Report: BMW i3 MSRP Announced for Chinese Market

Today, BMW China announced the MSRP for the brand’s electric car: the i3. Below is the pricing data:

This translates to USD $72,640 for the base i3 and $83,940 for the i3 with range extender. As mentioned before, please do not be confused by the imported car’s pricing in China, which seems to be much higher than the same one we see in the States. The reason is because the Chinese government is imposing heavy tariff on imported goods, especially for automobiles.

Benefited by the electric power source, which does not has an internal combustion engine (or just with a very small displacement engine), electric cars have pricing advantages in China. This is because the government tariff also depends on the displacement of the car engine – the larger of the displacement, the more percentage of tariff it collects.

Take the i3 and the 335i as example. In US, the base i3 MSRP is $41,350; and the 335i is $45,500, a mere 9% difference. But in China, the 335i’s MSRP is RMB 666,000, compared to i3, the difference rises to 32.4%.