Daily Auto News BMW Megacity: Tiny Electric Car Coming in 2013
Daily Auto News
BMW knows a few things about pulse-pounding automotive performance. How to lighten a car’s weight with carbon fiber components, for instance. How to design steering systems that can handle the tightest of corners with ease. How to get the most out of every last ounce of power.
It’s just the right formula for building a tiny, environmentally-responsible electric car to handle the stop-and-go traffic and scant parking of major cities.
That’s right. The people that brought you the M5 are out to conquer the market for city cars that rarely go over 30 miles per hour.
Kicking Tires reports, “BMW is now confirming a timetable for the sale of its new Megacity vehicle, a small electric car.” In a presentation at Beijing auto show in China, BMW executives confirmed that “The Megacity will be sold under a sub-brand of BMW.” The German automaker has enjoyed tremendous success with its Mini sub-brand, but it wasn’t clear whether the Megacity will be sold as a Mini, or under some other name.
BMW will borrow ideas from is high-performance cars in order to get the most out its little electric runabout. Autoblog reports, “According to BMW, its upcoming electric vehicle will be the first mass-produced vehicle that relies heavily on the use of carbon fiber for its structure, which should help keep the vehicle lightweight, thereby improving its performance and range.” That range may be quite impressive. Autoblog reports, “The Megacity will have a range of roughly 160 miles per charge,” which would greatly exceed the range of most electric cars.
We don’t know how many passengers the Megacity will seat. Motor Trend notes, “BMW says the cars will be slightly smaller than a contemporary Mini Cooper, making them more than ideal for zipping through congested areas.
BMW has not officially said whether the Megacity will be sold in the U.S. Kicking Tires notes, however, that the company recently invested in a major carbon fiber plant in the U.S. — so they’re apparently planning something stateside using the material.
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