A German energy storage company is working to make better lithium ion batteries for EV's/ They have recently shown off their 'Light Battery' concept in an i3, using a modular design to reduce costs and improve safety. This has allowed them to place a 100kWh pack into an i3, which has given it an impressive range of about 435 miles. As the Mini is believed to be using the same powerplant from the i3, this means that this new system could very well work here too.
i3 gets 435 mile range from Lion Smart
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Its overkill if you ask me but I get it from a marketing perspective. If you want to compete with the big boys, pulling numbers they aren't is a sure fire way to absorb some of the interested buyers, otherwise, why would you as a consumer give them a second look? Ask yourself that question.
The i3 was really only let down by two things. 1) its cost and 2) its range. If you do a bit of research into the model, its been noted for being one of the best EV's on the market to drive. I'm also a fan of the unconventional design, and I like that BMW did something original for their first EV.
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Yeah... the real challenge is to get a car maker to produce these numbers right now. I bet somewhere they all have some gentleman agreement release certain ranges at certain times. Otherwise you could buy an i3 like this and not see a new car salesman for the next 10 years. These small companies will never garner the recognition OE's get from consumers.
Its important to keep in mind that cost also decreases with scale. While this system may have been expensive to place in a one off model, it would be much cheaper to place from a mass market approach. Similar to ICE's automakers will be taking a gradual approach to increasing range. There's no money in offering the most right off the bat.
While it may still be lacking in range, there have been many publications that have reiterated the i3 to be the best EV to drive. It seems that the bigger battery has caused them to discontinue the range extender for Europe, which seems a bit premature imo.
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hence why i'm interested in BMW electric cars because the only areas I noticed they fell short was with tire type and driving modes, both not entirely important to someone who mostly drives in the city.
Interest in the REx is actually quite low in Europe, and as BMW has continued to update the range of the i3, sales of that model have dropped to around 25%. With the crazy high adoption rates of electrics overseas its apparent that customer demand is shifting to a pure electric model.
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