The retail giant Amazon has recently announced a partnership with BMW to begin selling BMW electric cars to its Japanese market. This is a business and environmental step for both companies, with hopes to increase sales in a country already showing a desire to move toward electric vehicles.
Amazon, which started as a Seattle-based online book retailer, is now the number one source for a wide variety of items. It’s possible to buy anything from food and furniture to the companies own line of Kindle e-book readers. Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder, seems to have no intention of slowing down.
There are many firsts in BMWs’ book as well, specifically the BMW electric cars. Called the i3, it will be the company’s first mass-produced vehicle that can boast zero emissions. Considered an “urban car” due to its tiny size and reliance on electricity, it is expected to sell well in the Japanese market, where space is always at a premium.
According to EPA standards, these BMW electric cars are the most fuel-efficient mass produced car of any year. Its MPG is rated at a 124 MPG gasoline equivalent. The range is between eighty and one-hundred miles, although it is possible it hit one-hundred and twenty miles using efficient driving. In addition, BMW also released the i3 REx, which uses a small gasoline engine to deliver electricity to the battery when it gets low. This extends the models’ range to one-hundred and sixty miles.
It’s no surprise that sales of electric cars are rising rapidly and this may place BMW in a position to take down Nissan, whose Leaf is currently the bestselling electric-car in the world. Given that Japan buys the second most electric cars (after the U.S.), it is not at all an impossibility.
While there are already forty-six BMW selling the electric model, going through Amazon brings up a number of advantages. The dealership model, being brick-and-mortar, has certain inherent disadvantages. It is localized while consumers are quickly moving toward a mobile and tech-savvy style of living. This alliance between online retailer and auto maker may be the next step in dismantling the old way of doing business, bringing BMW electric cars to a wider, global audience.
While you can’t currently use Amazon to purchase a car in the United States, that doesn’t mean the possible may not be right around the corner.
