Now that the i3 is officially available and rolling on North American grounds, BMW will start its marketing machine and push the car into all sorts of media outlets, to make it more and more popular.
Their latest trick involves a new word that was probably invented by their PR team. ‘Electrifiction’ is that word and, apparently, it’s not the misspelled version of electrification. Oh no! It’s much more than that.
Electrifiction is a noun that defines the myth that electric vehicles spend more time charging than driving. According to BMW, at least in the case of the i3, this is just a myth and has no real grounds.
Looking over the specs of the car though, they might be wrong. The i3 has an electric motor powered by a 22 kWh lithium-ion battery hidden in the floor. Thanks to its 170 HP and 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) of torque, the small EV is quite agile on the road, pushing the boundaries set by previous attempts done by other companies.
However, according to the EPA, the i3 can do 81 miles (130 km) on a full battery. Now, since the average speed in a crowded city is, let’s say 15 mph (in heavy traffic), that means you can spend around 6 hours behind its wheel before it runs out of juice (that’s the best case scenario).
Couple that with the fact that you’ll need 8 hours to fully charge the battery using a normal socket, you might discover that this is just a marketing scheme. Of course, you can use a fast charger that gets the job done faster but that will cost a little more than you’d expect. Either way, we did find the video funny. Check it out!
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