BMW Electromotive Tech Interesting

2016 BMW i3 : Image via http://bit.ly/2ewDEES

Cool BMW electrics cars. BMW Efficient Dynamics spikes my interests! Electric vehicles are the future of transportation. The carbon fiber reinforced hot press tech is awesome too! FTW 

Lately BMW has been doing really interesting electromotive things that make me fond of the company. Their i3 and i3 Rex and i8 vehicle's have interested me so far! I wish BMW would build something that competes directly with the Prius for fuel economy and price! I think the i3 is more like a super awesome variation of what I experience with leasing a Nissan Leaf for 2 years! 100mi of single charge range. The i3 rex extends this to 160mi, even netting 50mpg when running on its 22kW generator set! Actually the generator tech in the i3rex gets me almost excited as the carbon fiber reinforced plastics bodywork, electric motors and batteries.

BMW Electromotive Progress

"BMW has sold more than 100,000 EVs and PHEVs worldwide over three years" and this fact makes me more excited that anything else I know about BMW, other than a fond memory of taking a brief test ride in an i3 back in 2015, thank you Royce!

BMW i3 

"More than 80% of BMW i3 customers worldwide are new to BMW." and this explains why I finally find this automaker interesting. I would have never considered buying a BMW until I learned about the i3. Its carbon fiber body tech worthy of praise itself! The futuristic dash cluster is fresh, while the exterior designs screams technology not style. Perhaps that is what I love most about the i3, the technology. I would be worried to own one for a long time given the finicky nature of BMW's electrical history, buggy glitch prone strange sensor errors and all sorts of electrical shenanigans emblematic of high mileage BWM's.

BMW i8 Sport Hybrid  ^^ 

The "BMW i8 ranks first among electrified sports cars, with more than 10,000 delivered since the middle of 2014. " After watching an episode of Fully Charged on Youtube about the i8, I can see why it is the most popular range extended electric sports car! It looks totally fresh with high technology style that is sexy and interesting. Even just looking at pictures of the i8 gets me excited! I like my 14 Honda CR-z Sport Hybrid just fine however, knowing that it will hold up well over time without being electrically glitch prone like the aforementioned but otherwise amazing i8.

The BMW EV Scoop

BMW announced that the next i8 will have 3 electric motors with 500kw of power ^^ ditching the hybrid engine setup altogether for a pure performance electric experience that will surely wow people, especially in that super fresh i8 design!

Aiming for 400,000 electric vehicles by 2020, BMW is getting ambitions that goes beyond the i3, even the i3 is getting some more action with a 2018 performance version added to the lineup!

An electric X3 eDrive is launching in 2018, giving SUV buyers another EV choice! 70kWh of battery with a 225kw motor, the X3e will be a cool BWM with over 200mi of single charge range!

Project i20 will be competing against the Tesla Model S, possibly something to be called an i5, BMW is tight lipped about this one, but 90kWH and 300mi of range seem like realistic numbers. 

Electricity Awesome

With electric vehicles you can travel on stored sunlight, wind power that was captured, natural gas fuel cell power, grid power electricity; the only true flex fuel vehicles are electric. Electricity is the flexible fuel in your phone, the Tesla Model S, the internet, information technology and electricity are parts of a greater whole, clean technology.

Clean Technology Goes Further 

Renewable energy, science, engineering, chemistry, knowledge building science with applied technological innovations that reduce pollution while allowing for more of everything, hybrid synergy drive at Toyota for example giving all their hybrids special efficiency through applied innovations! Brake energy regeneration & electric propulsion assist!

2017 Tesla Model S 

Electric Better

The electrification of transportation is the inevitable outcome of the Electromotive revolution happening all around us right now! The Tesla Model S is at the front of the entire world demonstrating the power of applied clean transportation technology! The Model S is the only smartphone worthy car in existence!

Lifetime Energy Advantage : Rechargeable 

Many have noted that battery energy density often only 150wh/kg for mainstream lithium ion is significantly lower that the energy density of gasoline at 12,000wh/kg respectively. They are missing a major point. The lithium ion battery in electric vehicles can be recharged more than 1000 times, whilst gasoline is a one way chemical trip to climate change and air pollution that makes people sick with cancer, brain damage and all sorts of preventable suffering caused by exposure to smog forming tail pipe emissions. The lifetime net energy storage of that 150wh/kg battery is a function of its total cycle life, net energy storage at least 50x better than gasoline! That sadly does not improve single charge range, it does however make lithium-ion electric cars much cleaner and far more sustainable than gasoline powered cars!

The 2013 Nissan Leaf S that Meg & I leased : Phone Image 

Net Oil Importing Nations Benefit from Electric Final Drive 

Electric vehicles are an economic boon to Japan, western Europe and other net oil importing states. Carbon taxes and other emissions taxes associated with the health care fallout from tail pipe smog will put additional political pressures on zero emission vehicle laws aimed at minimizing public exposure to tail pipe pollutants.

Capturing Emerging Markets

BMW is poised to capture segments of emergent zero emissions markets, especially in high income areas where the most stringent emissions standards are implemented first. Some of the most affluent areas of Europe are already calling for zero emissions zones where only electric vehicle modes are permitted, where tail pipe emissions are prohibited. Not car free zones, just zones free of tail pipe emissions.

