The 2014 BMW i3 is an all-new, all-electric vehicle that is the first product of the new BMW I sub-brand, and a truly purpose built electric car, representing a new era for electro mobility at BMW with complete sustainability and nearly 100 percent recyclability.
I’m not a person who knows a lot about cars, but when I found out that a car could be close to 100% recyclable, I thought that was definitely pretty neat! What’s interesting about the marketing for the BMW i3 is that the official website gives away very little about it sustainable attributes, which at first makes me wonder about how sustainable the car really is. I was only able to find out more about it through external blogs, and other media contributing to the buzz.
With the project, BMW was looking to redefine how it operated and did business, designing the car with recyclability in mind. Here’s what I found out:
- All carbon fibre used in the car is sourced from a factory that runs on hydropower
- Production is water efficient as well as energy efficient, with 70% of energy coming form wind turbines
- Recycling is also reportedly done during the production process
- Fabric used in the car is made from recycled plastic water bottles
- Dye used in the fabric is made from recycled oil leaf extract
- Black surrounds are made from Kenaf plant
- All wood used is from Eucalyptus trees
What’s more, also available for purchase are charging stations and even solar panels to complete what BMW calls the “360 degree Electric Experience.”
In the end, BMW has designed the i3 to be 95% recyclable, with some parts able to be melted down for re-use or to be re-purposed. “Second life applications” are also in place, for instance, once the car has reached it’s expiry date, the battery can be used for second life applications, as is already done at the BMW’s Technology Office – it uses a 100 kilowatt lithium ion system to interact with the power grid (Source).
The biggest question of course is whether this car, which is scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2014, will sell. And as I said before, I don’t know too much about cars, so I wouldn’t be able to say what the strongest appeal of the car is (maybe one of you can tell me!) But as one of the prominent car brands in the world today, I think the company is definitely helping to change the way that cars are not only being designed but also produced. On further research, I found that Toyota and Ford have each produced 100% recyclable cars as well, so the trend is definitely not new, but it could use more attention – and for a brand that sets its sights “on the premium sector of the international automobile market,” I’m thinking BMW probably has the clout to compel other premium sector focused car companies to develop their own sustainable and recyclable cars as well.
In general, what are your thoughts on sustainable/recyclable cars and the BMW i3?
It’s very interesting that BMW isn’t trumpeting the environmental benefits of this car – they may be aware of research showing that politically conservative individuals tend to react very negatively to green-messages in marketing (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/04/26/1218453110) and so are adjusting accordingly. That would make sense since I assume BMW’s target clientele would tend to skew conservative! That paper really illustrates how important it is to consider how you frame messages to different demographics.
Hey Michelle great post! I was at the Vancouver Auto Show this past weekend and I got to get a brief glimpse of BMW’s i3 and i8, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to learn more about those cars. That being said, I think it spoke volumes how BMW was the only brand to feature their new eco-friendly cars and shows the level of commitment the company has towards sustainability. The electric vehicle concept is nothing new as there are cars like the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt in the market, but a recyclable car is game changing. You said that its not a new trend because Ford and Toyota also have recyclable cars, but to my knowledge they haven’t even begun to release any information publicly. While in contrast BMW is already ready to release the i series in 2013 and its evident that BMW is lightyears ahead of anyone else in terms of sustainability.
That being said, I have a few comments on BMW’s i series that make me question how successful these cars can be. As we have mentioned many times in class, a sustainable product must work as good as or better than what is currently available. For cars, you could say that the easiest element to compare is it’s performance. I’m curious to know how long or how far the car can travel on a single charge. The website mentions the car’s power and acceleration, yet does not mention the typical range. If a consumer would have to endure a 6-hour charging period for only a hundred KMs then I’d say its not worth it.
Secondly, this is going to be an expensive car. Not only is it an expensive brand to begin with, but its also a car with revolutionary technology. You could argue that the price premium that this car is expected to command will be offset by the gas savings over this car’s lifespan. But for an average consumer Im not sure that they will look past a high ticket price. This means that the i3 will be a luxury good and only a small section of the population will be able to afford an eco-friendly car and is willing to pay for it. If the ultimate goal is for everyone to have an eco-friendly car in the future, I think it will be a long, long time before its realized.
Lastly, I know you mentioned that some recycling is done during production, but I think that is only from excess materials during the production process. I don’t think there is any mention of recycling the post-consumer use car. I wonder just how capable the world is to handle the recycling of the i series vehicles. Is there a special process that needs to be learned? Do special recycling plants need to be built? How costly is it to recycle?
I know that I’m picking holes at this point because these cars arent in production yet and this technology is brand new. Naturally, the cars will be expensive and the system may have some flaws at the start but hopefully over time things will get cheaper and more efficient.
Andrew