If you happen to follow my monthly column in this magazine, "The Asphalt Jungle," you know that whenever I hear the name "i8" I wax rhapsodic over BMW's stunning hybrid exotic. Yet, somehow, I've never managed to test-drive the i8's far humbler sibling, the i3 electric city car. Frankly, that's partly because I figured that in comparison to the swoopy, spaceship-like i8 the boxy, upright i3 would feel about as interesting and engaging as an airport baggage tractor.
Then I drove an i3 with range extender (which BMW calls "REx") for a week. And my preconceptions got pulverized.
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