Reverse Engineering The BMW i3 http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2015/01/04/video-unlocking-the-secrets-of-bmws-remarkable-car-of-the-future/ Video: Unlocking the Secrets Of BMW's Remarkable Car Of The Future 1/04/2015
[video flash] In a nondescript industrial building in suburban Detroit, a $50,000 BMW is lying in pieces. The place looks like an illegal chop shop, where stolen vehicles are disassembled to be sold as parts. The body is on the floor, the chassis propped on a stand, the powertrain spread out in tiny bits on a table, the seats on somebody’s desk. But A. Sandy Munro is no car thief: he paid full price for the BMW i3 he subsequently tore apart. Nor is he selling it for parts. He is, however, selling information about this remarkable car to anyone who is interested. And rest assured, a lot of people in the auto industry want to know its secrets. “This is, without a question of a doubt, the most advanced vehicle on the planet,” said Munro, chief executive of Munro & Associates, whose firm specializes in reverse engineering for the auto industry among others. “It’s as revolutionary as the Model T was when it came out.” The quirky-looking i3 is an urban electric car developed by BMW to cope with a confluence of troubling trends — global congestion, pollution and, yes, high fuel costs — that threaten the long-term viability of the automotive industry. “It’s entirely possible that we could see certain cities blocked for cars with internal combustion engines,” Ludwig Willisch, chief executive of BMW North America, told me a few years ago, when the i3 was still under development. It went on sale in the U.S. last May and BMW sold about 6,000 of them in 2014 ... Still, the i3 – the first mass-market vehicle made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic for reduced weight and improved driving range – is full of innovative lessons for carmakers facing decisions about how to comply with tough new laws on emissions and fuel economy. That’s why Munro last August embarked on a deep-dive “tear-down” of the car at his company’s benchmarking facility outside Detroit. The goal is to offer competitors an in-depth look at BMW’s engineering secrets — along with a detailed analysis of the costs and processes involved, right down to the individual nuts and bolts used. “This is Grandma’s real cookbook,” says Munro. “Everything is exposed; there is absolutely nothing left to the imagination with this kind of costing.” During a walk-around with Forbes, Munro demonstrated some of the i3's key innovations, including a carbon fiber “life module” with the crash protection of a Formula One race car that is glued and screwed to a rolling aluminum chassis module that includes the car’s suspension, battery and drive system. The superior strength of the life module comes from the way the plastic fibers are aligned within the shell to resist crushing. BMW’s battery is also unique compared to other electric vehicles. The 360-volt battery consists of eight independently controlled modules, each containing 12 cells. The advantage of BMW’s system is that when one cells goes bad, that module can be replaced, unlike in other EVs, like the Ford C-Max, which requires replacement of the entire battery pack, potentially costing thousands of dollars. Munro is still crunching the numbers, but is convinced that despite the high cost of carbon fiber and lithium-ion batteries, BMW has designed the i3 to be profitable at a volume of about 20,000 vehicles a year. Given the regulatory challenges the industry faces, he said, “Other carmakers are going to be dragged up to the chalkboard and told, ‘Do this’.” Carmakers frequently perform competitive tear-downs as part of their own internal benchmarking. (Often, in fact, they hire Munro’s firm to do the proprietary work for them.) In this case, however, Munro decided to study the i3 at his own expense (about $1 million), and make his findings available for general distribution — for a handsome price, of course (about $500,000 for carmakers). Customized reports on key vehicle systems, such as the body, rolling chassis, battery and heat exchange, powertrain and interior, will also be available to suppliers and others. “We’re not just selling this to car companies. Airplane companies, high-speed rail companies, even people making furniture are interested in this car because it’s that revolutionary,” said Munro. The most intense interest, though, is coming from Chinese carmakers, most of which have been dependent until now on technology from their joint venture partners. Munro says he’s been talking to at least a dozen Chinese manufacturers concerned about future innovation when those partnerships run out. [© forbes.com] http://www.bmwblog.com/2015/01/05/reverse-engineering-bmw-i3/ Reverse Engineering The BMW i3 January 5th, 2015 by Horatiu Boeriu [images http://www.bmwblog.com/wp-content/uploads/bmw-i3-repair-process-25.jpg bmw i3 repair process 15 750x500 Reverse Engineering The BMW i3 http://www.bmwblog.com/wp-content/uploads/bmw-i3-repair-process-15.jpg video flash http://www.forbes.com/video/3958851958001/ ] Sandy Munro, chief executive of Munro & Associates, whose firm specializes in reverse engineering for the auto industry, bought a brand new BMW i3 just to reverse engineer what he calls “one of the most advanced cars in the world.” The $50,000 electric car is lying in pieces in a building of Detroit suburbs where it is been dissected and analyzed by Munro’s team. The information gathered from the reverse engineering process is sold to anyone who is interested to learn about electric vehicles, and in this case, BMW’s jewel. The goal is to offer a detailed analysis of the costs and processes involved, right down to the individual nuts and bolts used. Munro decided to study the i3 at his own expense (about $1 million), and make his findings available for general distribution — for about $500,000 for carmakers. During a walk-around with Forbes, Munro demonstrated some of the i3's key innovations, including a carbon fiber “life module”, car’s suspension, battery and drive system. Munro is still crunching the numbers, but he believes BMW has designed the i3 to be profitable at a volume of about 20,000 vehicles a year. In 2014, BMW sold about 6,000 i3 models in the U.S. and the sales projections are higher in 2015. [© bmwblog.com] https://transportevolved.com/2015/01/05/2015-bmw-i3-profitable-just-20000-cars-says-engineer/ 2015 BMW i3: Profitable After Just 20,000 Cars, Says Engineer January 5, 2015 By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield [images] Is the BMW i3 profitable for BMW after just 20,000 cars? Yes, says one specialist. Munro & Associates: The BMW i3 is as revolutionary as the Ford Model T. The BMW i3 isn't to everyone's taste, but it's an exercise in incredible engineering. CFRP and clever battery design means the BMW i3 saves money from cradle to grave. