With traditional automakers increasingly indicating their intention to move into the electric car niche, it is interesting to compare the BMW i3 vehicle to the market-leading Tesla Model S. Tesla certainly has a major advantage as the corporation has already established itself as the major player in the electric vehicle marketplace. But BMW has a huge amount of experience and prestige, and this could certainly assist the company in penetrating the electric car niche.
Performance
Although the acceleration capabilities of the BMW i3 have been praised, it still comes second best to the Model S in this department. Despite the undoubtedly sporty feel of the BMW i3, the Model S is simply an outstanding vehicle in performance and power terms, with the notorious CEO and founder of the company, Elon Musk, having boasting about its capabilities before its release. Nonetheless, it is not uncommon for drivers to favor the BMW i3 owing to its sporty driving style, with the Model S particularly well suited to longer road trips.
Model 3 plus points
The Tesla Model S is reckoned to be the definitive electric car by many, and has several advantages over the BMW i3. The first of these is that the vehicle is considerably more spacious for those people wanting to ferry around passengers and cargo. This possibly makes the Model S the more practical of the two vehicles.
The Model S should also be commended for its charging capabilities. Firstly, the vehicle has a significantly longer range than the i3, which obviously makes it efficient in comparison to the BMW vehicle. The Model S also benefits from supercharger access, meaning that charging the vehicle is made even more convenient.
One of the most lauded Aspects of the Model S is the extremely sophisticated and useful autopilot feature. This has received a strong critical reception, and has also attracted praise from consumers, with the function making the Model S an easier vehicle to drive than many of its competitors.
This feeling of ease of use is also enhanced by the outstanding infotainment and navigation systems included in the vehicle. The days where it was simply good enough to deliver a road car that gets people from A to B are long gone, and entertainment features and technological innovations are now a central part of every major vehicle. Tesla has set the bar very high in this department, yet the corporation has also been in talks with Apple, seemingly with the intention of improving its in-car technology even further.
BMW i3 advantages
But despite the fact that the Tesla Model S is one of the finest vehicles on the market, not merely an outstanding electric car, there are also advantages to the BMW i3 model. Although the Tesla Model S is generally reckoned to outperform the BMW i3, the latter of the two vehicles does excel in some departments. It is tough to take on such an outstanding vehicle as the Model S, but BMW is an extremely experienced automaker, and has delivered a vehicle with many superb features.
Firstly, and somewhat ironically, it is generally regarded that the BMW i3 is the greenest car available on the market. This is surprising considering the green credentials of Tesla, but the lack of emissions produced by the BMW i3 ensures that this is the ideal product for anyone wishing to be kind to the earth. This environmentally friendly quality of the vehicle is enhanced by the fact that it is also the most efficient car on the market.
The fact that the BMW i3 is also a subcompact car appeals to many motorists, and the regenerative braking system included in the vehicle has also been praised by many drivers and car critics alike.
Finally, one of the most obvious advantages of the BMW i3 is that it is the more economical of the two vehicles, often by some distance. Whether one is willing to pay the extra money for a Model 3 vehicle that certainly seems to deliver additional quality is dependent on the individual, but thrifty motorists will certainly relish the BMW i3.
Safety advantage
Nonetheless, although there are disadvantages to the Model S, perhaps the decisive factor in its favor is that it is such a safe vehicle. While all motorists wish to avoid accidents, it is well established that the Model S is one of the very safest vehicles on the road. Coupled with its phenomenal performance parameters, this does seem to give the vehicle the edge over the BMW i3 at this point in time.
It is clear that the electric car marketplace is about to get a massive boost, with BMW having announced the i6 for later this decade. Well, when one says it later this decade, it should perhaps be more accurately described as early next decade. Although the BMW i6 is expected to be unveiled in 2019, a more likely release date for this new electric vehicle is 2020, and even that may prove to be optimistic.
BMW has clearly decided that the electric car space will be an extremely profitable niche in the future, and possibly the major global political agreement on climate change will contribute to this impression. It is perhaps the ideal time for the luxury car manufacturer to be moving into the electric car niche, with its obvious German rival Volkswagen having experienced such malaise recently.
Nonetheless, BMW will be up against some absolutely outstanding Tesla vehicles, as well as an Apple Car, as the consumer electronics giant continues to work on developing this product range. The Apple Car could truly be a disruptive piece of technology, and considering the rumous that Tesla will team up with Apple in some respect in the coming years, it does intensify the need for traditional automakers to move into this marketplace now.
The BMW i3 is certainly an excellent attempt to do this, but for the time being the Model S remains the definitive vehicle in this class.
