8:37 am, May 20, 2013
BMW has revealed the dealers that will be supplying and supporting the firm’s ‘i’ brand.
The new ‘i’ sub-brand represents BMW’s electric drive systems and ‘premium mobility services’, and 46 dealers will be offer the range.
Each dealer will have specialist technical capabilities allowing them to carry out repairs to the vehicles’ high voltage batteries.
A wider service network is planned to offer extended coverage for the general service, maintenance and repair of BMW i vehicles.
Initially, two BMW i cars have been confirmed for production, the fully-electric BMW i3 megacity vehicle and the plug-in hybrid BMW i8 sports car.
The BMW i3 is BMW’s first fully-electric production car and is due to go on sale in the UK in late 2013. Like the i8, the BMW i3 features an all-aluminium chassis combined with a passenger cell made entirely from lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastic.
BMW Group UK managing director, Tim Abbott said customer enquiries about BMW i are already ‘extremely high’ with more than 6000 people registering their interest in the i brand.
‘With the announcement of our BMW i retail network we are open for business and taking deposits on the i3 and i8,’ he said.
‘Our BMW i dealerships are located in the areas of the UK with the highest concentrations of population.’
Potential customers can now register their interest with one of the BMW i agents or online at www.bmw-i.co.uk.
As well as the vehicles themselves, BMW i will encompass a range of premium services for mobility aimed at optimising the use of parking spaces, recharging infrastructure, ‘smart’ navigation systems, intermodal route planning and access to other BMW vehicles on an ‘on-demand’ basis.
‘With BMW i, we are offering game-changing technology that will revolutionise the way we move through a completely new driving and ownership experience,’ said Abbott.
