Category: BMW

Back in 2013 had launched BMW i3 electric-hatchback in the year 2013 and it was the first ever mass-produced electric vehicle of the automaker. This was a small car with four seats, back doors which are rear-hinged and a frame which was made from the carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. The car stood apart dramatically from the lineup of the brand.

By design, BMW is not trying to convince the core customers to abandon their sporty sedans and their roomy SUVs. Its goal was for enticing the early EV adopters to give the automaker a go.

This is a plan which has worked very well. When the i3 started to pop up on the US dealership lots, the loyalists initially ignored it but the newer customers were looking for the car.  

However in the year 2021, the company had made an attempt to focus once again on its core customers and set a goal of the BMW sales being electric by 2030.

In the month of January 2022, the company said that it is going to completely stop the production of i3 and instead look into the longer, larger range options of Electric vehicles such as the iX and i4 which are the cars that are meant to look a lot more like the other models of the brand.

In the nine years when it was in the market, the company sold most of the i3 to people who were first time BMW buyers however data suggests that it sold less than 50,000 units and sold often on steep discounts. This is a big moment as the company is going to stop production of the vehicle which was brought into the market with hopes of reaching a new market and also an opportunity for a larger lot to own a BMW for the first time.

A patent from the car manufacturer BMW has revealed that poor roads or roads which have bumps maybe helpful to the power cars. It has been revealed that BMW electric cars is looking to capitalize on infrastructure that has poor roads.

Also Read : Chinese electric vehicles are offering a challenge to Europe – EV World News

A document which has been unearthed form the national patent office in Germany has revealed that a new suspension device is going to allow the generation of electricity from the bumps on a road.

This patent which has since been verified shows that a new way for charging of batteries can be done from the bumpy roads. When you get bumps, you can get more charging on the vehicle.

It can be ascertained then that if the roads are bumpy, the cars would then have a longer workaround charging time for the electric vehicle.

As per this document, the energy that gets generated from the movement of up and down of the suspension of a car gets wasted in the form of heat energy. This proposed setup is going to include a flywheel, generator and a clutch in suspension for capturing the energy during this process.

It is apparent that generator of the car gets ticked off when the wheel of the car moves upwards due to a bump. The energy which results then gets used for recharging the battery of the electric vehicle.

There are claims that BMW may be using this as a system in future on their flagship models. It is important for noting here that the patents are not always going to become products. Sometimes, these are just ideas which never find its way into the car.

BMW had filed for this patent but the suggestion has been there for this technology for a while. Audi has also been talking about the technology for a while.