With a lot of talk veering towards electrification these days, Yogendra Pratap spends about a month with one of the very best of them, in the form of the BMW i3s. not only do we drive it in the city but also take it for an inter-city drive, putting the range of the city car to the extreme test.
We have driven a number of electric cars over the years. Very few in India - actually just the one and its derivatives over the years in India and a wide variety of electric cars overseas. So when we got the opportunity to not only do a test drive of another electric car but also live with it, experience and use it for wide ranging commuting requirements, we grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Now we are no strangers to the BMW i cars and also to the i3. We drove it in Amsterdam when it was first launched and then drove it in Europe again when it was given a mid-life face-lift and the i3s was launched. The car is yet to be launched in India but BMW is ready to do so when the conditions are right and there is demand in the market for electric cars, sufficient infrastructure for them and a government policy that is conducive to the adoption of electric cars. So we are no strangers to the electric city car from BMW but wanted to try it out in the routine driving that one does with city cars in India - the daily office commute followed by the weekend shopping trips around the Delhi NCR region including a quick excursion to a nearby suburb and the occasional family trip to the nearby hill resorts.
The first thing that catches our eye is the green number plate of the i3s as we park it in the office basement parking area. That we discover is standard for all electric vehicles or BOVs, the official term for electric vehicles in the eyes of the registering authority. The next is to ensure that the car is recharged and ready to go in the evening, and for that we have to install electricity sockets in our parking area and we plug the car in to charge - which by itself creates a spectacle that draws all the bystanders - as the surround light grows blue and finally green as the car is fully charged.
Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av Auto Today.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av Auto Today.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Big Wing Energy
TVS Motor Company has launched an updated version of the Apache RR 310, which promises to deliver not only more power and torque than before but also more bang for your buck. We recently went down to the COASTT high-performance track to test the theory
All gas All go
Tata Motors' CNG portfolio now includes the Nexon, and this might be a turning point in the way that CNG cars are perceived
Royal Blessings
We get behind the wheel of the Hyundai Exter to explore one of the most well-preserved Mughal Empire sites in our country. Curious?
Generation next
The 4th-gen of the BMW X3 has made its global debut and we were in the brand's hometown of Munich to drive the car before its European debut this year. The same will be launched in India next year
Electrified palace on wheels
Mercedes-Benz has launched the EQS SUV which is nothing short of being a palace. The other positive is that this palace is as green as it can get
Achtung! CXOs
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class LWB is back in a new generation, V214 and this time, the three-pointed stars have showcased how they use their understanding of what their customer needs to be the best-selling luxury brand in the country, year after year
Moving page 3s
The Kia Carnival is here in a facelifted avatar of the second generation (that we skipped in India), but this time, it is priced almost double the previous iteration. Does it have enough to make the price premium worth it? Read on to find out
Successore dei LaFerrari
FERRARI HAS revealed the F80, which is the successor to the LaFerrari, that made up one of the three cars in the Holy Trinity.
McLaren initiates the new trinity
MCLAREN WAS the first of the high-performance brands to reveal a weaponised hybrid system in a supercar with the P1, which became one of the three hybrids known as the Holy Trinity, with the other two being the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
Dzire creates history at GNCAP for Maruti Suzuki
MARUTI SUZUKI DZIRE has scored five stars in the Global NCAP crash tests, making it the first car from the company to achieve this feat.
