BMW Financial Officer Frederick Eichiner told german website Focus.de that the BMW Vehicle Mega City will receive an optional range extender that can be ordered with the electric vehicle. The range extender refers to a small internal combustion engine which can charge the battery while driving.
The news come as a surprise to us since the Mega City Vehicle has been previously associated with pure electric mobility. As we have seen last summer during a workshop at a BMW facility near Munich, the carbon chassis offers at the front enough room for a small internal combustion engine.
The customer could therefore have a choice whether to have additional trunk space or the small internal combustion engine. Furthermore, customer can decide how low CO2 emissions compare against larger space inside the vehicle.
With the use of a range extender, the driving range of the vehicle could increase dramatically. Megacity Vehicle uses a lithium-ion battery with 35 kWh of capacity which delivers around 100 miles of driving range before recharging. The range extender will add at least 50% more driving range turning the Megacity into a more functional vehicle, one that can be used extensively outside the city limits as well.
In two weeks BMW is expected to reveal more information about the Megacity Vehicle, including the official name. We expect to learn more about the current status of Project i vehicles. A concept version of the Megacity will debut later this fall at Frankfurt Motor Show.
[Source: Focus.de via BimmerToday ]
