BMW Re-imagines the Home Garage as a Solar-Powered Carport

With greater numbers of electric cars making their way from showrooms to the road, the expansion of charging infrastructure has to keep up. BMW is looking to make sure that potential owners of their premium i3 all-electric and i8 plug-in hybrid vehicles have a charging station option that looks and works as good as their BMWi cars.

Developed by DesignworksUSA, BMW’s California-based design studio, the Solar Carport Concept provides electric vehicle recharging through the use of renewable solar energy. The flat roof design incorporates 24 thin glass-on-glass solar collector panels. A modular support structure mimics lines and surface sculpting from the BMWi range. White connector pieces are made from lightweight carbon fiber and the supporting wood struts are bamboo, a sustainable raw material.

The Solar Carport Concept aims to be an option for electric vehicle owners to supply power to their cars independent of electricity prices. Obviously getting good efficiency out of it requires living in a sunshine rich location. The carport combined with the BMW i Wallbox Pro, which regulates and monitors vehicle charging can also divert surplus power to use in the home.

BMW hasn’t said whether the Solar Carport will see production, but the growth of the electric car market obviously leaves space for a new generation of energy providing garages.

BMW

GM's Opel to launch small electric car by 2017 -report

BERLIN, April 6 Sun Apr 6, 2014 10:03am EDT

(Reuters) - General Motors' European brand Opel plans to start selling an all-electric compact car no later than by 2017 as the automaker is striving to meet EU emission targets, Automobilwoche reported on Sunday.

The new model, dubbed internally as battery electric vehicle (BEV), will be much smaller and cheaper than the 38,300-euro ($52,400) Ampera electric car, the magazine said without citing the source of the information.

The GM division last September announced a price cut for the Ampera of almost 8,000 euros in Europe's biggest car market for the model which can travel between 40-80 kilometres electrically and a further 500 km with a combustion engine range extender.

Opel did not return calls seeking comment.

Opel's new electric model would be launched as part of a small-car offensive that in 2015 may also bring to the market the "City" vehicle, due to cost less than 10,000 euros and rival Volkswagen's Up subcompact, Automobilwoche said. ($1 = 0.7303 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Cremer, editing by David Evans)

The New SLS-AMG Coupe Electric Drive

Nurburgring

Silverstone

Monaco

Latest print campaign for the all new Mercedes SLS AMG created by a German ad agency, where the idea was to  to create a visual out of famous international grand prix circuits and an electrical circuit to show the two main features of the SLS AMG Coupe: being an amazing racing car and at the same time an eco-friendly electric drive.

Ad of the Day: Arthur C. Clarke Introduces BMW i Electric Cars on the Olympics

 In kbs+ ads, the future is now By Tim Nudd

• February 7, 2014, 1:57 PM EST
• Advertising & Branding

Launching a new auto brand on a world stage

RAM did it with Paul Harvey. Apple did it with Walt Whitman (by way of Robin Williams). Visa did it with Amelia Earhart. Now, it's BMW's turn to use the poetic words of a long-ago visionary to sell a modern product.

The automaker is using a recording of Arthur C. Clarke to celebrate the promise of the future, as realized today by the new BMW i series of electric cars.

"Trying to predict the future is a discouraging and hazardous occupation," Clark says in the audio recording from 1964 which serves as the voiceover for BMW i's 60-second launch spot, "Hello Future." The ad, by Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, will break Friday night during NBC's coverage of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Russia.

Clark goes on: "If by some miracle a prophet could describe the future exactly as it was going to take place, his predictions would sound so absurd that people everyone would laugh him to scorn. The only thing we can be sure of about the future is that it will be absolutely fantastic. So, if what I say now seems to you to be very reasonable, then I will have failed completely. Only if what I tell you appears absolutely unbelievable have we any chance of visualizing the future as it really will happen."

Stylized, futuristic images of cityscapes, drenched in blue tones, pass one after another before the spot shifts to showing one of the i vehicles, which preens by opening its scissor doors like wings—and is then seen speeding along a darkened tunnel.

Two other 30-second spots, for the i8 plug-in hybrid and the i3 all-electric city car, have a bit more of a narrative. The i8 spot, "Sightings," shows people trying to describe something they've never seen before (of course, it's the i8), while the i3 spot, "SHHH," features a boy who takes his dad's i3 for a joyride with a girl (played by Olivia Crocicchia of Rescue Me) but gets caught in the end thanks to his dad's BMW i Remote App.

"It is a rare and exciting opportunity to launch a new brand and for BMW i, one that requires a world stage," said Trudy Hardy, vp of marketing for BMW of North America. "We look forward to making a bold statement about the future of sustainable mobility."

BMW is going all out for the Olympics. It will also be running digital shorts for the BMW i on NBCOlympics.com, and airing spots for the all-new X5 SUV and its first-ever BMW 2 Series. The automaker also completely redesigned the two-man bobsled that will be used by Team USA this month.