# BMW i3



## brainzel (Jun 15, 2009)

The battery should be about 35kWh, so there is many weight under the passengers that had to be compensate.
My New Beetle (19kWh) has the same weight, so they saved ~350kg/770lbs of mass for aditional 16kWh, that's great.

The chassis would never rust so thats cool too.

But the expected price of at least ~58.000 Dollar / 40.000 Euro would be the hurdle.


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## somanywelps (Jan 25, 2012)

brainzel said:


> The battery should be about 35kWh, so there is many weight under the passengers that had to be compensate.
> My New Beetle (19kWh) has the same weight, so they saved ~350kg/770lbs of mass for aditional 16kWh, that's great.
> 
> The chassis would never rust so thats cool too.
> ...


Trying to launch a $58,000 smartcar lookalike vs a Tesla S (at $57,000) is asking for pain.


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## phoooby (Jun 6, 2012)

somanywelps said:


> Trying to launch a $58,000 smartcar lookalike vs a Tesla S (at $57,000) is asking for pain.



Good point but having looked at the Tesla pricing in Europe, you would laugh. 

Tesla Roadster is £87,945 ($135,435) in U.K. Tesla Roadster Sport is £102,895 ($158,455).......so $58,000 looks cheap. 

Don't know the reason for the price hike for the U.K. as transporting cannot cost all that much, import tax is 20% but I guess Tesla would not have to pay a sales tax for export sales. The U.K. has a £5000 government subsidy like the $7500 U.S. one on new ev's. Guess they are just pricing in a market at a level that they feel they can achieve sales. 

If the model S were available in the U.K. at the $49,900 U.S. price (£32,400) I would buy one tomorrow as that is similar money to a basic BMW 5 series in the U.K. but I guess we will be stuck with a 6 figure price tag and I will have to keep dreaming.


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