BMW I3 looks like a VERY important milestone

[BlueStreak]

18. No. I have range anxiety just thinking about it :)

Anxieties aren't necessarily based on reality but they are real. I am trying to make my life as worry-free as possible, so I am simply not going to seriously consider a product that makes me worry just thinking about it.

I think BMW (and GM) have the right idea. You really don't need very much horsepower ON AVERAGE to maintain highway speed. 10 HP will get the job done ON AVERAGE. But you do need acceleration, hill climbing, passing power. That is where the battery does its job, so you only need a gas engine big enough to deliver that basic 10 HP plus some additional amount to charge the battery. Even the 650CC engine is way overkill, I would think, but I'm sure the BMW engineers looked very carefully at product cost, size, noise, durability and efficiency and decided that engine was their best option. They are surely looking at an expandable platform. That same drive system might show up 6 months later in a small delivery truck that gets 40 miles on the same battery. The 650CC engine should handle any vehicle up to a 1 ton pick-up.