BMW i3 EV WILL get BMW motorcycle engine as range extender

BMW’s head of R&D, Herbert Diess, has confirmed the BMW i3 EV will come with the option of a range extender engine. BMW’s head of R&D, Herbert Diess, has confirmed to Automotive News that when the i3 arrives in BMW showrooms at the end of 2013 it will be offered with a range extending engine as well as a pure EV. The range extender engine will be housed in the boot and is derived from a BMW motorcycle engine, and will turn the i3 from a small EV, useful only in confined city environs with a range of around 40 miles, in to a small runaround that has a range of 250 miles.

New BMW X4 price and specs for the UK – costs from £36,590

The new BMW X4 is now on sale in the UK The new BMW X4 – BMW’s baby X6 and a ‘coupe’ version of the very able X3 – arrived at the Geneva Motor SHow in March, and it’s now on sale in the UK priced from £36,590 for the BMW X4 xDrive20d SE, a chunky £3.5k more than the equivalent X3. But what you’re buying in the new X4 is a lifestyle statement rather than a family SAV like the X3, so the premium is so others know you’re prepared to pay more for a less practical urban SUV. Still, a similar scenario with the X5 and X6 hasn’t stopped buyers opting for the X6 instead and it seems likely the X4 will take an even bigger split of the X3/X4 sales than the X6 does from the X5.

BMW X7 SUV confirmed to top BMW’s X Range

The BMW X5 Plug-in Hybrid will be built at Spartanburg along with the new BMW X7 The idea for BMW to build an SUV bigger than the X5 was put on ice when the world’s economy went in to meltdown in 2008, but the idea of a range-topping BMW X7 was back on the cards as long ago as 2010. Now, four years on, BMW has confirmed that they are planning an X7, that it will be built at their Spartanburg Plant in South Carolina and that it will arrive in 2017 or 2018. BMW aren’t prepared to divulge what platform the X7 will use, but it looks likely it will arrive on a revised version of the platform used for the next generation BMW 7-Series, a platform that will likely also be utilised for the new Rolls Royce SUV when that arrives, with the announcement of the X7 making a Rolls Royce SUV even more likely.