BMW opens i3 orders months early as buyers rush in

This is a car story, not a home energy upgrade story, so there's not much here that affects a homeowner's own house directly. Still, here's what happened: BMW opened orders for its new electric i3 sedan months ahead of schedule, after seeing strong early demand in Germany, the UK, and China. In Germany, the i3 Launch Edition starts at €75,340 (about $86,400), with the standard base model arriving in late September starting at €65,900 (about $75,500). In the UK, the First Edition starts at £57,905 (about $76,500), with the standard version following this autumn at £53,005 (about $70,000).

Both versions use a large 108.7 kWh battery, with a rated range up to 566 miles under European testing standards, though the EPA estimate for the U.S. version is expected to be around 440 miles. The car can add about 250 miles of range in roughly 10 minutes on a fast charger, and it will include a built-in NACS charging port for the U.S. market, meaning it could plug into Tesla's charging network without an adapter.

U.S. pricing has not been announced, but BMW's related iX3 SUV starts around $61,500, so the i3 is expected to land somewhere between $50,000 and $55,000. For homeowners thinking about home charging, that NACS port is the main detail worth noting, since it affects what charging equipment would work with the car.