BMW has been much in news for quite a while for the launch of a new sub-brand and was pretty much serious about it. And with no surprise the company has officially launched a sub-brand named BMW-I with an inspiring motto “Born Electric” and will be devoted to “sustainable vehicles and mobility solutions”.
As the motto says the sub-brand will dedicate all its effort to building electric vehicles for future cities. Initially the brand is supposed to come out with two news cars named as i3 and i8 by 2013 of which the i3 is being reported to be the BMW Mega City Vehicle which we had covered earlier.
BMW has also planned to offer a range of mobility services over the coming years, through the newly founded BMW i Ventures, which required an investment of 100 million US dollars.
The first two products will try to complete the line-up as the i3 will be offered as a 4-seater urban small car while the i8 as a complete sports car and both will be offered with completely electric drivetrain.
Both models are based on a new construction concept named LifeDrive architecture, consisting of an aluminum chassis that houses the powertrain, and a lightweight carbon fiber- reinforced plastic (CFRP) passenger cell.
At the launch Klaus Draeger, BMW Board member explained,“Both cars have been designed specifically for their respective alternative drive systems. We used the innovative architecture and CFRP to cancel out practically all of the extra weight added by the batteries. For our customers this means superior driving dynamics combined with significantly increased range using electric power,”
