The BMW i3: a revolutionary electric car that was well before its time. Launched in 2013, BMW sold 250,000 units of this little car but although clever, it really wasn’t popular.

The i3 was a technical tour de force with a full carbon fibre monocoque, wood-clad interior, suicide doors and other futuristic touches that set it in a class of its own, and herein lies the problem.

The i3 was a typical fiendishly complicated small German car that started at £30,980, topping out at £46,650. For a small car, it was ridiculously expensive and therefore didn’t sell that well.

To fully understand why you need to see (I think) why people who don’t like cars, buy cars. Price and practicality are the top priorities and the i3 delivered neither of them which is why they don’t like it.

It did have a reasonably large boot but had minimal rear space while also not going far for your money, maybe not so clever.

For it’s time, the i3 was incredibly advanced but now it seems a bit over-engineered and a good idea not executed very well. It will be a future classic for sure but only within certain communities, everyone will think it’s the weird BMW.

Do comment your thoughts below.