THE i HAS IT(some text hidden)

By Jonathan Crouch

Ten Second Review word count: 56

Think about what a mid-sized premium electric car should be. If you're still wedded to combustion power, you might be struggling to meet those expectations - but BMW's new-era i3 just might. If you don't want an SUV in this class and you're looking for the current state of the art, you'll find it right here.

Background word count: 250

EV car design needed a big step forward. BMW's Neue Klasse technology has provided it. First with the second generation iX3 SUV and then with this car, the new i3. We have to call it 'the new i3' because BMW fans will be well familiar with the original pioneering city car-shaped electric model that bore this same badge and was sold between 2013 and 2022. There was also an electric version of the G20-era combustion 3 Series bearing the 'i3' moniker, but that was sold only in China. Today's i3 though, is very different to anything that's gone before. Indeed, you could argue that it's significantly different from any EV that has gone before, unless you count the almost identically-engineered Neue Klasse iX3 model we mentioned earlier. That was a very important car for the Munich maker; but this one is the design the brand simply has to get right - the very first globally-available full-electric version of the model the company has built itself upon for five decades, the 3 Series. A bit like partner brand MINI did with the current Cooper hatch, the i3 will share much of its design language and technology with a separate but similar-looking combustion 3 Series. But in this case the car is BMW through and through - no joint ventures or Chinese collaborations. And it simply has to be good to face down new-era EV rivals like the Mercedes C-Class EQ and the forthcoming Audi A4 e-tron. Let's take a closer look.