BMW i3 vs. Mercedes B-Class: Which German electric car is better?
It's taken awhile, but聽聽are finally getting some serious attention from the mainstream聽听辫谤别蝉蝉.
Maybe it's increased consumer interest, or maybe the fact that there are now enough widely-available models to warrant comparisons, but electric聽聽are starting to show up more in the pages of enthusiast "buff books."
In a recent comparison,聽Car and Driver聽pitted the聽.
Showing how far plug-ins have come in gaining credibility with the establishment automotive press, the focus wasn't the cars' electric drivetrains, but rather the wildly different approaches the two German carmakers took with their respective products.
"The B-Class is an electric Mercedes-Benz," the聽Car and Driver聽staff said, "BMW's i3 is a moon buggy."
The magazine praised the B-Class' upscale interior, and noted that the silent electric motor's instantaneous torque delivery fits nicely with the "Mercedes ideal" of smooth and quiet internal-combustion engines.
However, testers were less impressed by the聽聽restrained styling, and its handling capabilities. These factors may or may not be relevant to the average electric-car buyer, though.
The BMW i3 has generated significant controversy with its radical styling, but testers seemed to like it, and also felt the car's rear-wheel drive layout produced better handling.
The equally avant-garde interior came in for criticism, including rear seats that staff declared uninhabitable for humans.
Ergonomic quirks aside, the BMW took the prize for trying to be different.聽Car and Driver聽reasoned that mere聽聽is boring, while "ambition is exciting," and the i3 is very ambitious.
With an聽聽(138 MPGe city, 111 MPGe highway), it's also the most efficient battery-electric car currently sold in the U.S. BMW has all of its bases covered, apparently.
