Late to the future

So, a recent development in our lives has been the purchase of a car, which we are very fortunate to be able to afford. In truth we didn’t really want a car, we gave up our last one up 4 years ago and as much as we appreciated the independence it offered, the hassle it caused, the increasing running costs, the massive depreciation and the damage it was subjected to living on a street in London was all very dispiriting and not something we really wanted to repeat. And in London, it was actually fine, the bikes and public transport got us to most places and Zipcar filled in the rest.

Moving to Helsinki 3 years ago we assumed this issue would be even less pronounced. But surprisingly no. A combination of where we chose to live, Helsinki’s geography and the lower population density equating to the services being more spread out all led us to revisit car ownership.

So. To the point, for anyone reading this with a vague interest in physical things. We decided we wanted an electric car to feel a bit better about the decision. The problem, they are very expensive things and also, as a designer, oh so so dull, an endless sea of angry trainer styling and grey paint (side note, why is primer grey a fashionable choice to paint a car with at the moment?).

So, something interesting, second hand, small and probably with a smaller battery. Behold Yari! A 2019 bmw i3s. I’m not going to get all car nerdy about this. But in short, it is probably the only small car that was entirely conceived as an electric vehicle from the start. No traditional internal combustione engine (to provide drive) was ever put in this car, it was totally design for its purpose, uncompromising design, which is why I like it.

The major issue with battery electric vehicles is weight, the batteries are heavy. So BMW allowed its engineers total freedom to counter this problem and they responded by giving the i3 an aluminium substructure and a fully carbon fibre chassis. This car has no steel and weighs less than most comparable ICE cars. It has big, narrow low drag wheels pushed out to the corners which are really efficient through the air and leave a nice big empty space in the middle to house all four of us in comfort. To my eyes the styling is great and interesting, it’s a bit taller and a bit narrower than most cars, which means it’s easier to get in and out of and perfectly at home on city streets, the domain it spends 90% of its life in. The suicide rear doors in practice are a pain in the arse, but strangely I still love them, for two reasons. One they are simply interesting in a sea of boredom that is current car design. And two, I did some research for a mobility project a couple of years ago and discovered that something like 90% of all car journeys have only one human on board. So if the back doors are used so rarely, it makes sense that they are not as big or complex as the doors at the front, why carry all the weight of rear electric windows for every journey when they get used 10 times per year. It makes sense, so much of the i3 makes sense.

It’s not all roses though. The design is over ten years old now and lacks some features. Regenerative braking is cool in town, you hardly have to use the brake pedal, but can cause brown trouser moments in snowy conditions at speed. The cabin fogs up very quickly in cold weather (I think this is something to do with having a hollow plastic chassis), it clears quickly too, but will use battery power. The app is cool, but clearly not latest tech and from a time before companies really gave any consideration to UX design, I can program the car to warm up before departure, but if I change my mind and want to leave later I have no idea how stop it warming the cabin and endlessly burning through battery energy for example. Annoying.

But, but. What’s interesting to me is that this product, a boring electric car, still has enough care, love, design, innovation, whatever in it that I want to own it despite its annoyance’s. It’s interesting and thought provoking enough that I could inspired to write this. Would I write anything about an Opel Mokka? Hell no! The i3 on the other hand has the power of good design, which means something.

This would have been a good ending but no, because apparently design integrity doesn’t mean that much to BMW who instead of building on all this ground breaking work and creating the 2nd generation vehicle that was highly anticipated, they binned the project and have gone back to building loads of conventional heavy and agressive steel SUVs and saloon cars that offer very little of interest. Because, well, probably it's what we deserve.