Air Quality Considered

More smog impact research showed that "Particulate PM2.5 pollution linked to blood vessel damage in healthy young non-smoking adults," and this reinforces my believe and understanding that tail pipes stink and that no one wants to breath tail pipe pollution!

Smog Harms Health 

I care about clean technology because tail pipe smog causes cancer! A recent "Lung Association report highlights health and climate costs of petroleum-based transportation and the benefits of shifting to zero emission vehicles." Tail pipes also emit gasses on a scale that is driving climate change out of control!

Health Care Costs vs Tail Pipe Emissions 

Tail pipe emissions cause smog pollution that makes people sick with diseases that could be avoided with better transportation energy technology like electric and fuel cell vehicles.  Lung cancer, Asthma, COPD, heart disease and brain damage all caused by exposure to tail pipe emissions! Likewise a "Large-scale study finds long-term exposure to air pollution linked to high blood pressure", the body of evidence growing beyond suspicion, we now empirically understand that tail pipe emissions make people sick with all kinds of health problems driving up the costs of healthcare for all people!

Chinese Air Quality Pressure

Coal power dominates the energy generation capacity of mainland Chinese electric grids, its the pollution from the millions of new cars on the roads in China that officials are targeting with next generation zero emission vehicle mandates.

Ev's Capturing Sales in Emerging Market

Companies that export cars to China will be in a better position with electric vehicle in production technology so that they can adapt their product lines to the changing geopolitcal pressures of future vehicle emissions mandates. If the Chinese are willing to ban cars with tailpipes, that could pull the bottom out of the economies of oil export depending nation states, namely Russia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Venezuela and others.

Vehicles Targeting for Zero Emissions Laws

Chinese officials think its good for their economy to incentivize car buyers in China to invest in electric vehicles in order to clean up the air. Coal power emissions are a major problem, but these dirty power plants are already built and operating. A change in vehicle laws will affect new car buyers, and the market for new vehicles in china is bigger than anywhere else in the world. An electric vehicle law would affect hundred of millions of first time car buyers in China, putting forward pressure on the electromotive revolution. BMW stands to benefit from this Chinese cultural change with their Efficient Dynamics program.

Cleaning Up on Carbon Energy

Even where carbon is being burned in power plants off in the distance, increasingly strict emissions laws will create new business opportunities to add advanced tail pipe filtering at existing carbon energy generation plants. When hydrocarbons are burned many commodities are lost in the wasteful exhaust gases along with heat energy that is rarely recovered.

Commodity Recovery Emissions Technology

There are more intelligent ways to burn carbon that extract all of the energy and chemistry from the reactions. Take for example the primary chemical products of hydrocarbon combustion.

Industrial Gases Harnessed from Emissions 

CO2 a commodity used to carbonate beer, soda, water and used in welding and other applications. It can be cooled, compressed, liquefied and distributed in pressurized tanks, and this is already happening. We do not need carbon sequestration for the CO2, we need more energy to compress it into a cooled liquid state in a high pressure reusable tank that can distribute the CO2 as commodity!

CO gas is a commodity generated by burning hydrocarbons. CO is used in all sorts of chemical engineering production processes, industrial processing, and like CO2, CO can be compressed, cooled and sold in reusable gas tanks with regulators.

Water vapor is generated when hydrocarbons are burned. H20 can be captured, purified and then used for all the purposed water is used for at the power plant, rather than just blowing away as clouds of free water in a wasteful dingus method from old thinking. We need more energy, not less!

Advanced Materials from Soot

Carbon powders (soot, particulate), some of the most dangerous parts of emissions can actually be turned into graphene, carbon fiber, activated carbon and other carbon commodities if the soot is captured and then itself industrially processed into something useful, like a carbon soot based fabric used to filter the exhaust stack of a coal power plant. Not for food applications where the benzene and other toxins might cause a problem. No sane people eat carbon fiber either, and once its trapped in expoxy or plastic, it does not matter if the carbon fiber was made from exhaust soot; that would actually be awesome. The BMW i3 and i8 are made with carbon fiber, imagine if those fibers were manufacturing using soot captured from coal emissions. Thinking differently gives rise to wild insane ideas that turn into innovations when the technology is developed to realize commercialization!

Gold & Uranium from Coal Emissions 

Coal power plants also emit lots of different metals in their exhaust, things like gold and uranium. If we carefully filter the coal exhaust and then process it the way that oil is processed intelligently, then coal power emissions can actually become a resource for rare metals that would otherwise be dangerous to emit as fly ash into the air that people breath!

I want to like BMW 

Especially because of the direction that BMW is going with its Efficient Dynamics program! My vehicular preference loyalty to Toyota & Honda stems from their legendary long term reliability, and more recently their leading role in the development and commercialization of hybrid electric vehicles like our Toyota Prius II and Honda CR-Z.

