Battery Company Quadruples BMW i3's Range With Super-Battery

Would you buy an i3 if it had 400 miles of range?

BMW has been struggling to sell its i3 electric hatchback recently. So much in fact, that the company was offering $10,000 off the price of a new i3 earlier this year. One reason why buyers may be hesitant to purchase an i3 is its poor battery range. The base i3 can only travel 114 miles on a charge, while the sportier i3S can only go 107 miles.

Even the additional range extender only brings the total range up to 180 miles, far behind rivals like the Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3. BMW needs something to make the i3 a more compelling purchase, or else it may be discontinued by 2021. Luckily, a company called Lion Smart may have the answer BMW has been looking for.

Lion Smart has developed a new proprietary battery concept that seeks to revolutionize battery technology. It's called the Light-Battery Concept, and it features a new piece of technology called a Supercell. The technology behind it is extremely complicated, but basically, the design is highly scalable so battery cells can be mounted compactly in the underbody of a car. It also has the added advantage of not catching fire in a crash - you can ask The Grand Tour's Richard Hammond why that is important.

So you may be asking, what is the real-life benefit of the Light-Battery for EVs? Well, the company has already developed a prototype 100-kWh battery that fits within a BMW i3. This lithium-ion battery allows the i3 to travel 700 km (around 435 miles) on a single charge – almost quadruple the range of a base i3.

Unfortunately, there is no word on how long this battery would take to charge, which is another huge consideration for EV buyers. Still, Lion Smart may be on to something here and we doubt this will be the last time we hear about this company.

BMW Won't Build An M2 Convertible, So This Company Built Its Own

It even has more power than the M2 Competition.

The new BMW M2 Competition takes the already fun M2, and makes it even faster and more hardcore. The M2 Competition will likely please a lot of enthusiasts, but there are some people who prefer their sports car to be a bit less serious, and a bit more open-top. BMW has already said it does not want to build an M2 convertible, because the M240i convertible already fills the role in the lineup. If you simply won't settle for an M240i and want a full on M2 convertible, a German tuner shop called Lightweight Performance has you covered.

This is the same company that stuffed a 600 horsepower engine from the M4 GTS into an M2. In total, the project cost around 75,000 euros to build. For comparison, the M2 costs 59,900 euros in Germany and the M240i Convertible is 54,300. The one-off creation has been nicknamed "Hillary," though LW Performance doesn't go into specifics on where the name came from. Clearly, a lot of work was done to keep a factory feel, because this M2 convertible looks remarkably close to something BMW would build on a production line. The car even features the same 3.0-liter S55 inline-six mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission as the normal M2.

Not content to leave the engine stock, LW Performance bumped the power up from the stock 365 horsepower, to 422 hp (more than the new M2 Competition). This car also packs features not found on a standard M2, including 305/25/21 section tires in the rear, with 20-inch wheels up front and ABS tuning from the M4 GTS. The interior even includes plenty of alcantara and leather, keeping this car looking just like an M2 coupe. This is truly the closest thing in the world to a factory M2 convertible. Photo credit: Jordi Miranda