2014 BMW i3 electric car attempts a revolution from within

It looks like a prop from a science fiction movie. It’s the oddest vehicle built with a BMW badge since the company stopped making Isetta bubble cars in 1962. But the 2014 BMW i3 electric car revealed today rolls out as the most technically advanced effort by an automaker to make electric cars viable.

Like all major automakers, BMW has to build electric vehicles to meet regulations around the world, especially in California, which requires automakers to either sell their own EVs or pay their competitors who do so. BMW had experimented with an electric version of its 3-Series sedan, but chose to build a custom-designed EV meant to serve as an urban commuter in the world’s increasingly crowded cities — one meant to maximize its environmental credentials.

"We are at the starting blocks of a new era, the era of sustainable mobility," said BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer. "The BMW i3 is more than an evolutionary step. It's a great leap forward."

It’s inevitable that the i3 would draw comparisons with Tesla’s Model S, but outside of how they turn their wheels, the two cars have little in common. Tesla designed the Model S to look like a typical sedan on purpose, to make car buyers already wary of electric power feel more at ease. The i3 advertises its singularity, with a tall cabin and short nose wrapped in swooping thermoplastic bodywork. The i3 rides on tall but narrow 19-inch wheels in a tire size found usually on space-saving spares. There’s no pillar between the doors; the rear half-doors open suicide-style, and with no transmission or exhaust tunnel BMW claims it’s easy to slide out either side.