Currently, BMW official has now verified that the range-extender engine that is offered as an option on the battery-powered i3 supermini will be a two-cylinder gasoline unit suplied by the brand’s motorcycle division and not the forthcoming, the larger displacement 1.5-liter 3-cylinder petrol engine enhanced for the Bavarian group’s automobiles.
Meanwhile, Herbert Diess, the BMW’s head of Research and Development has said that the range-extender engine option will be presented when the current new i3 is sold in the 4th quarter of 2013. Unfortunately, he didn’t say anything about its price.
The regular i3 mixes an electric motor that will be able to produce 168hp (170PS / 125kW) and also a constant peak torque of the 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) along with a lithium-ion battery package which is said to present a great range between 60 up to 90 miles to the 160km (97 to 145 kilometers) on the production model.
In addition, its driving range is predicted to be boasted to around 250miles on a single tank of gasoline. Besides that, the motorcycle engine will be grown in the trunk and will also not broadcast mechanical power exactly to the wheels.
Diess has said that BMW predicts more than fifty percent of early buyers will choose the range-extender along with that number to calm down to around twenty percent later on.
Diess, however, also imagined that many buyers will order the range extender to make well the buyers range anxiety, to discover later that the buyers will need this range extender very seldom. Meanwhile, for those people who arrange a daily use of the range extender, maybe the i3 is not the right or a best choice along with a plug-in hybrid model that will be a better suitable solution. Check out the gallery below to get more details.
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