BMW's visions for future mobility look as ridiculous as they are impractical

Turns out we were way off on this whole car of tomorrow business. According to BMW the car of tomorrow is a form-fitting suit with unflattering horizontal lines and ball-bearing shoes. Or, maybe it's a kind of bat winged jacket that attaches to a collapsible scooter... thing. That one's called Flymag, pictured above, which converts into a backpack and apparently makes you FOF when you sit on it. These concepts and more are courtesy of FDI, the International Design School in Barcelona, and are on display through the end of this month at Rambla de Catalunya. Go see them now before they're relegated to the annals of yesterday's crazy visions for tomorrow.

via : DVICE.com

BMW working on electric 5-series sedan for China, we still can't get a diesel

Surely it'll come elsewhere eventually, but for now an electric version of BMW's generously proportioned 5-series sedan looks destined exclusively for China. As part of the company's partnership with Brilliance China Automotive, BMW Brilliance Automotive is planning to create a pure EV 5-series and to show it off this year -- at some point. No further details are known about the car, though we're quite sure why this is happening. EVs are becoming more and more popular there as China struggles to shrug off a massive foreign oil dependency and BMW saw a similarly massive 87 percent jump in growth of its sales in China in 2010. So, there's your motive, but we'll still have to wait a bit for the rest of the details.

via :green.autoblog.com

BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics approved for production

According to the folks who follow all things BMW, the automaker's Vision Efficient Dynamics (VED) concept has been given the greenlight and a few details on the green machine have come along for the ride.

The VED's will reportedly carry either the i1 or i100 name, and that moniker will be placed on a chassis made of carbon fiber and powered first by either by a gas hybrid or fully electric motor. About a month ago it was rumored the coupe would first be available with the drivetrain from the ActiveHybrid 5 Concept, which itself was derived from the ActiveHybrid 7 Series. That option would be good for 300 horsepower thanks to a TwinPower turbo paired with a 40 kW electric motor and running through an eight-speed transmission.