
BMW's new electric car powertrain system totally torpedoes Tesla - dgudkov
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/bmw-electric-car-powertain-tesla
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theredbox
These people are really funny. Especially the old german manufacturers are so
so similar to Nokia's leadership. Tesla is not some kind of a new car. It is
not even a car in consumer's perspective! It's a gadget. A very expensive
gadget but still a gadget.

Tesla is what iPhone was to Nokia/Symbians. Tesla is so much ahead in the
markets where it matters that the traditional car manufacturers should really
be scared. They are good at making cars that's undeniable truth but are they
good enough to produce gadgets ?

The car of tomorrow is the new iphone. The traditional middle class dudes are
dying out, the ones that will be able to afford cars at this price point will
rarely shop traditional cars with shitty infotainments and no ecosystem.

The reality is that the closest ones getting to a Tesla level will be the ones
understanding the market. The chinese will surely get it right as they can do
things on their domestic market others cant and the Koreans have Samsung that
will help them out.

The rest of the world can only try but will slowly fade into irrelevance.

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
_> Especially the old german manufacturers are so so similar to Nokia's
leadership_

no coincidence.

one of Nokia's major R&D sites is in Ulm Germany (well where Siemens used to
be until the merger). BMW & Continental have created R&D sites around 3 mins
walk from the Nokia offices and absorbed hundreds of ex Siemens (ex Nokia)
staff during the time that Nokia merged with Siemens and laid off a lot of
staff.

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TrainedMonkey
"The genius of BMW's new powertrain system is that the company is in effect
backing every horse in the race."

So the new powertrain has gasoline engine in front, battery in the middle, and
an electric motor in the back. The concept is interesting and would have been
revolutionary 10 years ago. Back then it would accelerate fleet
electrification. However with Tesla and other manufacturers introducing purely
electric cars it feels like a cop out. They can't seriously be trying to spin
that in a positive way.

"The production model of the BMW Vision iNext, due 2021" "The full EV iNext
will have a range of 435 miles and support level three autonomy at up to 80
mph on motorways"

So it is coming in 2 years, with groundbreaking features available elsewhere
now and a somewhat longer range that should be expected due to expected
battery capacity increases.

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elicash
We will know it has torpedoed Tesla when headline writers no longer need to
put "Telsa" in the headline to generate a click.

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belltaco
Clickbait. How does it "totally" torpedo Tesla again? All I read was their new
prod. line in 2021 can handle ICE/EV/Hybrid.

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shiftpgdn
I wonder how much BMW "paid" aka wined and dined that Wired writer. BMW has
neat electrical cars but in comparison to literally every other manufacturer
they are total turds. Seriously, I love the design of the i3 but 80 mile range
out of the box is damn near useless. Being able to drop that drivetrain into
your 3 series doesn't make a tesla killer.

~~~
belltaco
Its an opinion piece but even failed to opine how this torpedos Tesla... in
2021.

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rcMgD2BwE72F
Here's what torpedo damages look like:
[https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/08/tesla-
model-3-completel...](https://cleantechnica.com/2018/12/08/tesla-
model-3-completely-crushing-us-luxury-car-competition-10-cleantechnica-
charts/)

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Animats
The vehicle has to have space for both an IC engine and a battery. Do they put
a thick floor and a big engine compartment in every car?

~~~
belltaco
I think it's meant to have only one. The _production line_ is adaptable to
manufacturing either an ICE vehicle or an electric one or a hybrid.

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alphabettsy
Clickbait. TLDR; BMW is not ready to fully commit to electric.

