did Toyota beat Honda in the hybrid wars even though Honda beat them to market? Because Honda tried to sell a hybrid drive inside a car that looked like every other. Now Honda has redesigned their Prius competitor to have a more futuristic look similar to the Prius because their hybrid just wasn't selling.

Go ahead and sell the tamer version BMW, but please bring back some of the cutting edge design featues as options so you can reclaim some of the design edginess of the original. Carbon Fiber doesn't have a tremendous amount of pizzazz you can see from the outside. That's why I think styling needs to play a bigger part in mediating the high-tech story of the i3.
 
Scoot: One of the things that a lot of people I talked to like about it is how BMW did deliver basically the same car for production as the concept. The glass doors, and roof could never make it to production. The car could never pass side impact crash tests and although you may like how it looked, most people would not want people outside the car to be able to see their whole body while they were driving. Other than the reduced glass, the car is VERY close to the concept in fact:

Bild-Vergleich-BMW-i3-Concept-2011-2013-IAA-655x490.jpg


Bild-Vergleich-BMW-i3-Concept-2011-2013-IAA-04-655x655.jpg


Bild-Vergleich-BMW-i3-Concept-2011-2013-IAA-06-655x490.jpg


Bild-Vergleich-BMW-i3-Concept-2011-2013-IAA-05-655x655.jpg
 
I think that the biggest and most disheartening concession made between the concept and the real-world implementation here is not the visual loss of the clear doors but rather the need for BMW to restore the B-pillar that was so cleanly removed in the concept! I am glad for the safety aspect, no doubt, but for all of the openness and airy design they'd touted, as soon as you look over your shoulder, your open and airy view is now blocked by the (sturdy) black B-pillar!
Also, presumably another concession was having to significantly narrow the entry into the rear seats: look how much wider the rear coach doors open on the concept!!!

For all of the safety, rigidity and light-weightedness (yes, spell-check says this is not a real word), having to put the B-pillar back on the sedan is a bit of a shame. Perhaps one should hold out for the Coupe ;-)
 
EricF said:
I think that the biggest and most disheartening concession made between the concept and the real-world implementation here is not the visual loss of the clear doors but rather the need for BMW to restore the B-pillar that was so cleanly removed in the concept! I am glad for the safety aspect, no doubt, but for all of the openness and airy design they'd touted, as soon as you look over your shoulder, your open and airy view is now blocked by the (sturdy) black B-pillar!
Also, presumably another concession was having to significantly narrow the entry into the rear seats: look how much wider the rear coach doors open on the concept!!!

For all of the safety, rigidity and light-weightedness (yes, spell-check says this is not a real word), having to put the B-pillar back on the sedan is a bit of a shame. Perhaps one should hold out for the Coupe ;-)

Eric, the i3 doesn't have a B-pillar. The front and rear coach doors overlap when they close to provide the support that a B-Pillar would have provided, but is no B-Pillar there. Perhaps you are talking about the obstruction of that interconnection when looking out of the car from the rear seat because you can't really see it while sitting in the front without turning around and the rear passenger has an excellent outward view because of the oversized rear window. I've seen and sat in it, it is very wide open indeed!

Yes, the production doors don't open nearly as wide as the concept but as you noted concept cars don't need to worry about little things like protecting people in crashes! ;)
Here's a picture of the doors open:
1094515_10201576928133206_373666535_o.jpg
 
Tom, he's talking about what *IS* effectively the B pillar, and the difference can be seen (sort of) in the second row of your comparison picture montage. It went from thin window framing (maybe an inch wide) in the concept to thick structural member (multiple inches wide in two directions) in the production car. Personally I don't care but it *IS* there, and wasn't in the concept.
 
ChrisC said:
Tom, he's talking about what *IS* effectively the B pillar, and the difference can be seen (sort of) in the second row of your comparison picture montage. It went from thin window framing (maybe an inch wide) in the concept to thick structural member (multiple inches wide in two directions) in the production car. Personally I don't care but it *IS* there, and wasn't in the concept.

OK yes, effectively there is the support there as the two doors overlap to account for the lack of the typical B-Pillar. It seemed to me Scoot might have been under the impression they added a fixed B-pillar. It's a bit surprising to me that people can think there can be glass door and no supporting structure and still pass crash tests though. I'm not picking on Scoot, because I've see this from a lot of others also. Can you imagine what would happen with a side impact if there was nothing but glass between you and the outside world? It wouldn't be pretty :)

Anyway, rear door on the concept did have a faux support there of a few inches behind the glass but obviously it wasn't functional and it's not as thick and supportive as the production car is.
 
Thanks for the cosign, ChrisC :) Indeed I was referring strictly to the B-pillar created by the interlocking doors. My thought was more towards the driver's blind spot: I'm hardly the perfect driver but I do turn my head to fully check the lane before moving over. It's the time prior to that moment when I'd like to have a "preview" of the lane vacancy by just having the out-the-corner-of-my-eye impression first and it's this (crazy? Neurotic?) preview thing that i felt was taken away by the promise of the openness of the concept giving way to the practicality of the, lets just flatly call it, restored B-pillar.

Long ago when i drove a roadster, I really appreciated the 360° visibility; perhaps when the i2 is introduced, all of this B-pillar nonsense will be even more of a moot point :cool:
 
Come on now guys. I dont pretent to be an automotive structural engineer. I can full understand the concern for crash resistance but who said anything about using normal glass for those clear doors. A number of years ago they were talking about replacing the glass in cars with new types of plexiglass with a thin glass coating to prevent scratching over time. What about the types of laminations they use for blast resistant windows? I'm not saying that would be cheap but that's why you pay extra for options, plus like I said....it allows them to essentially have customers pay for their image enhancement while still offering a cheaper priced version for the general public. They always say that the Corvette gets the customers in the door so they can eventually sell them the Chevette that they can afford. Again, I'm not a structural engineer but if its such an impossible task then how was Volvo able to put a mostly-glass rear tailgate on its C30 hatchback? Volvo doesn't tend to take risks when it come to crash safety. ;-)
 
Seeing as we're on the subject of glass, thought I'd post this link I'd just read about the i8 being the first car to use gorilla glass for it's windows.

http://gizmodo.com/bmw-is-going-to-use-gorilla-glass-in-the-bmw-i8-1062248648
 
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