BMW Group celebrates 40 years of electric mobility

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The Germans at BMW officially announced that 40 years have passed since the first electric vehicle bearing BMW’s badge left the factory.

We talk about the BMW 1602 electric vehicles, two prototypes prepared for the Olympic Games in 1972. This model was equipped with a 32 kW electric motor and a lead-acid battery pack providing a driving range of 30 kilometers.

Next up was the BMW LS electric, a vehicle which was fitted with a 17 kW electric motor and several 12V batteries for a similar driving range of 30 kilometers.

Probably the most important of all, the BMW 325iX Electric, a model introduced in 1980, benefited from a 22 kW electric motor and an extended driving range of 150 kilometers thanks to a sodium-sulphur battery pack.

Back in our days, the new BMW i3 will be the first to exit the factory gates as a production model, exactly after 40 years since the first electric model.

“When the first production version of the BMW i3 rolls off the assembly line in Leipzig in late 2013, it will mark the provisional culmination of 40 years of development work at BMW,” adds BMW.