BMW Says No Successor Planned for I3 Hatchback

BMW’s i3 has reached the end of its road. The manufacturer recently stated that the model will not be updated, adding that there’s no plan for a successor. Despite the oddball Bimmer serving as the technological basis for the Mini Electric slated to launch next year, the i3 is going to stick around in its current form until the company has no further use for it.

Released in 2013, the i3 was Bavaria’s first stab at a mass-market EV. While this author sees them routinely parked in coastal cities, they’re an anomaly elsewhere. Overt success has eluded the model in the United States, with annual sales dropping from a high of 11,024 units in 2015 to just 6,117 deliveries in 2018. This year’s U.S. sales look to be even weaker for the model.

Fortunately for BMW Group, European sales have been on the rise every year since the car’s introduction. Last year, that resulted in 24,252 deliveries for the region — with 2019 already positioned to surpass that figure easily.

With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why the manufacturer is having difficulties deciding what to do with the EV. The model isn’t a hit but, as far as EVs are concerned, it’s not exactly a failure. “There’s no specific plan for an i3 successor,” Pieter Nota, BMW’s sales and marketing chief, told the Financial Times in a recent interview. “We are now bringing electrification more to the mainstream.”

The current strategy involves keeping the i3 around, unchanged, for the next few years while BMW works toward finishing new EVs and adding more plug-in options to its current lineup. It also likely doesn’t want to spent a lot of time and money developing a new version of vehicle that would likely usurp sales from the upcoming Mini Electric.

From FT:

BMW is installing plug-in hybrid technology into its best-selling models, which allows them to drive using electric power in cities and conventionally on longer journeys.

The carmaker also plans 13 battery-only models by 2023, a timeframe that was recently brought forward because of impending emissions targets.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show last week the company unveiled the design for an electric car coming out in 2021, as well as showing the electric Mini that will go on sale next year.

Currently in its fifth iteration, BMW has sold more than 150,000 i3 cars to date, with higher demand every year, as the nascent market for electric vehicles blossomed.

While numerous claims state that the design theory used by BMW on the i3 and i8 will also be abandoned on future, the company’s Vision iNEXT (above) concept continues to appear at automotive trade shows wearing similar black body panels and blue accenting. We even saw the concept at the Frankfurt Auto Show this month. That doesn’t mean BMW intends on keeping the design as is, especially considering its highly unconventional interior. But it does suggest that the company isn’t nixing the funky i-design theory in its entirety.

Subsequent prototypes and concept vehicles for future EVs also showcase similar design cues, albeit in a much subtler format. Teasers for the electrified 2021 i4 sedan and 2020 iX3 (below) crossover previewed both vehicles with only minor black and blue accenting along the side sills and rear bumper.

[Images: BMW]