Michael Graham Richard of Treehugger says that the i3 “looks like a cross between a BMW SUV, a VW Golf, and a Nissan crossover.” I’m not sure about the Golf part, but I definitely see some Rogue and X1 action going in here, except it’s clearly meant to be a compact coupe.

As far as the technology involved, there is a BMW electric motor generating up to 125 kW/170 hp and a peak torque of 250 Newton meters (184 lb-ft). The concept vehicle is rear-wheel drive and the lithium-ion battery is stored under the floor, both of which should help with handling. The estimated range is 160 kilometers (100 miles).

The interior is unique with a main touchscreen panel in the center console. They’ve used “a mixture of leather, wood, wool and other renewable raw materials here. No word on pricing and availability. For now this BMW vehicle is just a concept and it may not even ever make it to production, but at least it indicates that BMW is actively exploring and expanding on its electric car efforts.

[Source]

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Urban commuters don’t really need a car, since a bicycle is so much more compact and can more easily weave its way through traffic. Even though you may know BMW better for its cars, it has now unveiled a pedal-electric bicycle that it calls the i Pedelec.

Aside from having a three-speed 42-volt electric hub motor that’ll help push you along, the more unique feature about the iPedelec is that it can fold up. This makes it much easier to transport between locations; two of them can reportedly fit in the back of the BMW i3 Concept EV. Even when folded up, the wheels can maintain contact with the ground. This means that you can push it along when you’re in a subway car, for example.

You get a motor assist of up to 16mph using the 14.75 ft-lbs of torque. There’s an effective range of 16 to 25 miles per charge with a full charge taking about four hours. If you use a quick charge station, a full recharge can take as little as 90 minutes. The 44-pound bike was announced in celebration of BMW open its first iStore on July 25, opening next door to its BMW and MIni stores on Park Lane in London.

There’s no word on pricing or availability on the i Pedelec folding pedal-electric bicycle, but being a BMW product, I can’t imagine it being terribly cheap.

[Source]

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You have probably seen self-driving cars in sci-fi films, well, soon you are going to be able to own one, provided you are living in Nevada. The state has become the first in the US to approve the rules governing the operating of driverless cars on the state’s roadways.

The rules will be governing test vehicles as well as the robot cars that will be launched on the market later on. The difference between the vehicles will be in the license plates: red for test vehicles and green for the approved ones.

According to Bruce Breslow, director of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, “Nevada is the first state to embrace what is surely the future of automobiles. These regulations establish requirements companies must meet to test their vehicles on Nevada’s public roadways as well as requirements for residents to legally operate them in the future“.

The new development will definitely be good news for Google. It’s a boon for the search giant’s autonomous vehicle program which was unveiled back in 2010. According to the company, their test vehicles, which come equipped with various sensors including radar, laser sensors, cameras and GPS, have travelled more than 160,000 miles without an accident (Though there was an incident, but Google found the human driver in the car culpable). But as in all the other fields, Google will have competition as Audi, BMW and Volkswagen announced that they are developing robot cars.

As for everyone from all the other states, a similar approval is expected sometime in the future. And just in case you are wondering, they won’t allow you to get drunk while your robot car does the driving for you, although talking on the phone and texting are allowed.

Photo: Total Recall’s “Johnny Cab”

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Behold, the Level 10 M Mouse. Not surprisingly, Thermaltake has decided to slap its Tt eSports branding on this product as it’s very much geared toward the PC gamers in the audience. This is no ordinary mouse. For starters, it’s hollow. This “empty” body serves a couple of key purposes. First, it allows for easy adjustment; all you have to do is turn a screw and the top deck of the mouse can be raised and lowered to fit your ergonomic preference.

Second, the palm surface has been perforated. Coupled with that empty space underneath, this allows for some passive cooling for your sweaty hands. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before they unleash the Level 10 M GT Mouse with a little fan that blows cool air into your hand. If you want to stand out at a LAN party, “out there” Level 10 designs could be the way to go. No word on pricing or availability, but they do seem to be looking toward a launch this spring.

