BMW i3 EV gets 100kWh battery and a RANGE of 435 miles

A German energy storage company – LION Smart – has put their new ‘Light Battery’ Lithium-Ion battery in BMW’s i3, delivering 100kWh and 435 mile range.

There’s a lot to like about the BMW i3, but its range isn’t one of them. In fact, you’re going to be lucky to get 100 miles of range from its 33kWh battery in normal use. 

But in a preview of what’s perhaps to come from the next generation i3, German energy storage company LION Smart has taken the BMW i3 and fitted it with their new ‘Light Battery’ and, without increasing the footprint of the original battery, has increased its power to 100kWh and its range to 435 miles.

The key to the increased energy density of LION’s new batteries lies in its cooling channels which can even isolate individual cells with problems and protect them, or switch them off, and the construction is wire free by using Bluetooth and infrared to communicate.

Sadly, it seems that fitting LION’s new Light Battery technology in the i3 has been done to prove to car makers that their technology can make lithium ion batteries still relevant in the face of the anticipated competition from Solid State batteries in the near future, and isn’t designed to be a retro-fit option for existing EVs.

Although we’d heave thought there could be a sizeable market for taking used cars like the i3 and LEAF, and just about any EV,  and fitting them with a much more powerful replacement battery pack. 

LION Smart ‘Light Battery’ video