I actually enjoy going to work. Writing about the latest in tech for you on a daily basis is fun.
But recently I got a bit excited even before I’d stepped inside the office.
Stick with me; this isn’t as weird as it sounds…
My usual trot from Waterloo Station to Blackfriars Road is at worst 10 minutes. Usually that’s the Monday morning shuffle time frame.
But this was Wednesday. And it was so sunny and nice outside I actually wore shades on the way to work. I kid you not, it was already 11 degrees, sunny and barely a cloud in the sky.
Just to remind you, this is London, technically still in winter.
I grabbed my morning latte from a little street cafe (I’m still a proud Melbourne boy) and headed down the street. I turned left, walked about 100m, turned right, then turned left and headed straight toward the office. And in the distance I spotted a slightly strange shaped car.
It wasn’t something I recognised. And I love cars, so for me to not recognise a car is pretty rare. But I didn’t realise until I was closer that I’d stumbled across something I truly didn’t expect to see. I even had to take off my sunnies to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.
I thought perhaps the first place I’d see it would be in a showroom, or at best I’d have the good fortune to take one for a test drive sometime in the near future. But tucked away next to a tennis court, in a little side street, just innocuously parked on the side of the road was my first glimpse at the new BMW i3.
The first thing I did was make sure there was no one sitting in the car. Because I’m pretty sure there’s nothing creepier than a random guy (me) coming up, peering in your windows and taking photos of your car while you just sit there in bemusement.
Anyway after determining it was sitting there solo, I whipped out my trusty smartphone and took some happy snaps.
Now I get excited about seeing the new i3 in person, on the road, for three reasons.
- I love cars. Always have, always will. Particularly new ones. That’s why from time to time you’ll read about cars in Tech Insider, specially the high tech ones.
- The i3 is one of the most technologically advanced cars on the road. It’s a modern marvel and a good look at the future of car making.
- It means the future has arrived.
I’ve written about the BMW i3 before. But I also covered it in our Revolutionary Tech Investor issue from September last year. It was in this issue we tipped a stock involved in carbon fibre composites. This small Aussie company is a key player in a high-tech development that’s set to dominate the auto and aerospace industry for decades to come.
So when I actually lay eyes on the i3, sitting there in a side street, I could barely believe it.
You see the i3 is the kind of car that future cars will look to as inspiration. The kind of technology BMW has used in the i3 will be the standard for other car makers in the coming decades.
The way BMW have made the i3 is market leading. The tech it has inside is also like something from a sci-fi movie. It’s really as high-tech a car as I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes.
Carbon fibre permeates through the entire body of the i3. This carbon fibre composite reinforces the i3′s passenger safety cell, making it extremely lightweight and strong. It’s so strong that there’s no need for pesky B-pillars (the ones that usually separate the front and the back). So if you often sit in the back seat, it’s 100 times easier to slide in and out of the car.
The benefit of the liberal use of carbon fibre means the whole thing is extremely light weight for a car packed with gadgetry. Remember, carbon fibre is stronger than steel, yet weighs half as much, and even weighs 30% less than aluminium. That means the i3 weighs in at just 1,195kg, yet has the structural rigidity of adamantium.
Other bits of super high-tech kit include the connected iPhone or Android App. From an app on your smartphone you can see the range left on the car and where it is (great for parking lots). You can remotely control the charge while it’s charging. And here’s the best part of the app, you can adjust the climate control in the car before you get in. That’s right, on a cold morning just heat the thing up while you’re eating your WeetBix. Or if it’s stinking hot at the beach, just set the air-con to chill down while you’re popping out of the water.
Oh I guess I forgot to mention the standard i3 is fully electric too, with a range of 200km. You can opt for the range extender i3 which has a little combustion engine added and gives it a 340km range. But really if you’re buying this you go full electric. It’s a city car. It’s not really going to be the car you tour the country with.
But all the gadgetry and electric power aside, it’s really the strong tilt towards carbon fibre that’s so exciting about the i3. Now although the bog standard i3 is a £30,680 (AU$57,068) it’s not over one hundred grand like most cars with this kind of tech would be (looking at you Tesla).
And that’s exciting. Because like I wrote about last week, technology eventually filters its way down from high end cars through to more affordable cars. So what you find today in a £30K (AU$55,803) car within a couple of years finds its way into a £15K (AU$27,901) car.
What it means is that over the coming years carbon fibre composites will become more affordable to make. Companies like the one we tipped for our Revolutionary Tech Investor subscribers are vital to making this happen. And as the price of this super material falls, the prevalence of it in car making will rise. There’s no doubt in my mind that carbon fibre composites will dominate the car industry for decades to come.
Across the world, new laws are in play which mandate car makers must adhere to strict CO2 emission levels. In the coming years the Chinese and the US (the two biggest car markets in the world) are going to feel the brunt of this the most.
In order to meet these new requirements car makers have to make their cars more efficient and lighter. That’s why the cars we’ll see in the coming years are going to be full of carbon fibre composites.
But for now I’ve seen the future with my own two eyes in the i3. It looks good, and lightweight.
Sam Volkering+
Editor, Revolutionary Tech Investor
Ed note: The above article was originally published in Sam Volkering’s Tech Insider, the free daily eletter in which Sam Volkering gives his readers the inside scoop on the new technology and tech companies that are changing the world.
