FIRST BMW i3 Arrives At Its Dealer — So, Place YOUR Bets! Will It Be A Sales STUD or DUD?

they will probably sell about 5 of these

It looks mean.

It will be the death-knell for the Mercedes SMART car. All 87 US SMART buyers will now be rushing to BMW to trade in their SMART's for an i3. Once those SMART people have the i3's, sales will grind to a halt.

I think it will sell really well. The BMW name and the innovative/distinctiveness will be attractive for a certain population. Besides, I think the volume will be pretty small so they should not have a problem selling what they make.

Limited audience. VERY limited.

Wow - bitter much??

Yeah, class envy?

BMW dealer in Alexandria, VA says they've received a lot of i3 pre-orders. I believe it is a limited niche vehicle like the Smart ForTwo but notably better in a number of ways. It's styling is a matter of personal taste like everything else. The Prius sells well even though it is fairly unattractive. Obviously, i3 won't sell in the same numbers as Prius because of price, but it is a unique with lots of tech and will have its audience. There were many naysayers about the Tesla and it could hardly be called a failure now.

Personally I think it will be a runaway hit.

The greenies with $$ will buy one because it will be trendy like Tesla is for the moment, but trendy things are short lived. It is simply too expensive and Aztek ugly to be a mainstream product.

well.. it looks better than a smart or a prius but that isn't saying much. I fail to see the usefulness of a car like this at that price point. At $42-43k, you are in 4 door luxury sedan territory. I also don't understand why manufacturers have to make these groundbreaking vehicles so horrendously ugly. Why not make a good looking daily driver and sell stickers for $200 that say "I'm different"?

Stylistically, just this shot alone looks like a bunch of incongruous pieces of a puzzle that were forced together. From that perspective, it is hard to look at. It will be interesting to read more and more about the performance.

I don't think the BMW i3 will be a success mainy due to price and also because of its looks.

Paying over $40K for a city-oriented electric car is a lot of money. It's the size of a SMART car more or less and people looking to spend $40K+ on a vehicle likely want something bigger with more room - electric or not.

The BMW i3 should have stayed in Europe where smaller cars are very popular due to the small streets, but here in the U.S. where we have highways and wide-open roads the audience that will pay for a $40K+ BMW that is barely any larger than a SMART car will be extremely small.

DUD. No doubt about it.

I was going to say something to that effect. Having said that, I just went to the BMW website and priced one out. On average, my guess is that this i3 will sell for 45k. Considering the size and range, that's a bit pricey.

1) Your opinion is bought and paid for, and since it's not "your" opinion, isn't worth the time you took to write it or the time it took us to read it.

2) the i3 is not the size of a SMART. It has as much interior volume as a 3-Series sedan, so compared to a SMART it's cavernous. Again, if you're going to spout your anti-BMW drivel, at least be accurate about it. Otherwise you just make yourself, and the guys signing your paychecks at Audi, look ignorant and uninformed at best, petty and stupid at worst. Which one are you really?

Your argument still doesn't make my argument any less compelling. The bottom line is the BMW i3 is a small car. As small as a SMART or not it doesn't matter because it looks like the compact car that it is and carries a $40K + price tag.

I believe the i3's looks are too compact, (regardless of whether BMW claims it's interior volume is the same as a 3-series) and its price tag too high for a market that is generally more averse to small compact cars than Europeans.

I think buyers will look at the price tag and decide to get an A4/3-series/C-class instead.

and I think the primary problem Americans have with small cars isn't that the outsides are small, it's that the insides are also small. That's not the case with the i3 -- since there's no engine up front taking up length in the body, the interior cabin is much larger than anything remotely comparable in exterior size (to put it into context you'll understand, it's substantially roomier inside than your beloved new Audi A3).

I have no idea how the car will sell. The biggest knock on it is the looks, though I think that fits with the hip, green, tech adopter demo it's aimed at (and the interior is concept car cool, at least in the higher trims). I wish it had longer than an 80-100mile range on electric power too, though then you end up with a 4000lb, $100k car, like Tesla. As batteries and motors advance though I am certain that'll improve anyway. I don't see the size being an issue though, all someone has to do is sit in one and the size argument disappears. From an engineering and philosophical standpoint I think it's the coolest car on the road. It's a 2800lb carbon fiber and aluminum electric car with a gee whiz interior that comfortably seats four people, for $40k. I wouldn't care if it was a Hyundai -- for that car to exist at all for that price is amazing, for it to exist and be a BMW is downright unbelievable. I think they'll sell the crap out of it worldwide. If it doesn't sell well here, then maybe it's slightly ahead of its time. We'll see.

Need to drive one. It has the looks to be a big statement on the road, and manages to be green looking without simply looking like a Prius. Don't love the fact that the rear door can't open without the front door open.

Human being sometimes are complicate and they react weird to positive changes , the cars is fine, inside is comfortable and I think is more bigger than the 3 series, is also great for people that drive the range of miles this car offer, that's why they call city car , for cities like NY , Paris or Austria , Berlin , etc, you can go to different places that cover 80 miles ranges without charging , the car is also and innovation and first production car that use carbon fiber , and also aluminum, like it or not or for some that hate BMW probably , this car is marking a great and important step and precedent for BMW brand.
The only thing I don't like is driver display because is small than the other one , but they also think about energy consume and probably that was the reason , they think about everything to use energy and is all about optimizing to obtain the must that's why the tires are thin to decrease friction and so on. This car represent the beginning of a new era and the future.

The limited 70-110 mile range will limit the demographic this appeals to.