BMW's i3: A New Kind Of Electric Vehicle

The evolution of the electric vehicle is well underway. New models are continually being introduced, and they just keep getting better. And while Tesla – with its charismatic and visionary CEO and stock price at nosebleed levels – has garnered much of the attention, that may be about to change.  BMW is rolling out its i3 EV in the second quarter of 2014. The company was at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, offering 10,000 test rides and the buzz is growing.

The U.S share of electric vehicles on the road is small, but growing as well, so that they are becoming less of a novelty. The absolute number of EVs is still small relative to the total number of passenger vehicles sold (15.6 million cars and light trucks in 2013). However, the trend is growing quickly; the 2013 EV sales number is five times what it was in 2011 and almost twice that of 2012.  In fact, there are now over 165,000 plug-ins on U.S. highways according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association.  In December of 2013 alone, just under 10,000 models were driven off the lot.

Image: Electricdrive.org

At present there are only 16 different models, dominated by four players. The Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, and Prius PHV make up more than 75% of annual sales.  And though BMW may have taken its time entering the U.S., it now plans to jump into the market with vigor with its new i3 model, priced at $41,350 (before any federal and state incentives).  The vehicle has an electric range of about 80 to 100 miles, with the option of an additional gasoline powered extender to give the driver an additional 85 miles. The car can be recharged at a DC fast-charging station in under 30 minutes.

Image: insideevs.com

I recently had a chance to talk with Jacob Harb, head of EV Operations and Strategy for BMW North America to find out more about this car, and its genesis, and why BMW waited a couple years to enter the market. Harb started by explaining why BMW decided to enter the arena in the first place.

For us BMW i started as a project a decade ago, looking at how to ‘future-proof’ our business, with a blank slate.  If you were to build a car without 100 years of predisposition, what would you start with?  We ran around the world looking for ideas before we even started.  We balanced feedback, and came up with the i3.  It sounds cliché, but we really started with a blank slate, we reexamined the design process from the ground up.  Sustainability and innovation are embodied in the i3 and the i8

He also noted that BMW Group is not exactly new to the game, with the i3 being the company’s third EV in the marketplace, and BMW drivers already racking up 9.6 million miles of experience  in the US.

English: BMW i3 Concept at IAA 2011. View: front Deutsch: BMW i3 Concept auf der IAA 2011. Ansicht: Front (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Harb commented that BMW’s endgame was not simply to design an electric vehicle, but rather to design a whole new car built around an electric drivetrain, embodying a more comprehensive approach to sustainability.

 The goal was to change the way we do business and operate.  We have executed the design with disassembly in mind.  The carbon fiber we use is half the weight of steel, sourced from a factory in Moses Lake, Washington which runs on hydropower.  Production is done incredibly efficiently, with half the water and 70% of the energy (normally used) and we used electricity from wind turbines to power the production process. The carbon fiber allows us new efficiencies (author’s note – it’s 50% lighter than steel, so you don’t have to push as much mass around on the road. This allows you to downsize other components of the car). We use one-third of the components that we do for the standard BMW 3 series.  We recycle during the production process.  Carbon fiber is essentially a fabric, and we cut the panels we need for the panels for the car and recycle the remaining panel materials during the production process.  We use recycled plastic bottles for the fabric and the dye is made from recycled olive leaf extract.  The black surrounds are made of Kenaf.  And any wood used is eucalyptus.”

In addition, one can buy charging stations – installed through a white glove service -and even solar panels as part of the “360 degree Electric Experience.”

Finally, when the car’s lifecycle is complete, Eurobahn BMW Greensboro told me BMW has designed it to be 95% recyclable.  Some of the parts are melted down for re-use. In other cases, they are re-purposed. Harb noted “We already have some second life applications in place. For example, when the car is done, we use the battery for a second life application. We already have one in Mountain View, CA.” In that particular instance, BMW’s Technology Office utilizes a 100 kilowatt lithium ion system to interact with the power grid to provide demand response capabilities to cut its maximum peak demand (peak shaving), shift consumption to other time periods (load shifting), or to firm up the intermittency of renewable power sources.

To address the issue of range anxiety, BMW also teamed up with ChargePoint, the nation’s largest network of EV charging locations.  The i3 dashboard indicates where the charging stations are, how to get to them, and whether they are occupied. Harb indicated that BMW dealers are involved in addressing the charging issue as well.

