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BMW ups i3 production to 100 units a day to meet demand

To reverse the old Field of Dreams quote, they are coming, so BMW is building them. All indications are that US demand for the BMW i3 plug-in will be larger than initially expected. As a result, the automaker is upping production at its German factor by more than 50 percent in advance of stateside sales, Automotive News says, citing BMW boardmember Harald Krueger. BMW has started making about 100 i3s a day, up from its previous daily rate of about 70 units. So far, BMW, which is expected to begin sales of the i3 in the US later this month, has made about 5,000 i3s. BMW spokesman Dave Buchko confirmed in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen that the company was boosting production of the i3 based not only on US demand but on worldwide demand, but he declined to be specific about BMW's new production rate. BMW started selling the i3 in Europe in November and had racked up a six-month waiting list by early February. Last month, Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the board of management for BMW, estimated that the company would be making a cool 100,000 i3s a year by the end of the decade, and that the global automotive market would support that production level. Check out our First Drive of the i3 here.

Watch the BMW M4 drift around an aircraft carrier

A Nimitz-class American aircraft carrier is big. Really, really big. After all, it has to be, in order to launch and recover a wide array of military aircraft. But when it's not catapulting F/A-18 Super Hornets and E-2 Hawkeyes into the wild blue yonder, what exactly can you use its 1,040-foot long flight deck for? Well, BMW seems to have an idea.
Now, obviously BMW hasn't paid Uncle Sam to convert the deck of the USS John C. Stennis into a racetrack (but what an idea!). That doesn't make this video of an Austin Yellow M4 slipping and sliding its way around the carrier deck any less entertaining. The video itself comes, weirdly considering the US aircraft carrier, from BMW of Canada, and we aren't really sure what the point of it is. There's no voiceover, or title or closing screens to lend the scene any context, and it seems unlikely that this sort of seemingly high-dollar video wouldn't be done sheerly for giggles. Whatever the reason for its existence, it's worth a watch.
Scroll down and have a look.

BMW i Collection puts upscale treehugging in the palm of your hand

If BMW's new i sub-brand sounds more like it belongs to consumer electronics than it does to automobiles, that's probably no mistake. After all, electric vehicles bridge the gap between conventional automobile and electronic gadget - just ask our compatriots over at Engadget that report on them all the time. But to drive the point home even greener, BMW has, together with the new i3, launched a new collection of electronics accessories that make the Bavarian automaker as much a competitor with companies like Belkin or Griffin as it is with Audi or Mercedes-Benz.
The new BMW i Collection includes items like a solar charger for phones and MP3 players, a laptop bag made from felt-like recycled PET plastic and vegetable-tanned leather, and of course the requisite USB dongle. Other items include keyfobs, a shopping bag, notebook and ballpoint pen.
All the items, of course, are designed to extend the i3's upscale tree-hugging image to items you can hold and use while your EV is charging in the driveway. They go on sale starting next month with prices ranging from 15 euros ($20) for the pen or lanyard to 99 euros ($135) for the shopping bag. Details in the press release below and images of the whole collection in the gallery above.