In America, we’re quite hard on the BMW i3. It hasn’t been selling as well as BMW would have liked here and many North American EV enthusiasts would rather spend the extra money and go with a Tesla. Consequently, the BMW i3 isn’t very popular ‘Stateside. However, across the pond, the i3 actually is quite popular, as evidenced by the fact that the BMW i3 was Europe’s best-selling EV last month.
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For the month of November, 2016, the BMW i3 was by far the best-selling electric vehicle in the EU, selling 2,092 units. The second closest EV was the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which sold 1,512 units. That’s quite a big difference, considering it’s 580 units more.
While Teslas are very popular in America, considering they’re build here, they aren’t nearly as popular east of the Atlantic. Tesla only sold 603 Model Ss and only 387 Model Xs. Admittedly, it’s likely because of the cost, being that Teslas are expensive to begin with and the additional shipping and taxes in Europe make it even more so.
But even less expensive cars sold in fewer numbers than the BMW i3. Nissan only moved 1,030 Leafs and Volkswagen only sold 1,067 Passat GTEs. Hell, even BMW couldn’t sell another EV/Plug-in as well as the i3, with the BMW 330e getting 982 sales.
So in Europe, the BMW i3 is still a very popular car, made even more so by the fact that BMW just upped its range. Plus, with many European cities cracking down on emissions, it only makes sense that Europeans would like to go for a pure EV, rather than any plug-in hybrids. And because of the premium badge, slightly lower cost in Europe and small city-car size, the BMW i3 is a very attractive package there. So while we complain about it, there are those who appreciate the i3’s charms.
And this isn’t just a one month anomaly. The BMW i3 is fourth overall in Year to Date EV sales in Europe, with only much cheaper cars, such as the aforementioned Mitsubishi and Nissan as well as the Renault Zoe, coming ahead of it.
[Source: CleanTechnica]
The numbers of sold EVs will soon go exponential. Once Tesla is offering it’s Model 3, then the rest of the Automobil industry needs to revise, not only it’s pricing, but it’s total approach to EVs.
It is rather comical to be aware of the lack media attention that EVs have 1/10th in operating cost and 1/10th in maintenance cost compared to ICEs vehicles.
Once this is known to the public and Model 3 hits the market, the demand for EVs will go through the roof.
“soon”
The running cost (operating and maintenance), that is why I ask: Where is the media? They are busy using typing up and down articles about nearly everything on earth. But the single most expensive thing to run, the car is not analysed in detail.
I have an electric car – I have drown 4000 km with it. Electric cost have been about 100 US dollars. The equivalent cost of using my previous car would have cost me about 1000 dollars.
During my 10 year use of my previous car I had to change the exhaust pipe 2 times. Change oil yearly. Only those two things did cost me about 3000 dollars for that period of time. That are two things that I do not even bother to think about after going electric.
But, and I say but, I had a quality built ICE car that gave me few issues, but that is not normal. Most car owners are in-and-out of car repair shops. With next to everything with an engine and direct/indirect things from clutch, gearbox, cooling and heating systems, battery and so forth. It all adds up to rather large sums of dollars.
For information, I live in Norway. Cost are higher on most elements, but the basics does apply. The investment cost of an EV will decrease rapidly once the battery pack is produced in high numbers.
By 2025 most cars build will be EVs, just the same as most mobile phones today are Smart Phones and not the Motorolas/Nokias that we were used to up until 2007.
1014 of those 2092 sold in November were in Norway, that’s close to 50% :)