Sheer driving pleasure?....

[duane_sword]

I have seen articles and photos of the new BMW electric 1-series... when I say I have seen the articles I mean to say that I skip past them, not read then.

Today I saw my first sighting of a 1-series Active-E.... photos below.

If this is the future then I will be one of the die-hards happy to pay $10/gallon in years to come for my E9 to stay cruising.

oh and check out the registration plate.... No wonder we are called Massholes in Taxachusetts.





Sheer driving pleasure???....

 

[eriknetherlands]

10 USD a gallon...yep that's about right

Here in the Netherlands, i drive 2000-3000 miles a year, and the fuel costs here are indeed 8,9 USD a gallon.... (1,8 per liter, with 3.75 liter in a gallon) That doesn't keep me from couping, it's the rust that does it....:?

And the rust is more expensive then the fuel anyway.
Or maybe that quote should be long in the "you know you drive an e9 when...." section.
Erik.

 

[kwyjibo]

Hi Duane,
I may have seen this car a couple of weeks ago when I was down at the Harvard Med. School for a meeting. I can't tell from the photo where you saw it. But, I can't imagine there were too many takers given the ~$10k extra it takes for the home charging station!

 

[duane_sword]

I saw this electric lawn-mower, oops I mean BMW, parked in the garage at the Galleria mall in Cambridge where they have a free electric car charging station and a zipcar pickup hub.

If this is the future I will wait until they make an M-version...

 

[Stevehose]

Who's paying for this "free" station...oh wait...you and your fellow citizens are! And God forbid if it's from a coal fired utility but it's ok as long as they pollute someone else's back yard.

free electric car charging station

 

[duane_sword]

Indeed, I am a subscriber to the wisdom of Jeremy Clarkson also .... electric just moves the problem to a concentrated polluted site somewhere 'else'.... things are different in the "Republic of Cambridge".

Has there even been any attempt for someone to go with LPG in a coupe? For sure I wouldn't do that even if 93 octane moves to $20/gallon , my cruises in the coupe would just be shorter.

 

[eriknetherlands]

LPG in an E9

Hi Duane,

Here in the Netherlands are a few guys who run their E9's on LPG, as the LPG price /mile is about 1/4 of the Gasoline price in the netherlands; (it's a tax system thing...) This saves a 1500 Euro's a year when driven 500 km=3000 miles. A return on investment of ~2 years if you have a modern system installed.

It's quite OK, and the big boot-trunk helps "hiding" the added LPG tank.

Regarding the electric car aspect, some observations;
In powerplants they do have the facilities to post treat their "exhaust" fumes with much more science and facilities then we have onboard, so yes, electric is indeed better in this respect.
Taking onboard the Co2 footprint of the powerplant and the transportation of the electricity to your wall socket (or mall as in this case) an electic car such as the Nisan Leaf ("zero Emmision") will still require that somewhere 105 grams of Co2 are produced when it's charged in europe (with it's specific mix of gas,- nuclear,- coal- and water and wind mill powerplants).
So one could say that not driving is polluting; it's the charging...:wink:
Erik.

 

[IS3FIFTY]

It's the sound...

There are several of these in San Diego. Actually, I regularly see one in my parking structure at work.

I'm very open minded when it comes to innovation and technology, so the electric motor doesn't bother me. Big electrics are actually fun to drive because they have gobs of torque right from 0 mph. What bothers me is how they sound... The other day I was out driving and spotted the e bimmer in my rear view mirror so I slowed down to let it pass me and rolled down my window. Well, let me tell you that at 40mph it sounds like a cheap whiny toy blender. What a turn off...!! When you're used to associate BMWs with throaty exhaust melodies the electric high pitch just doesn't work. Hopefully, the BMW engineer will take care of this.

 

[Stevehose]

Don't they pipe a fake exhaust sound through the sound system now?

There are several of these in San Diego. Actually, I regularly see one in my parking structure at work.

I'm very open minded when it comes to innovation and technology, so the electric motor doesn't bother me. Big electrics are actually fun to drive because they have gobs of torque right from 0 mph. What bothers me is how they sound... The other day I was out driving and spotted the e bimmer in my rear view mirror so I slowed down to let it pass me and rolled down my window. Well, let me tell you that at 40mph it sounds like a cheap whiny toy blender. What a turn off...!! When you're used to associate BMWs with throaty exhaust melodies the electric high pitch just doesn't work. Hopefully, the BMW engineer will take care of this.

 

[Nicad]

When I was a young man, I worked making Electric vehicles. I also worked making Ford Taunus's in Genk, Belgium. This experience rewired my brain to be slovenly.

The electric vehicles were made with this company (Several hundred of these vehicles were produced)
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=214580031901549

When I was about 12, my Dad brought home a prototype electric trike with two wheels up front and a drive wheel behind. While he was at work, I used to bomb around the neighbourhood on it. It would do about 35-40 mph. Once the police pulled over this helmetless twelve year old, wondered what was up with that and escorted me home.
My well endowed French Canadian Mum was in the back yard sunning herself in a Bikini. The Cops did not have to much to say to her and just drove off... I learnt the power of those things that day. Another time I decided to off road the trike (I always wanted a mini bike) and got it stuck, not realizing it had 450 pounds of batteries. I had to get my Dad who was floored I was off roading a one and only protpotype vehicle to free it. He was madder than I almost ever remember him being.

The final iteration of our electric vehicle development was this Briggs and Stratton prototype that graced the cover of Motor trend in MArch 1980.


http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/...n-the-unlikely-great-grandpappy-to-the-prius/

I'd like to get a Marathon for my collection one day. They were pretty crude and I do not really like electric vehicles all that much. I have since driven a Zero electric dirt bike and Zero Electric street bike. Lot's of torque , but poor throttle modulation. I'd end up going too fast on one of these....floored all the time. I would like to assemble an electric bicycle however using a Bion X retrofit kit.

 

[CSteve]

Are they putting speakers in the grille to mimic the sound of a gas engine. Walkers can't hear the electrics "idling" or hurtling at them and tend to walk in front of them. Will we have a choice of which engine? How about a CSL at 2000 rpm.