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The BMW Company has been selling thousands and thousands of cars ever since it was established. Known for its cutting-edge designs and features, BMW is one of the most preferred cars by people in any part of the planet. At present, two new concepts are being introduced by the automobile company—the BMW i3 and the BMW i8 concepts.

The BMW i3 Concept a.k.a Sustainable Urban Mobility

Dubbed as the “Megacity Vehicle”, this concept incorporates eDrive which makes it a sustainable automobile for urban areas. This vehicle is driven by electric power and is designed to be emission-free. The LifeDrive architecture of this car renders it as light, spacious, dynamic, and safe. Long distances can be travelled on a single charge and it also offers superb safety for the driver. On the other hand, the eDrive technology has an innovative battery technology, intelligent engine management system and an extremely lithe electric motor which was developed and built by BMW. You will surely find pleasure in driving the BMW i3 Concept. To add more to your excitement to get your hands on this car, the BMW i3 Concept accelerates from 0 to 60 km per hour in less than four seconds and 100kn/h from rest in less than eight seconds.

Renewable raw materials were used to furnish the interior of the vehicle, providing the passengers with a unique and cozy experience. It is a four-seater vehicle with a 200-liter capacity tank and a functional compartment in the front.

The BMW i8 Concept a.k.a Emotional, Dynamic and Different

This car is hailed as the most progressive sportscar which has a benchmark efficiency and eDrive feature. The EfficientDynamics garnered very positive feedback at the IAA 2009, and so BMW quickly decided to produce this vehicle after successful initial testing. The BMW i8 is considered to be the next stage in the evolution of the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics, and at present it has been the most innovative and most progressive sports car of this generation. It combines the electric drive system from the BMW i3 Concept with the innovative plug-in hybrid concept. It has a high-performance three-cylinder combustion engine which produces 164kW/220 hp and 300 Nm (221 lb-ft) at its rear.

In addition to these impressive features, the acceleration of the vehicle is from 0 to 62 mph in less than five seconds in tandem with fuel consumption using the European cycle of less than three liters per 100 km. The credits go to the eDrive technology which has huge lithium-ion battery.

The BMW i8 Concept is a four-seater car that provides sufficient space for passengers. In addition, the LifeDrive architecture of this vehicle was painstakingly adapted to enhance the character of the sports car, making it look superb and perform superbly.

An energy tunnel connects the axle module and the combustion engine, and this gives the car a low center of gravity and a great dynamics.

 
[BMW i3, BMW i8]

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This is a fascinating video following a BMW 3 series from the beginning through an assembly line. Starting as a couple of sheets of metal, ending with a fully operational BMW ripping down the interstate. I’m sure this assembly line footage took more than following a single vehicle to create, especially when dunking the vehicle frame in all the paint baths.

[Laughing Squid via e90post]

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Going green continues to be a trend in the motor vehicle world. Companies have been battling to come up with engines that either use as little fossil fuels as possible, or none at all. Whether it be hybrid, full electric, hydrogen or alcohol-fuelled, the final goal is to have as little or no carbon emissions spewing from the tailpipe.

One of the companies you’re probably aware of that has been experimenting with different alternatives to fossil fuel powered vehicles is BMW. The latest in its lineup of alternative-powered vehicles is, believe it or not, a scooter. They’re calling it the Motorrad E-scooter and it’s got an electric motor, whose batteries can be charged in about 3 hours.

Although throughout time BMW have been thinking up, designing and developing newer and newer equipment all by themselves, this time they got a little push at the start. The initiator and funding agency of the E-scooter project is the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. What does public money and BMW expertise give you? Well, they came up with a very basic looking scooter concept, with the same performance as a normally fueled 600 cc maxi scooter with a combustion engine. It’s got a range of approximately 100 km on a fully charged battery and officials say it can go up high gradient hills. It’s got the engine mounted inside the actual body of the scooter, instead of in the hub. Not spectacular, you might say, but one must never forget: this is an electrically powered scooter, so it’s got 0 carbon emissions.

