BMW i3 EV takes to the race track (video)

The electric BMW i3 city car may not be built for the track, but that hasn’t stopped BMW in the States taking the i3 out for a few hot laps.

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The BMW i3 EV City Car finally got revealed in July in production guise, and it’s a clever car if not exactly a looker.

With a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and an electric motor that offers 168 bhp and an instant 184lb/ft of torque it has more than enough power to keep up with traffic in any city.
Sadly, the i3 hasn’t done particularly well in Euro NCAP tests but that hasn’t stopped orders for the i3 exceeding anything BMW could have reasonably expected.

Now, in an effort to prove the i3 is a proper BMW, BMW in the States has taken an i3 off to the track to prove it can do proper BMW stuff when let of the leash.

The trouble is, the video (below) doesn’t really show much of the i3’s action, preferring cleverly edited shots of the i3 silently running around the track.

There does seem to be a bit of rock and roll going on as the i3 pitches in to corners, although it does seem to cope with the weaving in and out of bollards quite well.

With official performance figures of 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds, the i3 isn’t exactly a sloth, and we can imagine it could be quite fun.

But it’s unlikely that fun would last for long before the batteries run out of juice.

We met up, by chance, with an i3 out on an early review in central London in October, and the test drivers were lamenting they couldn’t go any further as they had no range left after an afternoon and evening pottering round central London, and bemoaning the fact their i3 wasn’t the range extender version.

Imagine how little juice you’d have left after a couple of quick laps on a track?