BMW i3 and i8 next month

The baby i3 city car is coming first, to be followed by the i8 supercar, with Australia set for an early adoption during the global runout after a showing of the Vision ED - a prototype of the i8 - at the Australian International Motor Show in Melbourne from today.

The i8 will be previewed in Germany and both cars are expected in showroom-ready condition at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Final details of the i-brand program are still being signed-off, with BMW Group Australia working on a business plan for down under deliveries, but the cars are ready to go and the German brand is totally committed.

"We've put our hand up for both. Yes, it is something we'd like to introduce and is in our preliminary planning," says Phil Horton, managing director of BMW Australia. "We would like to offer those models here. We think there would be a niche market for them. It's our desire to talk about both the i3 and the i8."

But Horton sounds a warning, based on the potential pricing and the complication of converting BMW customers to any sort of major plug-in future. "It would be premature to say that there is confirmation of the cars coming. It's early in the process. Europe is late 2013 for i3 . . . that would be 2014 at the earliest for us.

"There is no directive that we must take it. It's available to us and it's something for us to make a decision on. Planning for the i cars - developed under a new sub-brand similar to BMW's M performance division - is underway but there are still more questions than answers in Australia. We think there would be a niche market for them and it's our desire to offer both the i3 and i8, but we haven't gone through formal business-case approval," says Toni Andreevski, product and planning manager at BMW Australia.

"I don't know the plans going forward. Wether there will be a full range. It's possible of course they be more models."

He says BMW has been using a number of major trials of its Mini E prototypes to gather information on electric cars and the back-up they need. "The Mini E trials around the world are still being done to assess what people's daily commutes are, where charging infrastructure would be most usefully placed. I think one of the reasons for a delayed rollout around the world would be that markets like Australia could take from those lessons before taking the cars here."