BMW is creating a new sub-brand -- "BMW i" -- for its coming upscale electric vehicles, or as BMW puts it: "premium sustainable mobility." The company also announced BMW i's first two production vehicles, both due in 2013:

The i3 based on its Megacity Vehicle concept (sketch below), an electric car aimed at buyers in the world's biggest and most congested urban centers, such as London, Shanghai and New York.

The i8, a plug-in hybrid based on its Vision EfficientDynamics concept (above) that BMW says will be a performance sports car with small-car fuel efficiency.

Both will use BMW's so-called LifeDrive vehicle architecture with a lightweight aluminum chassis housing the powertrain and a carbon fiber passenger compartment. "We used the innovative architecture and (carbon fiber) to cancel out practically all of the extra weight added by the batteries. ... this means superior driving dynamics combined with significantly increased range using electric power," Klaus Draeger, BMW board member for development, said in a statement.

The sub-brand will help BMW meet Europe's escalating CO2 rules and also boost the German economy, since it is spending more than half a billion dollars for a BMW i production center for the vehicles with 800 jobs in Leipzig.

BMW will also use the BMW i unit to develop it car networking and other "mobility services":

As part of that effort, it said it has put $100 million into a venture capital unit that will invest in such services. BMW said the unit already has bought a stake in a U.S. startup that provides information about parking spaces, restaurants, entertainment and other services in 40 U.S. cities. BMW looks to expand that to 40 more cities globally, including, surprise, Munich.

BMW says these "premium mobility services" will include both in-car services and car-independent services such as "intermodal route planning and premium car-sharing."

The BMW i brand basically takes in the various vehicles and services developed since 2007 by "Project i," a BMW think tank that has looked at alternative power, including EVs and hybrids, as well car networking and GPS-based safety, information and entertainment services.