Every participating dealer has a public-facing ChargePoint station. It’s been fun for us to see the response.  Dealers have been pressuring us to develop charging points. Dealers are running almost faster than we are – its fun to see. As part of Electric 360, we have tried to address all concerns customers may have with the experience.  We looked at public charging (ChargeNow) and include a ChargeNow card at every purchase.

BMW also has a solution for long trips. “The consumer can go to the BWM dealer, drop off the i3 and take a normal BMW for the occasional trip.”

To further address the range issue, BMW created an app for iphones and Droids so one can see the state of the battery charge (you can also lock your doors or warm up the car with your mobile device). The company also created a ‘spider map’ showing the car’s range “so you can see how far you can go at given time.  The car will know the power needed for the trip and if you can make it.  Different drive modes will give you different efficiencies.  You know what you need to get there and how to get there.”

Initial i3 online reviews are quite positive. Of course, the real proof will be to see where the EV buyers vote with their dollars in the years to come. As the EV charging infrastructure continues to improve and the public acceptance continues to grow, don’t be surprised to see the BMW i series emerge as a dominant player in the EV arena.

 

Halogen to laser headlamps

How to spot different types of car headlamps

Did you know that car companies are starting to use lasers in headlights?

There’s a surprisingly long and storied history behind the evolution of headlight design. Numerous engineering challenges cause delays in the introduction of newer technologies, despite their outwardly obvious advantages.

These challenges are increasingly being overcome by intrepid automotive electrical engineers, meaning that a number of different types of headlights are in regular use on our roads.  Here is a look at each of these technologies and learn how to identify them as they blind us in our rear-view mirrors.

Tungsten Halogen

The most common headlamps in production make use of Tungsten filaments contained in an inert gas with small amounts of halogen, such as iodine or bromine. The halogen stops the tungsten filament from blackening the glass of the headlamp meaning that the optimal lumens-per-watt ratio is achieved for the entirety of the life of the headlamp. Tungsten Halogen headlamps give off a light with a warm yellow hue.

HID (Xenon)

HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlamps vaporise metallic salts within an arc chamber containing xenon gas, creating the high intensity electrical arc for which the technology is named. The light from this electrical arc is reflected to provide forward illumination for the vehicle, and is more efficiently generated than the light produced by Tungsten Halogen headlamps.

HID headlamps have been in production since 1991, and are subsequently in fairly common circulation in higher-end vehicles, despite complaints from other drivers about the glare they produce. They can be identified by their (arguably distracting) cool blue tinge.

LED

Easily identifiable as strips or rings of smaller light sources in place of a single large light source, LEDs provide the lowest energy consumption, longest lifespan, and most flexible design possibilities when compared to other light sources. As the technology evolves, it is predicted that LEDs will eventually out-perform HID headlamps.

Unfortunately, high production costs and engineering challenges around heat dissipation currently prevent LEDs from taking the pole market position. White LEDs give off a much colder light than that of Tungsten Halogen globes, without being quite as blue as HID.

Laser

BMW is currently developing technology that will allow them to mount lasers to the front of their upcoming i8 Hybrid. Disappointingly enough, these lasers aren’t designed to allow drivers to destroy slow moving traffic; rather they will perform the far more mundane function of illuminating the road ahead of the vehicle.  Laser headlamps are made safe by being filtered through a fluorescent phosphor material, which changes the color from blue to white and serves to eliminate any harmful effects.

The primary benefit of using lasers in place of other types of headlamps is their energy efficiency. Lasers generate 170 lumens per watt, while LEDs generate only 100 lumens per watt meaning that battery strain in electric cars sporting laser headlights would be significantly reduced.

They would also allow for computer controlled lighting patterns for differing conditions, thanks to the fact that lasers give off a coherent beam, removing the necessity to have different light configurations for high beam, side illumination and forward illumination.

Laser headlights could also mean a considerable shift in car design, as the 10 micron laser diodes don’t require as much space as their one millimeter-square LED counterparts. BMW has no plans at this stage to reduce the surface area of car headlights as they are an important styling cue.

This, however, doesn’t mean that the forward sections of cars in the future won’t employ radically different headlight design, or even eschew them altogether in favor of a row of laser diodes hidden amongst the grille or under the hood.