Though we'll be the first to admit that electric cars don't exactly strike our fancy, the new BMW i3 and i8 are intriguing because it's the first time we'll see exactly what the Bavarians can cook up on its first electric outing.
Considering it seems that Tesla's Model S **may be** the first electric that is actually useful, it looks like BMW may have been beat to the punch on this one -- we can clarify that once publications get more than 10 minutes behind the wheel.
Aside from that though, we've been loosely following the developmental testing of the i3 and it appears that its interior has been relatively finalized. As you're about to see in the following images, it stays largely inline with the i3 concept with its speedo and center stack.
But it may be what's not visible to the naked eye that's particularly critical. As we already know, BMW has been leveraging the use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic in the build of its products. The i3 is no exception as it's rumored that the i3 will benefit largely from the CFRP material to keep it lightweight.
Perhaps that will explain hideously expensive, speculated price of approximately €35,000 - €40,000 Euros.
Although it's still in unfinished pre-production form, we can see some major components and design elements that will come on the production i3 when the first are delivered in late 2013.
The dash and console loses much of the futuristic styled full touch-sensitive and buttonless interior of the i3 concept in favor of a more practical and modern-day style BMW dashboard. It does however retain an LCD instrument screen from the concept. The large navigation / iDrive screen can be seen in the upper center console, still shrouded by the cloth covering. The plastic around the steering column will of course be gone by production and the rest of the lower center console added. The steering wheel in the prototype is borrowed from a current 3 series, but the production i3 may get a unique steering wheel (with special badging at the very least).
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