We certainly aren’t motorisation experts, but we definitely adore cars and have been active users of them for many years. Yes, we admit we were truly thrilled when two years ago at the airport in Munich, we were passing by a futuristic and extravagant BMW i8. It’s been a long time since a car impressed us the way i8 did.
BMW i3, which we were asked to test, is the same family, a younger brother of i8 but still, sharing many common attributes. The body has a futuristic character, you can see that it was designed with care for detail. From the outside, the car looks slick, convenient, easy to park, while inside… Yes, that’s the first strong impression when testing the car – it is super spacious! The dashboard is significantly lowered. Only the electronic screen was left in its traditional place, the rest of the module is much lower which gives the impression that the car has tons of rooms inside!
ON THE INSIDE
Getting inside the car, we take a closer look at its interior. The aesthetics, the shapes, the materials – we absorb all that organically, at first sight. These are the elements of first contact that are decisive for the future car-user relation. The interior promises new sensations!
The interior of BMW i3 is intriguing, far different from standard interiors of the cars we know. Certainly, a revolution happened in here, this is definitely the 21st century in its sustainable, ecological and responsible version. The version that is close to our hearts.
The majority of the car cabin of this model is made of carbon, whose fibres are thinner than human hair. About 10% of the carbon used in the cabin comes from recycling (of the waste from production of construction parts using carbon, and all that thanks to a procedure developed specially for BMW i-range).
In fact, ecology definitely dominated the thinking of the designers of this car. Another material used in BMW i3 is kenaf – sourced from deccan hemp, a plant that is not only very productive and resistant, but also easily harvested even on wastelands. Additionally, while in the phase of growth, kenaf converts more carbon dioxide into oxygen than almost any other plant grown in the world. Wow!
If we choose a model with leather upholstery, the one used for i3 was tanned with an extract from olive tree leaves, while the eucalyptus wood used in the interior finish comes from a certified European arboriculture.
ON THE OUTSIDE
Strong colours. The model we drove was in black & white version. Intense, strong, contrasting. Black front, bonnet, tailgate, roof – all these elements do good to this car, making it sleek and dynamic. It is definitely an eye-catching vehicle.
BMW i3 is very light. It only weighs 1195 kg. The car’s components were executed in light metal alloys. They are mostly made of secondary aluminium, sourced from re-melted waste products or materials obtained from recycling and whose production takes place with up to 95% energy saving.
NO EXHAUST FUMES, NO BRAKES
Yet, before you hop on the car, you need to open the door. The rear doors open in the opposite direction (these are called rear-hinged doors) and only when the front doors are open. This definitely makes impression because there is no B-pillar between the front and rear doors. The interior of car looks very spacious and this is certainly something new and innovative.
And the silence while driving is amazing! No engine noise (especially if you change diesel to BMW) is absolutely fantastic. The car moves noiselessly, flowing on the asphalt surface and it can also speed up quite dynamically. But it is not worth to push the accelerator too much as it uses too much the energy of the battery. Same with the brakes – no need to use them. To stop the car it is enough just to take off the foot from the accelerator in the right moment before the traffic lights. The car stops on its own – a feature we get used to quite quickly.
CHARGE THE BATTERY!
BMW i3 is a car dedicated for the city. It seems quite a freakish fancy because why should you have a car you cannot go to the seaside by? But then we slowly start to understand: BMW i3 is the vision of the future. It is the saviour of our filled with smoke cities. This car requires strategic thinking. You cannot drive it as much as you please, you need to remember about the battery capacity. It works for 150 km and you can go another 150 km with the battery from range extender. This makes you a wary driver. You need to remember to charge the vehicle. For BMW i3 every power socket is a charging station. Full capacity can be reached in few-hours charging. The quickest way is to do it is at the Polish BMW headquarters in Wołoska street – it takes just 30 minutes and you can do it for free!
You can also charge the battery at the shopping malls – you certainly saw special parking places for electric cars, they are becoming increasingly popular. But that’s not for us. If the charger was near the BioBazar or the Mirowska Hall, then it would cross our paths!
CHARGING
The charging cable is hidden under the front bonnet. We are a bit stressed before the first charging. But it turns out to be very easy. We drive by, we put one end of the cable into the station and the other into the power socket of the car. We use our card or make a traditional payment. One full charging is about 7.75 PLN. Now there are about 20-25 charging stations in Warsaw. If you tend to forget about tanking up, as BMW i3 drivers you will have to become more disciplined.
Here above we described our impressions – driving BMW i3 was truly thrilling and sensational. Well, this is the avant-garde of motorisation but also the trend-setting. It is worth to remember that i3 is the first mass-produced zero emissions BMW model. When we realise that this is a quantum leap for our civilisation we also feel how exceptional it is. That’s us, at the wheel, the pioneers of new automotive sensations. Sometimes not the easiest ones, but taking first steps in the world free from smoke is worth changing old habits.
THE PRICE
The basic version (100% electric) costs 153,700 PLN, while the one with range extender that is “a combustion engine coupled with an electric generator which is used to re-charge the battery if needed”) stands at 174,000 PLN.

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