Driveway Wordless Outtake: He Drove the Audi To Work Today
– Posted on November 6, 2020
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Could be the Audi’s turn to be laid up in the repair shop, too.
I wonder what color it is.
One of these days I should drive a German car, just to get a broad understanding of what the big deal is. Do cars still have regional identities?
An A5 Coupe in grey colour?
The Bimmer in that pic looks like one of those small MPV / people-mover / tall wagon things that are popular in Europe. The reflections make it look like it has four regular doors.
It’s an i3. A very odd carbon-bodied EV city car they sell for CAFE incentives.
Let’s not be hasty. They could be happily tooling around in their Goggomobil.
I have an admittedly irrational love for the i3, probably somewhat due to the halo of electricity. I don’t know that it’s yet achieved CC status, but let’s just say I’d rather the small vestigial grille kidneys from the i3 made it up the rest of the lineup rather than the X7’s Bugs Bunny grilles making their way down.
I will declare the i3 a worthy CC if it’s not replaced in kind, and who thinks that’ll happen? They went outside the box, and I don’t think it’s really paid off at all. The regular i3 was made obsolete the instant the Bolt debuted, and the Model 3/Y should have finished its sales entirely. At this point, it’s very expensive but has lower range than a base model Leaf. The REx has outlasted the Volt, its only concurrent gas/electric rival, but wasn’t exactly “superior,” only different. I’m sure that the next BMW EV is going to be a variant of a mainstream model, and will share the Mini EV’s FWD setup. I admire them for trying to set a new mold, the problem is that nobody else followed. A tall 2.2 door hatchback with skinny tires that leans like a Renault in turns sure isn’t what I expected from BMW. It’s cute and unique, and supposed to be a hoot to drive, yet isn’t a 3-series.
The next BMW EV is actually a variant of the X3 but not coming over here due to somehow not actually being AWD capable, having 285 miles of range on the Euro cycle (so far less in real life and the EPA test), and relatively slow. Apparently the dealer body said “Nein, Danke” over here. The i3 though appeals to me as well, I find the interior to be brilliant but have not actually driven one. Not new but used values seem much more palatable.
It seems that maybe they should just choose one of the BMWs that’s already based on a the Mini (X1/X2) and sell a FWD electric of that. The Mini is basically the i3 drivetrain moved to the front already. More range would help, the 106 or whatever it was when I tested one is fine for most tasks though if people are honest with themselves, especially those in multi-car households.
It’s more and more baffling that some of the largest and supposedly capable manufacturers in the world either can’t (or won’t) come up with something that can compete with Tesla. Audi and Jaguar easily have the brand equity to compete but not the machinery as evidenced by their current EV offerings. Polestar (Volvo?) seems plagued with recalls. Imagine if Tesla actually publicly did something to address the perception of quality problems and used a much more traditional user interface and thus with one stroke eliminated what seems like 90% of the reasons people give not to choose one of their vehicles. I hope Ford does ok with their Mustang CEV but at the same price point think most would choose a Tesla and Ford doesn’t necessarily inspire thoughts of problem free motoring in anything that isn’t a full size truck, especially with much of their existing dealer body. I don’t see what makes anyone think they will receive or deal with it much better than Chevy dealers did with the Volt and Bolt.