Certainly, the BMW people do not seem to have been their cause when they presented in 1993 an unusual car. "The BMW E1 is a study with real opportunities to supplement today's cars meaningful," the Munich cautious text on a piece of paper that they distributed at the IAA auto show. "Although the market confirms this concept, the study could become a tangible reality in the near future."
The BMW E1 was a compact three-door car in lightweight construction with four seats and an advanced drive concept. In Frankfurt, a further developed variant could be seen, after BMW had previously presented an E1 in 1991. There was still a 3.46-meter-long small electric car, which was shortened internally Z11.
The new E1 (Z15) had grown to 3.70 meters in length, optimized the use of space, as well as the lightweight construction with a body made of thermoplastic components and aluminum sheets. To this end, BMW proposed a farsighted compromise on the drive: The E1 could be equipped with a 1.1-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine (82 hp), with a 45 hp electric machine from ABB or with a combination of both units, so a hybrid drive.
Once the electric motor was on board, a sodium-nickel chloride battery from AEG filled the space under the back seat. The memory with a capacity of 19 kWh provided a range of up to 265 kilometers and helped to accelerate the 900-kilogram car (the battery weighed 200 kilograms) to a maximum of 125 km / h. "Technically feasible, but not yet mature," it said with a view of the battery at BMW. In fact, it was a high-temperature battery, the electrical energy was only between 270 and 350 degrees Celsius, so had to be preheated with electricity from the socket or a starter battery.
Battery power at a similar level as today
However, the performance and storage capability was considerable. This is shown by the comparison with the BMW i3, which was launched exactly twenty years later, with an initially 230 kilogram lithium-ion battery (22 kWh). It allowed according to official test cycle, a range of about 190 kilometers.
Even if it had still taken to bring the E1 from 1993 as a pure electric car on the market - as a practical small car with gasoline engine (from the BMW motorcycle K1), only 800 kilograms and a predicted consumption between 5 and 6 liters of fuel per 100 Kilometers he might have deserved a chance. Especially since the mint green painted study with the large glass surfaces, the restrained articulated body surface and the circumferential bump bar still refreshing today.
Instead of a modern small car came an all-world car
But it happened differently - as so often in the history of automobiles, when innovation meets perseverance. Half a year later, in March 1994, BMW launched the thoroughly conventional 3 Series Compact and later acquired the British Rover and Mini brands. Experiments with small cars or even progressive drives had done with it. The plans for the E1 disappeared in the archive. The car was parked away - it still belongs, like the 1991 E1, to the BMW collection in Munich.
The idea of a small electric car lived on at BMW only twenty years later - and with it a drive variant from the E1. For 2013, the i3 appeared, either as a pure electric car or with a gasoline engine from the BMW motorcycle rack - only that was the meantime Range Extender (range extender).