Features
Back to Library >
Back to the future?
3 years ago
The i3 and i8 were ahead of their time, says Andrew
But, as we know, the i3 died last year after a life in which sales were never quite what was envisaged for it, to be replaced by, in effect, the iX1, which is just another bland, entirely conventional, crushingly unimaginative crossover EV.
It is true that the i3 was not a car without problems, its looks unquestionably put off some, while others were deterred by its shallow, small boot. I was one of them: I drove to a Bristol BMW dealer with every intention of coming home in an i3 only to turn around when I realised there was no way even one of our small Labradors was going to be happy in its boot, let alone both.
But its biggest problem was simply that, like the scarcely less brilliant, still criminally underrated and now equally defunct i8 that sat alongside it, it was exactly the right idea at precisely the wrong time. And that may be more noble than having the wrong idea full stop, but it’s not likely to get you very much further.
"Were he alive today, Charles Darwin would have been fascinated by hybrids and the way they have evolved. From nickel metal hydride batteries to lithium ion, from ‘self-charging’ to plug-in hybrids"
To see what I mean, let’s forget the electric cars that have appeared in the interim. Quite easy, isn’t it? Let’s instead think about hybrids. You may have to bear with me here for a paragraph or two, but I hope it’s worth it.
Were he alive today, Charles Darwin would have been fascinated by hybrids and the way they have evolved. From nickel metal hydride batteries to lithium ion, from ‘self-charging’ (to borrow a genius phrase dreamt up by Toyota marketing to cover the massive limitations of hybrids you can’t charge yourself) to plug-in hybrids. Not to mention of course the apparent dead end that were the range-extenders, cars like the Chevrolet Volt, Vauxhall Ampera, BMW i3 and, lest we forget, the Jaguar C-X75 concept.
"To me at least, and until this country and continent is truly ready for EVs – with a fully functioning, affordable recharging network that allows EVs to work for everyone who needs a car, regardless of where they live or how much they earn – this is the future. Or at least it should be"
But what would have really grabbed Darwin’s attention today is how the sizes of hybrids’ internal combustion engines are shrinking, while the size of their batteries and power of their e-motors are increasing all the time. As an example, you’ll soon be able to buy a Skoda Superb with a 1.4-litre engine and an electric-only range of 62 miles. That’s almost three times what most PHEVs can manage at the moment.
So let’s follow that trend to its logical, Darwinian, conclusion. As combustion engines shrink ever further as their duties are devolved ever more to electrical power, what you ultimately end up with is a car powered almost entirely by its battery-driven electric motor, but with a back up internal combustion engine to make sure you can always get home. Put another way, you end up back where BMW was an entire decade ago. You end up with an i3. And whether the petrol motor is used to drive the wheels directly or simply to act as a generator and maintain charge in the battery is not really the point.
To me at least, and until this country and continent is truly ready for EVs – with a fully functioning, affordable recharging network that allows EVs to work for everyone who needs a car, regardless of where they live or how much they earn – this is the future. Or at least it should be. A future where people can buy compact, affordable cars, powered primarily by electricity but with a tiny ICE functioning as a Get Out Of Jail Free card. They wouldn’t need huge, heavy, natural resource-depleting batteries because they’d recognise not only that the vast majority of journeys are quite short but also that on those rare occasions when they’re not, what you really want is to be able to get going again as soon as possible.
Of course it won’t happen. ‘Small, affordable EV’ is already a contradiction in terms in the world as it is today, so adding a pint-sized ICE to the mix is unlikely to prove popular. But in larger, more expensive cars? That I can see. But if any of them are half as clever as the visionary but expensive to build and poorly timed i3, I’ll be amazed.
