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All that would add to the i3 REx price. Between the carbon fiber, and being an early entrant into the BEV market, the i3 was already pricey. I think the i3 BEV price originally started around that of the bZ4X. With the way battery performance and prices went, the i3 BEV's range nearly doubled over its production run, there wasn't much incentive for BMW to make such investment for the model later

For the REx concept to succeed, they will need some of those things. They will also need changes to regulations in the US. A more efficient engine in the i3 REx would have just meant an even smaller gas tank for it here.

 

Your correct, the original Volt documentation stated that the gas engine only drove a generator. I didn't know they changed it when the car went into production. I always though it was a joke, since it only got high 30's to low 40's. Standard gasoline cars at the time could accomplish this at a much steeper discount than the price of the Volt.

 

Those few cars didn't have 38 miles of EV range.

 

Even apart from the EV range issue, I'm not seeing any conventional gasoline cars on EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site that matched or beat the Volt's gasoline EPA Combined MPG during its introduction year. Everything that did match or beat it, was hybrid.

True, there were several conventional cars that were not far behind. The Scion iQ and Smart fourtwo twins were a single tick below the Volt, a Ford Fiesta was 4 ticks below, and a MINI Cooper, a Toyota Yaris, a Chevy Cruze Eco, and Hyundai Elantra were 5 ticks below.

Even now, more than a decade later, only one conventional gasser beats it, and only two match it. Though there are far more now breathing down its neck.

 

Preparing for John to school PC - that BMW didn't, "know your audience" .

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true ... much less the 50+ ev miles (as well as better ICE MPG) that the gen II got.


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I used to own an early 90's Honda Civic VX that got 50 mpg all day long - until an uninsured motorist totaled it out. I believe it was a 1.5L or 1.2L engine mated to a 5-speed manual. It drove and handled great for that size of car and engine size. It would easily beat any 1 gen Prius in a race - but that's not saying much.

I believe I could've bought 3 - 4 of these Honda brand new, for the price they were asking for the Volt. Unfortunately; Honda stopped manufacturing and selling these, in the states, around 1995-1996.

 

Hypermilers loved the VX for its potential. It was efficient, and the manual allowed for more tricks. A gen2 Prius would do better for a typical driver without all the work. Yeah, it was cheaper than the Volt, but you still couldn't plug a VX into an outlet for any amount of gas free driving.

Honda stopped making the VX because it was a little smog goblin. The reason you got hybrid like fuel efficiency was because it was one of the leanest burning gas cars ever available to the public. Sales stopped because it couldn't pass emissions anymore. When Honda used lean burning in the original Insight, they had to use a NOx trap like in a diesel, and the Prius was still cleaner.

 

And as far as crash worthiness, the Civic was not what you'd want to be in if it took a serious hit. That was much the norm for many of the smaller cars of its day.
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Too bad it didn't meet 2011 emission and crash and other safety standards.

Plus, we shouldn't directly compare what a good hypermiler can do with one model, to EPA on a different model. Any good hypermiler can get well above EPA score on virtually all cars, in fact should be able to get CAFE scores. And the gap between EPA and CAFE has grown continually wider over the years, as EPA throws in more factors to lower its scale to something more closely resembling typical drivers, who keep getting ever heavier lead feet.

 

Tomorrow, the 18th.
Chevrolet Sets Blazer EV Reveal Date (gm.com)

 

Top efficiency EV from different vendors:



Bob Wilson

 

Had to look it up it got better fuel economy than that gen I Prius too ;-)
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=11703&id=44058&id=43969&id=16705

It had a 1.5L I4 engine with lean burn, auto transmission was not an option. If you adjust for inflation and consider the tax credit, you could likely buy almost 2 of these beasts for the price of a volt. Still a piece of history and the 50 mpg epa highway on the new adjusted test is much better than just about all the vehicles out there on gasoline.

There is no way to build a vehicle this light with today's crash standards. I really would like them revised to allow light cars like this to exist again unless they use very expensive materials. The 13" thin tires also would likely not work with the extra weight.

We do have engines more efficient than this one, the yaris hybrid dynamic force 1.5L has 41% efficiency. I'm sure that engine would easily meet emissions and be better in terms of acceleration at the same time meeting or exceeding the old engine's . Mazda's skyactiv X can do lean burn and have low emissions but mazda has not exported it to the US because of high cost. For the extra money you could likely add a 12 kwh battery and make the car a phev.

 

38MPG real consumption:
Honda Civic VX MPG - Actual MPG from 31 Honda Civic VX owners (fuelly.com)

40MPG real consumption (average of 2001, 2002, 2003):
Toyota Prius MPG - Actual MPG from 48 Toyota Prius owners (fuelly.com)

Highway and city real mix does the trick.
Prius still ahead, sorry.

 

The VX average is 39.6mpg. It is pretty close to the gen1 Prius. Just like the EPA ratings. Dive deeper into that data, and you'll see the VX has a wider range of results than the gen1 Prius. A hypermiler would likely do better with the Honda, with more work from the driver.

The thing with looking at old Civics is that there is a good chance they are no longer factory spec. The model is popular with modders here. Some I've seen on the road look to be putting out more particulates than a diesel. The couple VXs that came up for sale locally to me had everything that made them a VX removed.

 

There is not a statistically significant difference and you need to account for user bias. The gen I prius was quite expensive compared to the civic vx. Its likely the users bought it strickly for fuel economy and those disapointed were not that likely to report on fuelly. YMMV.

Still why are we talking about this. The gen II prius was much improved and iconic in its own right. That is when toyota got its act together and built something that would sell in foreign markets.

BMW seems to be concentrating on more mainstream phevs than the i3. It makes sense, as they had said the i3 was created when batteries were much more expensive, with the price decline bevs and less expensive materials make sense.

 

Valid for both cars, I presume.

 

One with a Prius can hypermile also on the daily commute, including city traffic.

 

Traffic and car model don't matter to a hypermiler.

The VX seems to have a higher potential than the gen1 Prius. There are users doing better than the best Prius entries on Fuelly. It takes more work because a hybrid automates some techniques. There is also some that do worse. One had a 10mpg fill, which has me thinking some of those VXs aren't VXs. Fuelly has some problems with cars being wrongly filed by trim or engine.