BMW confirms electric city car -12 September 2008

[AZEqualizer]

http://www.autocar.co.uk/contentImages//Car/BMW/Concepts/129884316.jpg



This according to an article on Autocar: (http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/234998/#)
BMW is working on a tiny ‘mega city’ car, company CEO Norbert Reithofer has confirmed. The project, which was first revealed by Autocar back in April (http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/232516/), is being driven by future fuel economy and pollution rules in both the US and EU.
“It’ll be a car with a completely new look, with two engines available. One will be a very efficient combustion engine and the other will be a purely electric model,” Reithofer told the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
The electric-powered microcar will comply with Californian regulations, which dictate that by 2012 a fuel cell or battery-powered vehicle must have a range of over 200 miles.
By the time the new city car arrives those rules will be in place, though the frugal and super-clean internal combustion engine will still be the big European seller.
There’s no news on whether the car will wear the BMW badge, but BMW has previously said it was considering launching a fourth, ‘green’ brand. Reviving the old Isetta marque is said to be one of the possibilities.


http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2008/03/bmw-isetta-spaceball.png

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/bmwisetta_new_450op.jpg

[Jarrett5150]

That's a neat idea but I cannot help but get the feeling a bunch of tiny clowns are going to get out of that thing and break my kneecaps. :)

[meckman1]

Evil clowns rock!

[RAN]

Hahahahahaa!

Seriously though, looks like the CAFE and EU standards are helping. In order for BMW to keep producing performance cars, they have to produce some electric cars too (and do things like kill off the V-10).

Can't wait to see what kind of EV Porsche comes up with :-{)]

[Miracleman89]

I love the Isetta!!!

[rosesj]

HEY !!! Someone has been messing with my daughters collection of Weeble-Wobbles... Put that BACK !!!!

[Hardtime11]

Correct me if I am wrong but I think most here are thinking it will be the old Isetta and not the new BMW styled vehicle. The original was a front opening deformed version of a bettle bug. The new one looks like a shrunken and modified BMW Crossover (SUV).

[ziggy951]

Hahahahahaa!

Seriously though, looks like the CAFE and EU standards are helping. In order for BMW to keep producing performance cars, they have to produce some electric cars too (and do things like kill off the V-10).

Can't wait to see what kind of EV Porsche comes up with :-{)]



Help? Forcing a company to do something that they normally would NOT do because there is no economic benefit is a bunch of BS. That helps no one. Let those companies that want to create such vehicles do so and let those that want to produce modern day luxury sports cars do what they want. When did governmental control of private industry (or companies) become a good thing?

Besides that though, I think the top most sketch looks like a decent looking small car.


Z

[RAN]

When did governmental control of private industry (or companies) become a good thing?

Uhh... when they poison the air we all have to breathe??????

[Miracleman89]

When did governmental control of private industry (or companies) become a good thing?
Z

Also, after the government started bailing out companies because if they didn't that area's economy would collapse!

[ziggy951]

/sigh

cutting myself off before this becomes a rant about politics. :)




Z

[Jarrett5150]

I keep looking at other cars etc that are trying to come out and I just don't get the same warm fuzzies I guess. I mean most look like a tinker toy, or they are priced way beyond what I can pay or priced so high that you could buy two decent 4 banger cars for the price of one of theirs. I guess I like the Vv due to I could actually see a practical use and purpose for it as a daily driver for me. By the way does anyone have any more info on the VW clean Diesel cars? I thought those looked very interesting.

[waboom]

By the way does anyone have any more info on the VW clean Diesel cars? I thought those looked very interesting.

Your local VW dealership will either have the Jetta and Jetta SportWagon diesel TDI (turbo direct injection) in stock now or very soon. At the very least, they have a demo model on the lot you can test drive. VW charges a $2,000 premium over the base 2.5L gas engine for the TDI diesel, but the TDI is eligible for a $1,300 federal alternative fuels tax credit. EPA gives it a 29 city & 40 highway rating, but prior VW diesel owners claim a far greater MPG than the EPA has historically rated.

[westonlgray]

My Uncle has had one for almost 2 months now, and I think he is getting over 40 MPG combined driving. He still uses a/c, etc. but he isn't a bad driver. I drove it when I was home a couple of weeks ago, and I was very impressed with the DSC transmission. It shifts so fast and so smooth, that it would be in 6th gear, and I wouldn't have even been able to tell you it shifted more than once or twice. If you want a car that doesn't really require any other maintenance than a typical automobile, drives like a V-6 and gets 40+ MPG, and will probably last 300,000 miles, it is probably a good choice. Of course, we have to wait until the price of diesel comes down. Any guess as to how long the new low sulfur diesel will take to reach steady state price?

I didn't drive the car enough to get an idea about the mileage first hand.

[Jarrett5150]

Thanks for the info guys, Yea I really and I mean REALLY want a Vv but if for some unforeseen reason Vv gets canned or whatever I think a VW might be my next choice. I have to look at price point vs. mpg + maintenance. I mean yea a VW might get 40 tops but Vv is cheaper than most other hybrid or all electric vehicles out there and VW is cheaper than a lot of the rest of hybrid all electric offerings.
Lets just go to hydrogen all ready or nuclear LOL well that would solve that question of what to do with the spent fuel rods, but it would make fender benders one heck of a BANG!!!!!! Ok im done being goofy, thanks for the info again guys.

[Blue]

What happened to the CLEVER?

It appears as BMW has once again taken the old and made it new rather than Venturing in to a new concept.

[AZEqualizer]

This was a reply that RATCHET got and posted on the FTR site:

Thank you for your interest in CLEVER.

CLEVER has been a research project. It has demonstrated, that such a vehicle is feasible and able to comply to very stringent requirements (safety, emissions, consumption, costs, ...)

It has also shown, that it is possible to perform such an ambitious project under the management of the Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin Institute of Technology).

The project has ended in April 2006.

Much information about the project has been disseminated on www.clever-project.net, (http://www.clever-project.net,/) in a series of publications, at the occasion of a public, full day presentation in April in Berlin including the possibility to drive one of the prototypes, by presentation at a variety of trade fairs and other exhibitions, and by a large number of printed and electronic media reports. A detailed report can be found in an article, which is published in a recent book (in German); for details please refer to http://www.kfz.tu-berlin.de/menue/publikationen/veroeffentlichungen/buecher/
After all, I can report about a very broad interest of persons like you in CLEVER as expressed through hundreds of emails.

Nevertheless, BMW as the car and motorbike manufacturer in the project has decided after extensive assessments not to proceed to a volume production now.

Kind regards
Prof. Dr. Volker Schindler
Technische Universität Berlin
Fachgebiet Kraftfahrzeuge
TIB13
Gustav Meyer Allee 25
D-13355 Berlin
Germany

Posted: 2008-06-24 15:31:59 # RATCHET (http://flytheroad.com/blog/forums/topic.php?id=789)