BMW i5

Foolish decision by BMW. Why can't they just make a beautiful long range EV that on the outside looks like their beautiful ICE vehicles?

Compliance car.

ecarfan said:

Foolish decision by BMW. Why can't they just make a beautiful long range EV that on the outside looks like their beautiful ICE vehicles?

Click to expand...

I saw their i3 in person last weekend and I have to say that it is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen. It looks like a fat person sitting down with rolls of fat oozing out around the bottom plus weird windows. BMW has made some beautiful cars but this thing is just awful.
Why waste money developing a "fool cell" car when they could do a real EV?
Hydrogen is very inefficient and will be expensive. All hydrogen now comes from fossil fuels and is less efficient than just burning it in an ICE. Hydrogen from electricity and back through a fuel cell wastes 75% of the energy.

mspohr said:

I saw their i3 in person last weekend and I have to say that it is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen.

Click to expand...

Agreed! I have a BMW M3 (yes, I still have a high performance ICE, but frankly it does not get driven much these days). When I took the M3 in for it's last fluid change, I saw the i3 in person for the first time, and IMHO the i3 is butt ugly!

jkliu47 said:

Compliance car.

Click to expand...

Does BMW require a compliance car? Doesn't it meet all the requirements for credits with the i3?

I'm thinking this is more about keeping all options open. If Toyota, Hyundai and the others suddenly do something revolutionary with hydrogen, BMW wants to be prepared.

mspohr said:

I saw their i3 in person last weekend and I have to say that it is just about the ugliest car I have ever seen.

Click to expand...

Another forum member referred to the i3 as "Fugly Clown Car". Instantly, those words were indelibly burned into my brain, and now I can't discuss the i3 without that phrase screaming to be heard!

Yggdrasill said:

I'm thinking this is more about keeping all options open. If Toyota, Hyundai and the others suddenly do something revolutionary with hydrogen, BMW wants to be prepared.

Click to expand...

There is nothing revolutionary to be done with hydrogen. They can never get the efficiency of an EV. The only advantage they have at the present time is the claimed 3 minute refill, but they don't have the "wake every morning with a full tank" benefit.

It would very much surprise me if BMW used the "i" as in i3 and i8 for both electric (or plug-in hybrid as the i8) and at the same time for fool cell...

Ao anything not-classic-ice is "i"???

I say wait for something more official from BMW before getting all worked up. I don't think they'll do FCVs anymore - I know they tried it for a while with some direct hydrogen combusting engines in 7-series cars. They got like 100 hp from a V12 I think so that project didn't do great...

Johan said:

It would very much surprise me if BMW used the "i" as in i3 and i8 for both electric (or plug-in hybrid as the i8) and at the same time for fool cell... (..)
I say wait for something more official from BMW before getting all worked up. I don't think they'll do FCVs anymore - I know they tried it for a while with some direct hydrogen combusting engines in 7-series cars. They got like 100 hp from a V12 I think so that project didn't do great...

Click to expand...

I don't know about the i-branding (I agree it could be quite confusing for consumers), but BMW and Toyota have a partnership for fuel cells amongst other things:

BMW and Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will also set up partnerships to create fuel-cell systems, lightweight materials and lithium-air batteries, the companies said today. The two began collaborating in 2011 on lithium-ion batteries and other fuel-saving projects.

Click to expand...

BMW to Build Sports Car With Toyota in Deeper Partnership - Bloomberg

The car may be released under different branding, but there could be FCV coming soon from BMW theoretically (sourced via Toyota).

Yggdrasill said:

Does BMW require a compliance car? Doesn't it meet all the requirements for credits with the i3?

I'm thinking this is more about keeping all options open. If Toyota, Hyundai and the others suddenly do something revolutionary with hydrogen, BMW wants to be prepared.

Click to expand...

Well, thinking like cynical corporate management, if they could get enough credits with an i5 HFCV they might be able to drop the i3 REx BEVx and make it operate more rationally like the EU model.

If they made the car as reported I think it would be a good seller. I don't mind it being a plug-in hybrid if it really has over 400hp of electric power and could go 78 miles on a charge. Without the supercharger network it would be a hard sell for BMW as a pure electric, and a plug-in hybrid definitely still has advantages for road trips. It sounds like the car the Fisker Karma should have been.

Those i5 images look like a heavily photoshopped Model S. Particularly the hood, A and B pillars. Reminds me of earlier pictures (from the same publication) about an electric Audi Q8.