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Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
Maybe that BMW is trying to make people understand that the Model S is hybrid and not pure electric?
Reason: Envy
Reason: Envy
jcaspar
Member
I think his shows how little BMW understands the Model S. I bet they figure out it's no a hybrid after they can't find the engine.... :smile:
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
My guess is BMW decided to use a Model S as a dev/test/prototype/hack platform to accelerate product development. Perhaps they dropped one of their range extending motorcycle engines in it as a backup generator, like in the i3, to see how well it worked with a larger battery. Nothing to stop one manufacturer from buying another's car and doing some custom mods on it.
ZBB
Emperor
It may just be an extra label they had around, so they put it on their Model S for their testing. Germany doesn't have "manufacturer plates" like we do in the US, so they are required to put "test vehicle" labeling on cars that may not conform to local requirements -- and that looks like an early Sig (its Sig Red, plus has the 2-piece nosecone with the extra chrome strip), so its likely a US-spec car, not EU-compliant...
While it's possible it seems like it would be extremely difficult to do this with a Model S, they'd have to reverse engineer the whole battery management system to trick it into not freaking out about charging while driving, or the battery appearing to last forever on a discharge.
BMW do have some of the best engineers in the world. Interesting but not surprising thst they are playing around with the model s. They need to come out with something similar... The i5... people will stop buying M cars when the realize just how good the model s is. With model E Tesla would start eating of the 3 and 5 series sales and that will hurt... meaning get the act together ASAP. The threat is not Tesla but all other premium brands doing the same thing. tesla for sure accelerated this!
artsci
Sponsor
At Teslive last year, Goerge B told a group of us at the reception that a German manufacturer (he wouldn't say which one, but I figured it was BMW) had shipped them a car to convert to electric. A week later it was ready and Tesla shipped it back. George and others went to Germany to meet with the company execs about the conversion. When they saw the car the execs didn't understand that it had already been converted and assumed Tesla has returned the car with have done anything to it. They couldn't believe it had been converted in a week. If I have the story right, they then called in their engineers, who had been working on en electric conversion for a year or more, and reamed then a new one. So BMW engineers may be great with ICE technology but with electric it seems that they're out of their league.
rogbmw
Member
FYI - It may or may not be a BMW owned car. Just because the surround has the name of a BMW dealership on it does not mean that he car is BMW owned. Just like here in the US, one can have any license plate frame around a plate. I am not sure, but I think the M in the beginning of the number says that the car is registered in Munich though.
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
It's disappointing thus far that the best Daimler could do with their Tesla partnership is the upcoming B-class compliance car. Their 4.3% stake in Tesla though - acquired with that 'mere' $50 million investment - has done very well.
Speaking of BMW, was told by a now-veteran Tesla sales rep that BMW had rather overtly ordered two early US Signatures and expected Tesla to ship them all the way to Munich! Tesla was well aware of the intention to reverse-engineer - it's common industry practice apparently - but, wasn't going to make it too easy for them; BMW had to make the necessary export/transport arrangements on their own.
Speaking of BMW, was told by a now-veteran Tesla sales rep that BMW had rather overtly ordered two early US Signatures and expected Tesla to ship them all the way to Munich! Tesla was well aware of the intention to reverse-engineer - it's common industry practice apparently - but, wasn't going to make it too easy for them; BMW had to make the necessary export/transport arrangements on their own.
ZBB
Emperor
Considering that the BMW Niederlassung Munich is a company-owned dealership, M does stand for Munich where BMW is based, and the test vehicle sticker is identical to what BMW had on the i3 pre-production cars, it is highly likely that this S is owned by BMW and being used for testing...
EarlyAdopter
Active Member
I'm pretty sure it was Daimler and the car was a Smart. If I recall correctly, it was featured in "Revenge of the Electric Car."
BMW puts that sticker on all cars that are not "ICE only". I've seen lots of spyshots of BMW's with it. It was present on their fully electric i3 for example. It just means that it's not "ICE only" and there is probably some local regulation/law that they must have it.
Then what BMW is doing with a Tesla is the more interesting part....
Remember that Elon did a thing at the Munich store a couple of months back without any other European appearances at that time. Don't think he flew to Munich just to have a store event... (You figure out the rest of this theory).
Then what BMW is doing with a Tesla is the more interesting part....
Remember that Elon did a thing at the Munich store a couple of months back without any other European appearances at that time. Don't think he flew to Munich just to have a store event... (You figure out the rest of this theory).
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
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