[Piers]

News of the new i5 has hit the press, so I am going to hold on now for electric car purchase, as having driven a Tesla, I want one really badly, but I want a BMW Tesla, not a Tesla, and hope the i5 could be it.

Fingers crossed

[AP]

Do you have somewhere where you can charge the car up at home then?

Re electric cars, I see 2 main issues with these at present.

Where it can be charged. Many people live in terraced houses with the car parked on the street. You obviously can't leave a power cable over the pavement - people will trip up or kids will unplug your car overnight!
I can't see local councils putting power points outside every house, it would just cost far too much.

The other item is the time taken to charge. I'm sure technology will change that will allow you charge up in 5 minutes at some point in the future but now, that just doesn't exist.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against electric cars, if it works for you, then great. Tesla seem to be doing well at the moment and there are other good electric cars out there as well including the i3 and i8.

I personally think hydrogen fuelcells might be the answer as you can fill it up in the same time as a petrol car. OK you need the infrastructure at filling stations and you need to create the Hydrogen and ship in the first place which will be a lot of infrastructure - but hey we've managed a similar set up with oil / petrol up to now so its possible.

My personal opinion is that right now, electric cars are a niche that will work for some people and probably not for the majority. But where it does work it seems to work very well.
I don't have a parking space that's next to a power supply so for me, its not a viable option at this stage.

I'm convinced that in just 20 years, we'll be looking at diesel and petrol cars as old fashioned - "classics"

Be interesting to see what BMW come up with their i5 though.

[Piers]

Yes, private driveway with garage, with a sensible range 250-300, I would only have to charge it every 2-3 days, i3 is 75 miles, useless unless you just go to ton and back, I do 500 miles a week so need a decent range.

Tesla say, remember a time when you didn't plug in your plug wherever you go, a Nokia brick lasted a week on one charge etc, well charging your car will become just as natural.

Having had the Tesla for 2 days, it was gutting to have to give it back, a relaxing drive like no other, and I thought the 5 series was a relaxing runaround!

An i5 at £50k with range of 250 miles will get my money all day.

[AP]

saw a picture of the I5 on the front of I think autocar at the weekend. Looked the lovechild between a i3 and i8! Didn't look good to me, the I3 I quite like and like I suspect most people,. the i8 is rather gorgeous , this i5 (a render I assume) doesn't work for me personally.

[Piers]

Ah yes, thats the one, but remember it is a render

[mobilejo]

Originally Posted by AP

saw a picture of the I5 on the front of I think autocar at the weekend. Looked the lovechild between a i3 and i8! Didn't look good to me, the I3 I quite like and like I suspect most people,. the i8 is rather gorgeous , this i5 (a render I assume) doesn't work for me personally.

There are a few renders knocking around - 1 looks like what you describe, another looks really good; like a 4 door i8. It just goes to show that these renders are totally worthless as they have no idea what it's actually going to look like.

A neighbour has an electric car and he has a charging point installed on his exterior wall right by his drive. It all seems to work very well.

[The Beast]

Originally Posted by mobilejo

There are a few renders knocking around - 1 looks like what you describe, another looks really good; like a 4 door i8. It just goes to show that these renders are totally worthless as they have no idea what it's actually going to look like.

A neighbour has an electric car and he has a charging point installed on his exterior wall right by his drive. It all seems to work very well.

I quite like the fact that you can park and charge for free in most large car parks...

[Piers]

Originally Posted by The Beast

I quite like the fact that you can park and charge for free in most large car parks...

Realistically that is a fallacy unless you literally just go around town. I thought the same, just plug it in wherever you park etc, but those public car parks charge at about 4 miles per hour, so realistically if you are just popping into town they don't work, hence they are always empty, until you need it of course!

Tesla is 10 hrs to fully charge with a home charger, options are changing to shorten this. 40 mins for an 80% charge at a supercharger, which I have 20 mins away from me, and that is how I was going to run mine.

Be interesting to see how BMW go with this...however...new news is that is only has a range of 100 miles anyway, so it is unlikely to be a Tesla competitor for quite some time. I need 300 miles a week, so it would either be on permanent charge at home, which defeats the object of "free" charging or more free superchargers, which BMW do not have, home charge or nothing.

I feel BMW have missed a trick here, but heydiho, it won't work for me.

They seem to think a grown up i3 (75 - 100 miles range) is what people want, yet 5 series mileages are generally much higher than 3 and 1 series, so a possible own goal.

[Johnny Grabble]

This might be worth a read: it applies to BMW's PHEVs...
http://www.bmw.co.uk/en_GB/new-vehic...nectivity.html

[The Beast]

Originally Posted by Piers

Realistically that is a fallacy unless you literally just go around town. I thought the same, just plug it in wherever you park etc, but those public car parks charge at about 4 miles per hour, so realistically if you are just popping into town they don't work, hence they are always empty, until you need it of course!

Tesla is 10 hrs to fully charge with a home charger, options are changing to shorten this. 40 mins for an 80% charge at a supercharger, which I have 20 mins away from me, and that is how I was going to run mine.

Be interesting to see how BMW go with this...however...new news is that is only has a range of 100 miles anyway, so it is unlikely to be a Tesla competitor for quite some time. I need 300 miles a week, so it would either be on permanent charge at home, which defeats the object of "free" charging or more free superchargers, which BMW do not have, home charge or nothing.

I feel BMW have missed a trick here, but heydiho, it won't work for me.

They seem to think a grown up i3 (75 - 100 miles range) is what people want, yet 5 series mileages are generally much higher than 3 and 1 series, so a possible own goal.

Range would be fine for me as I only do about 25 miles a day. Would be interested to find out how much these home charge points cost, one of those and a creative electrician and I could run one of these for free

[Piers]

Tesla is £500 plus fitting for home charger.

25 miles a day could work would work for any EV, it is the odd longer journey that is an issue if no other car.

[The Beast]

Originally Posted by Piers

Tesla is £500 plus fitting for home charger.

25 miles a day could work would work for any EV, it is the odd longer journey that is an issue if no other car.

Not too bad really

We have two cars in our household, as I'm sure most people on here do... Therefore we could easily run one EV. Just not found one that fits my needs yet, although tbh not seriously checked out a Tesla yet