I have only ever owned Japanese car that were made in Japan. Super ultra reliable, the concept of "Quality" in Japanese culture translated into the word "enduring" the "tenacity and ongoing strength of the Samurai warrior." The concept of "Quality" in German culture has more to do with initial appearance, build quality, performance, the feel of something when its new, more of a "value" concept than one around endurance.

A former co-worked and friend of mine who had extensive first hand experience in the automotive sector would be quick to defend BMW saying "All modern cars are far more reliable that older cars, they are cleaner, the build quality is better, and for the first 100,000 mi most cars today are going to be fairly reliable." I know he would say this because we talking about cars a lot over the few years we worked together in the battery and lighting business.

Germans practically invented automobiles, at least modern ones. About two years ago I was in downtown bellevue at the Mercedes dealership looking at an antique vehicle with a 2HP externally lubricated single cylinder engine with lots of brass parts. It looked more like a horseless buggy than a car, with a rod mounted lever for steering, open design without a cabin to protect from exposure, and was one of the first vehicles that Gotlieb Daimler build, a motor coach, like the one in the following image.

A Motorcoach developed by Gotlieb Daimler

Taking a look at this antique motor coach, its amazing how far cars have come! Scroll back up to the top of this article for examples :P There is one special vehicle that I like to thing about, its unlike anything else, was made in a small batch and all of them were pre-sold before they even went into production. Check this thing out!

2014 Volkswagen XL1 Diesel Hybrid 

After all that diesel-gate scandal at VW, your probably surprised a clean-tech geek like me would do something as audacious as giving VW props for a low volume tech demo vehicle like the XL1. While it was horribly dishonest for VW to program their diesel TDI vehicles to cheat on emissions tests, like Lance Armstrong doping, VW is not the only automaker guilty of cheating, just as Lance was not the only professional athlete to use performance enhancing drugs. No one is perfect.


Mistakes are Human 

Samsung is guilty of wrong doing with the Note 7 fires, but I will not dislike their phones because of it. My aging Note 3 rocks on solid and is a estimate to the cool engineering. They even made it so that I could easily add wireless charging by popping off the back cover and installing a QI receiver coil device that interfaces with gold contact pins that Samsung put their for that express purpose. Thank you Samsung. I am still a fan of Lance Armstrong! I still like the TDI program at VW even if they get rid of it. Diesel engines are cool, the problem is the fuel, not the engine. You can run diesel engines on glycerin after lightly modifying the fuel system to vaporize (party device) the glycerin. A company providing the charging equipment power generators for the Formula E is doing glycerine fueled diesel generators, proving the concept!

I saw this 918 Porsche in first person : Image from my Phone

Cool Cars have Flaws too! 

While BMW has issues with long term reliability and electrical gremlins that light up the engine-check light as though it were an animated holiday decoration, at least BMW is trying to go further with innovative clean technology in their Efficient Dynamics program. The same could be said for Audi and Porsche who are also embracing electromotive technologies. The Porsche 918 Spyder is perhaps the coolest vehicles I can think of aside from the Tesla Model S and BMW i8. Only two cars from japan, the Lexus LFA and Nissan GT-R are exciting by comparison.

Our 2014 Honda CR-z Ex 6sp Manual Hybrid : Phone Photo

Normal Hybrid Cars Cool Too 

I am not discounting the hybrid cool factor of our 05 Toyota Prius or our 14 Honda CR-z. They are each remarkable in their own ways as affordable real world cars! I have fond memories of the first time I saw a Toyota Prius in 2003 and the first time I saw a Honda CR-z in 2011. I might be one of the last car crazed American millennial born in 1983. I like to think about machines.

Our 2005 Toyota Prius II
With Package 4
Front & rear curtain & front side airbags
Stability control + Front fog lights
Smart card/smart key includes central locking & ignition starter & power locks
 Xenon headlights with Headlight control

In Defense of Technology 

Machines are what set us apart from being subjugated to the fickle unpredictability of living directly off the landscape, some years flooding, other years droughts. Let us not forget that it was technology that brought us the amazing season-less grocery store systems that almost everyone overlooks as normal today! Air conditioning, refrigeration, the race to cold technologies is a worthy interesting story itself! The history of science and technology is amazing to stop at think about. The very devices that are able to view this blog built on the shoulders of intellectual giants who were all working under the clock of Moores law! Silicon Valley California changed for ever by integrate circuit technologies, it was not the transistors, but how they are connected that makes all the difference. The same can be said for people!

Technology allowed the fast creation of this modified image !

To Infinity and Beyond! 

Keep on thinking about it, your brain is a magical information handling engine capable of so much more than normal. Think differently, dare to be the best version of you! Hope you enjoyed my long waxing about vehicles! If nothing else I hope it serves as a record that not every human like me was asleep at the switch in 2016, some people actually care about clean air today, I am one of them! Clean technology is a whole bunch of things being developed across many sectors, hybrid and electric cars to computers than can process more information with fewer watts, LED bulbs that make more light with less power, windows that insulate better, clothing washers that use less water and soap, energy efficient refrigerators, heat pumps, better insulation, cheaper solar panels, the clean technology will take us to infinity and beyond once nuclear fusion becomes widely commercialized!

Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor : Lockheed Martin 2016