BMW i3 eDrive35L: – BMW launched a new electric car

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(Elbil24): The BMW i4 debuted at the end of last year, and it’s a car that throngs of customers have been waiting for. The vehicle was announced with optional two- or four-wheel drive, and the first masses of customer cars move across national borders these days.

In December, Elbil24 named the car its 2022 Car of the Year, along with Dagbladet.

Unfortunately, there are long waiting lists for the car, because the reception probably surprised the entire BMW organization. Then the Norwegian market can greatly benefit from another newcomer from the company, which is being shown to the public these days – the new all-electric BMW 3 Series.

Did not come

Unfortunately, the newborn electric car – based on the 3-Series – will be made only for the Chinese market, and will actually be called the i3, despite the already existing i3, which is a completely different type of car. The full name of the newcomer is BMW i3 eDrive35L.

The logic here is that it’s an all-electric Series 3, is two-wheel drive, and has a weaker engine than we know from the i4 eDrive40. The letter L indicates that it is a long version with an extended wheelbase.

BMW i4 M50: to put it mildly, impressive

The 3-series all-electric sedan might not have been the first choice in this country if an i4 could be had, but in the absence of the latter, it would still have been a good alternative. The i4 still has a more extended roofline, and a tailgate where the rear window also follows when the boot lid is opened. In the 3 series, only the conventional hatch is opened.

The Chinese i3 will have a total battery of 70.3 kWh (66.1 net usable). What this will give him in terms of range under the WLTP standard is unknown, but according to the Chinese benchmark CLTC, they believe they can cover 526 kilometers, with a consumption of 1.43 kWh per mile.

BMW i4 M50 in the world’s first winter test

Fast, not so fast

With energy storage in the form of a battery 10 kWh smaller than we find in the i4s that come here to Iceland, it’s also only natural that the i3 eDrive35L will get a smaller motor. Because even though the i4 eDrive40 in our market comes with a 340 hp engine, the electrified 3 Series will have a 282 hp engine.

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Strictly speaking, this probably applies to many, as it still delivers a speed of 100 km / h in just 6.2 seconds.

But the i3 eDrive35 does not offer high speeds in all respects, especially in charging speeds. Because while the i4 can indicate a maximum charging power of 200 kW, the Series 3 in said configuration handles only 95 kW charging power, at most. This may be acceptable in China, where the car will be sold, but not in Norway. It can also be noted that this will also compete with the Tesla Model 3 in China, so here it seems that BMW has been a bit moderate compared to the competitor.

In addition, the new i3 eDrive 35L will also feature BMW’s new operating system, OS8. Without pictures of the inside to look at, so we’d expect there to also be a display panel with two large screens right next to each other, as in the new i4 and iX.

Options

Although the new i3 is not intended for our market, there are other solutions. For one thing, we now have the i4 eDrive 40 in the list of what we can choose, but the i4 has also been considered in other versions. It is hinted at a car about the same power as the eDrive 40, but with all-wheel drive – xDrive – without having to go to the M50 with near 600 horsepower.

There’s also a hint of the i4 with less engines than the eDrive40, so maybe we’ll see the i4 with the same engines as we do here on the Chinese eDrive 35L?

In this case, the i4 will be in a cheaper version than it is today, and it will still be able to offer enough power and performance that many will satisfy – and at a cheaper price.

In other words, she did not say the last word on the case.