BMW AG held a farewell ceremony for the i3 subcompact electric hatchback, which it has been producing since 2013, i.e. 9.5 years.
On August 5, the final 18 i3s were handed over to buyers at the BMW Welt corporate exhibition center in Munich. The final batch is painted according to a special scheme - black top and golden bottom (color - Galvanic Gold Metallic).
For 9.5 years, almost 250 thousand copies of i3 / i3s were assembled at the company's plant in Leipzig. BMW says the i3 has proven to be the most popular luxury subcompact car.
BMW Blog notes that in reality the last i3s were assembled at the end of June, the cars were in the finished goods warehouse for more than a month.
Recall that the BMW i3 was the world's first mass-produced car with a monocoque made of carbon fiber. Pluses relative to the usual structure, welded from steel stamped panels - lower weight, higher torsional rigidity. Cons: much higher cost and labor intensity of manufacturing.
The BMW i3 was produced in both "pure electric" and "series hybrid" variants. The 130 kW (170 hp) traction motor is mounted at the rear and the rear wheels are driving. The BMW i3 of the last years of production was equipped with a battery with a capacity of 120 kWh, it provided a range of up to 246 km on one full charge. The hybrid version used a 650 cc gasoline engine with 34 hp.
Note that BMW decided to reuse the i3 index - for the electric version of the 3-Series sedan, it is produced and sold only in China.
BMW discontinues i3 electric hatchback
