Yesterday, BMW told us that by 2025 they’ll have a dozen fully-electric vehicles, and at least one of these is expected to be an electric four-door with a range of up to 435 miles. That car may be called the i5, slotting in between the BMW i3 and i8, and its look may have been leaked in an animation released yesterday. Well, except we already got a look at it last year. And BMW has never said it’ll be called the i5. Ugh, why is everything so complicated?
Let’s just start with the animated video BMW released. Here it is:
It’s mostly describing how electric cars work and BMW’s ‘intelligent charging’ system and blah blah blah. What everyone’s all excited about is this part:
That sure seems like a drawing of what will likely be an upcoming BMW electric car, which everyone has been calling the i5. How do we know this? Well, mostly because it’s a dead ringer for the patent images we saw last year:
There’s a lot of speculation that BMW is going to be unveiling the i5 at the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show, and there have been teaser images of a draped BMW that’s about the right scale:
Still, that’s clearly not the same car. Look at the dramatic rear-quarter lines that give the car those big haunches, and the beveled rear deck. This is a different car, most likely an electric concept car that may or may not have anything to do with a future BMW i5, if it’ll end up even being called an i5.
So, despite all the assumptions that BMW will show an i5 in a few days in Frankfurt, I’m not so sure. I think we have a version of the i5-like car shown in the video, clearly based on same car from the patent images we’ve seen, and an entirely different car under that blue sheet.
The real big news here, I think, is this, in the early timeline section of the video:
Why is BMW erasing the Isetta from their history? That tiny front-doored bubble car saved BMW’s ass after the war, yet the silhouette they show for 1955 is not just not an Isetta, it doesn’t look like any car BMW was making in 1955. These are the sorts of cars BMW was making in 1955:
I don’t know what kind of revisionist bullshit you’re trying to pull here, BMW, but I do know that I’m not in the fucking mood for this. Respect the Isetta.