It’s a mouth-watering spec sheet. A shade under 170bhp, rear-wheel drive, carbon-fibre monocoque construction and a £35k price-tag: this is surely the recipe for a new lightweight Lotus sports car, spiritual successor to Elan, Elise and their ilk?
Nope, it’s a zero-emissions electric city car, closer in spirit to the cart that delivers your morning milk than a product of Hethel’s genius.
I promise that will be the only reference to milk floats here, though, because it really is an unfair comparison. For a start, not even Ernie and his fastest milk cart in the west will see which direction the BMW i3 went when it does its scalded-cat impression.
There’s a faster ‘S’ version, but it hardly seems necessary because this standard 120Ah model is ridiculously rapid off the mark. Its full complement of 184lb ft of torque deploys dramatically from standstill and pulls with a delightfully turbine-like song to leave most conventional cars behind at the lights.
They’ll get past you eventually, of course, but right up to its 93mph maximum the i3 feels sprightly yet stable – albeit with plenty of road noise and resonance from those skinny 19in wheels.
Inside and out, it looks pleasingly retro-futuristic in the mould of a Back to the Future film prop.
