![]() ![]() When all four doors are open, there’s no B-pillar - the beam normally found between the front and rear doors of a car - which makes it feel enormously open and accessible.īy the time I’m done acquainting myself with the i3, I conclude that the iconic kidney grille is just about the only aspect of its design that makes it a BMW by sight alone. You’re not going to find that anywhere else in the company’s lineup. This car also features rear suicide doors ("coach doors," as BMW would prefer you call them), which open backwards. Just a cursory glance around the car and you can see that the i3 has already blown up two long-running BMW traditions: the twin-bulb headlight, and the so-called Hofmeister kink - a slanted line defining the lower rear corner of the side window on practically every BMW since the 1960s. Guerrero also notes that i models have their own headlight style, defined in part by a U-shaped line of illumination that runs along the bottom of the lens. The futuristic taillights are concealed underneath, becoming visible only when lit. I probably would’ve never made that connection had he not said anything, but I see it now: the decklid looks a bit like an iPhone with the display turned off. The demographics aren’t necessarily the same - at least, not yet - and at a glance, the i3 appears to be a tacit acknowledgement of that.Īs I walk around the car with Jose Guerrero, BMW i’s US product manager, he tells me that the car’s black, glossy rear end and swoopy lick of glass wrapping continuously from side to back are designed to evoke a modern smartphone. The i3 is really about saving the planet with Earth-friendly materials and alternative powerplants, and the uncomfortable truth is that good ecological karma can occasionally be at odds with tradition in this industry. ![]() The i3 is the first production model in the BMW i series - a range of vehicles that, in BMW’s words, exhibits a "new understanding of premium that is strongly defined by sustainability." In plain English, that means that i vehicles are intended to give BMW flexibility to do weird, cutting-edge things with materials and power plants that would be frowned upon in the company’s established portfolio of top-selling cars like the 3, 5, and 7 series. ![]()
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