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about an all-new family hatchback or a two seat coupe: bringing a brand-new car to market is an expensive business. In addition to funding design and engineering prototyping, automakers have to underwrite the cost of tooling up production facilities for the new model, as well as fund the in-house development of any new pioneering technologies being used. Combined, these technologies can take years, or even decades to pay off, as illustrated with the ten years and three-generations it took Toyota’s Prius hybrid to become profitable. But one engineering firm specialising in reverse-engineering cars says that BMW’s i3 electric car will become profitable after just 20,000 cars have been made, an impressive feat for a vehicle which is something of a first for the German automaker. What’s more, the firm says that the BMW i3 will be as revolutionary as Ford’s iconic Model T, the first car to ever be mass-produced on a moving production line. Enter Munro & Associates, a Michigan-based company whose speciality is providing automakers with real-world costings and manufacturing teardowns for competitor’s cars. As Forbes reports (via GreenCarReports), the engineering firm purchased a brand-new BMW i3 back in August last year and has spent several months disassembling and reverse-engineering the car to figure out just how it was constructed — and most importantly for BMW’s competitors — how much it cost to build. In the case of the BMW i3, its reinforced carbon-fibre plastic body shell, battery pack, and lightweight construction are both unique and game-changing. “This is, without a question of a doubt, the most advanced vehicle on the planet,” said A. Sandy Munro, chief executive of Munro & Associates. “It’s as revolutionary as the Model T was when it came out.” Usually, automakers approach Munro & Associates and ask them to reverse-engineer a car on their behalf. But when he saw the BMW i3 — the first production car to make use of CFRP as its main construction material — Munro decided his firm would invest around $1 million carrying out the teardown without commission. The BMW i3 has already proven itself far more energy-efficient to build than a traditional steel-framed car, since there’s far less energy required to produce the CFRP ‘life module’ than required to cut, press and weld a steel chassis. But Munro & Associates’ engineers say the CFRP ‘life module’ of the BMW i3 is more than just an exercise in energy efficiency: the fibres of the CFRP are so carefully aligned to resist crushing that the super-lightweight frame really is the module which protects the occupants’ lives. The BMW i3’s construction isn’t just revolutionary for the automotive world however, says Munro. In fact, his firm has received interest from a wide range of different industries keen to learn BMW’s CFRP secrets for a price. “We’re not just selling this to car companies,” he said. “Airplane companies, high-speed rail companies, even people making furniture are interested in this car because it’s that revolutionary.” Revolutionary is one thing. But Munro says the BMW i3 is profitable too — or will be soon. Despite the high cost of producing CFRP, the weight savings generated by using it as a primary construction material means that the BMW i3 is able to use smaller battery pack than many of its steel-bodied competitors. This further reduces costs. Of the battery pack, Munro & Associates’ engineers said that the thin, eight-times-twelve cell modular pack design and under-body location make it easy to replace and repair individual cell modules at dealerships. That’s not possible with all electric cars on sale today. Combine these clever design elements and weight-saving technologies together with lower construction costs, and Munro says he thinks the BMW i3 will be profitable after just 20,000 cars have been made. Or to put it another way based on current production volumes, a year or so after its first European launch. If he’s right, that could make the BMW i3 revolutionary in more ways than one. And it could represent the kind of speedy return on investment unheard of in the green car world. [© transportevolved.com] ... http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096123_bmw-i3-electric-car-teardown-profitable-at-20000-units-says-engineer-video BMW i3 Electric Car Teardown: Profitable At 20,000 Units ... [video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqiBWfsDTAA Reverse Engineering The BMW i3 Forbes Jan 4, 2015 Engineers from Munro & Associates show some of the innovations in the new electric car from BMW. ] [© greencarreports.com] For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble+template%2FNamlServlet.jtp%3Fmacro%3Dsearch_page%26node%3D413529%26query%3DEVLN%2Bbrucedp2%26days%3D0%26sort%3Ddate http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20141231000104&cid=1102 Foxconn/Hon-Hai.tw buys Harmony-Auto.cn to break into EV market http://www.thedestinlog.com/community/electric-car-charger-stations-now-at-destin-commons-1.420003 Two L2 EVSE @Uncle Buck’s Fish Bowl & Grill +Bowling Destin Commons FL http://www.yelp.com/biz/uncle-bucks-fish-bowl-and-grill-destin ... http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/53778 + EVLN: gogoro.com Pack-Swap G1 Smartscooter.tw r:30/60mi ts:60mph (v) {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Munro-s-i3-EV-deep-dive-chop-tear-down2-reveal-its-secrets-tp4673362.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