No word on when the scooter will hit the market, or how much it will cost. Though considering it’s a BMW scooter, the price will most likely be a bit steeper than the hills it can climb.

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Turning left at intersections is often dangerous due to crossing two lanes of opposing traffic, poor visibility and busy intersections. BMW hopes to lower the rate of collisions with their left turn assistant system. The system combines camera, laser and vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies in an effort to make left turns safer. It detects that the driver intends to turn left using navigation that can fix the car’s location to within a meter at an intersection, and the use of a mono camera that detects turn-off lane markings and lane borders on the road. BMW is also looking at ways for the system to be activated when the driver hits the vehicle’s left turn signal.

The system utilizes three laser scanners in the front end of the car, which quickly map the area up to 100 meters ahead. If the system detects oncoming vehicles, and the driver continues to move into the intersection, the system will sound a warning and automatically activate the brakes to prevent a collision. The left turn assistant is being tested on a BMW 5 Series demonstrator. To ensure the system doesn’t slam on the brakes when the vehicle is traveling at high speeds, the system will only apply the brakes if the vehicle is moving at less than 10 km/h. To override the system’s braking input, the driver needs to tap the brake themselves and the brake is released.

Additionally, the left turn assistant can be enhanced through the use of vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems, such as its WLAN car-to-x communication unit. These allow the vehicles to exchange information, including position, speed, current steering angle and whether the turn indicators are activated. However, both vehicles would have to be equipped with the WLAN device for the system to work, and it’s not likely every driver you come across will own a luxury vehicle.

There are several instances where this type of system could fail or prove inadequate. What happens in busy intersections during rush hour, where there is rarely a break in traffic to turn left, and often the chance only comes during a yellow light before it turns to red? Cars would certainly be closer than 100 meters to the BMW, so would the system stop you from going through and keep you stuck in the middle of the intersection? Supposedly, the driver would be able to tap the brake and then continue to move forward, but there would be a lag, which would prove dangerous during the few seconds of turning left during a yellow light. As well, the system recognizes cars, trucks and motorcycles, but what about bicycles and pedestrians?

BMW will premiere the left turn assistant at the Intersafe 2 Final Event on May 17 and 18 in Wolfsburg, Germany.

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Just because you want to get an electric car doesn’t mean you have to leave “fun” behind. Check out this video of the upcoming BMW i3 in action. It’s a fully electric city car that also happens to be rear-wheel-drive. You know what that means?

Drifting in the snow!

Even though it’s going to have much less power and prestige than its more expensive BMW i8 counterpart, it looks like the i3 is having a lot more fun. It’s a shame, at least from my end of things, that the i3 doesn’t look all that appealing. It’s just not very interesting (and neither is the rumored $40,000 asking price).

The i3 isn’t set to hit dealers until 2013 (possibly as a 2014 model year), but it will reportedly have 150 horses coming out of that electric motor. This is aided by a lighter weight construction with an aluminium body and a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic passenger compartment.

[YouTube via GMotors]

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Last month, the new BMW i-Series made its official debut on paper, but all we got were some concept sketches. Now, we get to see a (camouflaged) BMW i8 in action, rolling around on a snowy track.

Instead of just a few spy photos, we’ve managed to find three spy videos. The BMW i8, which you may have previously known as Vision EfficientDynamics, appears to be a two-door super coupe that will likely compete against the likes of an Audi R8 and other similar vehicles.

We’re told to expect 62MPG while still being able to do 0 to 62mph in 4.8 seconds. It’s kind of hard to tell what kind of performance this thing can really offer until they spin it around Nurburgring or, at the very least, the Top Gear Test Track with the tame racing driver. Under the hood is an 161-horsepower 1.5-liter 3-cylinder turbo DIESEL engine (will probably be switched to gasoline when it hits production) a hybrid synchronous motor on the front axle (80HP) and full electric motor on the rear axle (51HP), giving a combined 292HP total output.

From what I hear, though, this kind of Bavarian green performance isn’t going to come cheap: expect the price tag to start in the $240k range whenever this is ready to hit dealerships.

[BimmerPost]

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