BMW i8 to star in Mission Impossible IV

Tom Cruise will drive the electric/diesel hybrid i8 in new Mission Impossible film The Ghost Protocol, says The Sun.

And it will go on sale in 2013 as part of a radical brand of BMW electric/hybrid cars.

The brand, launched this week in Munich, will be called BMWi - with the first models an electric city car, the BMW i3, and the high-performance i8 coupé.

The i3 will be a zero-emission all-electric supermini with room for four and a range in excess of 100 miles. It is aimed at commuters around the world. But the car that will change the image of electric motoring will be the stunning i8, a four-seat coupé with supercar performance, but fuel economy of nearly 90mpg, a range of 435 miles and CO2 emissions of less than 100g/km - and that means no road tax.

The incredible performance comes from a relatively small 1.5-litre turbo diesel, boosted by two electric motors, that delivers 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 155mph. Expect a price around £100,000 plus.

BMW's Sales and Marketing boss Ian Robertson said the new brand and cars would "radically alter the motor industry and set a new benchmark for premium electric cars".

He added: "These cars and the i brand will shift the game and shape the future of motoring.

"It will change the way we build cars with new materials and production techniques and the way we drive."

He said it was too early to talk prices for the new cars but said that the i3 - despite being a small city car - would have a premium price and cost more than such rivals as the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt.

Luxury The ground-breaking brand follows a decision at the weekend by Rolls- Royce, also owned by BMW, to develop an all-electric Phantom as the first ultra-luxury electric car.

And BMW are also working on plans for an electric Mini - the German Group own Mini - to complete their electric range.

To that end BMW have been testing a fleet of 600 prototype electric Minis in the UK and around the world for the last two years.

And research from those drivers who took part in the Mini electric trials has been vital in developing the BMW i3 city car.

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BMW electric supercar could be named the i8 and cost 200,000 dollars

From Green Car Reports: BMW is pressing forward with its plans to build a production version of the striking plug-in hybrid concept car it called Vision Efficient Dynamics, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2009.

According to reports filtering out of Germany, the model that goes on sale in October 2013 may be called the i8 and cost roughly $200,000.

BMW's "i" sub-brand, for which a logo was leaked a couple of weeks ago, stems from its uber-green "Project i" research program. The "i" name will also be applied to the radical "MegaCity" carbon-fiber all-electric car that's scheduled to launch in 2013. You could consider the "i" label the green counterpart to its "M" series of performance editions.

The company hasn't announced which "i" number the MegaCity Vehicle will carry, though betting is on either zero or one. But if the i8 label is confirmed for the Vision Efficient Dynamics, it would clearly position the production plug-in hybrid as a counterpart to BMW's 8-Series sports coupe.

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James Martin reviews the electric Mini E

Tweet this post From the Daily Mail: Forgive me for talking shop, but this year’s been a crazy one in TV-land. The presenters of The One Show on BBC in the evenings are now the presenters of Daybreak on ITV in the mornings. The Bill was axed, The Stig was dishonourably discharged from Top Gear, Piers Morgan is on CNN and I woke up one morning to find Emma Bunton doing Lorraine Kelly’s job… Meanwhile, Jonathan Ross has been absent from our screens for most of 2010. Weird.

As for me, I’ve been mad busy all year except for a four-week break in the summer. Not that it was much of a break, as this magazine kept me at it with events at Goodwood, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, and tests of everything from hybrids to Ferraris.

Of course, I can’t complain, but it was almost a relief to get back into my normal routine – which, since you ask, includes commuting to the studio on a Friday morning and driving back late at night, past all my male viewers laying the groundwork for the hangovers they’ll enjoy during Saturday Kitchen.

Often I get a buzz out of driving around in something before it goes on sale. People do tend to notice you. But this week I’ve got something that’s not even close to being on sale. It might look like a normal Mini, but this is my first ever test of a research prototype, the all-electric Mini E. BMW has made a handful of these and given them to people to test for a year, to see how they perform under real-world, real-family conditions. Well, I don’t know how anyone else found it, but I reckon there’s a long way to go before the Mini E is ready to go on sale.

Actually, that’s not quite true – the car itself is great; it’s the battery life that’s rubbish. I found the same with the Tesla electric sports car, and as far as I know there’s no electric car that’s immune.

Let me tell you what I mean. The day it arrived, the car’s power meter told me I had 140 miles’ worth of juice. Great, I thought, and off I went to the shops and back – ten miles each way. When I got home it said I had 80 miles left. Eh? I know I failed my maths GCSE, but I’m pretty sure that’s 40 miles less than it should have been.

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BMW to launch its electric series, the i

Tweet this post The BMW MegaCity will be the German manufacturer's first production electric vehicle, part of the future i Series.

The MegaCity, still under development, will be presented during the 2012 Olympic Games in London and is not expected to go on sale until 2013.

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EVs and hybrids: BMW to hire 2,600 new employees

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s larger maker of luxury vehicles, is increasing hiring as the company expands its lineup to meet environmental regulators’ demand for cleaner-running cars.

The manufacturer plans to add 1,300 employees this year and at least 1,300 in 2011, Michael Rebstock, a spokesman at Munich- based BMW, said today by phone. The maker of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce models aims to add expertise in electric vehicles, hybrid powertrains and cleaner combustion engines to develop models with lower carbon-dioxide emissions, he said.

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