---
title: "Watch a BMW i3 Drift Around a Rally Stage"
description: "With Finnish rally legend Rauno Aaltonen behind the wheel, anything is possible."
date: "2017-03-21"
modified: "2017-03-21"
authors:
  - name: "Christian Gilbertsen"
    job_title: "Native Projects Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/christian-gilbertsen"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/8486/watch-a-bmw-i3-drift-around-a-rally-stage"
categories:
  - "BMW News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "BMW"
  - "Drifting"
  - "Electric Vehicle"
  - "Hatchback"
  - "i3"
  - "rally"
  - "Rauno Aaltonen"
---

# Watch a BMW i3 Drift Around a Rally Stage

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/03/screen-shot-2017-03-21-at-10-24-49-am.png>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

From the get-go, the BMW i3 was designed to be efficient, green, and appealing to urban environmentalists. In other words, it was never designed to be tossed around a rally stage. Luckily, that hasn't stoped Rauno Aaltonen, famed Finnish rally driver who goes by "The Rally Professor," from taking an innocent i3 around a short rally course and drifting its electric nuts off.

Surprisingly, BMW's little all-electric eco car copes well with being tipped into dirt corners and having its rear end aggressively step out. Its skinny tires and punchy electric torque help initiate and sustain a drift, as Aaltonen is eager to point out. Mid-corner, he says, "Once you understand it, it's great fun—and it feels like you would be in a car with 1000 horsepower."

Aaltonen concludes his i3-drift stint saying, "I didn't expect \[that\] the i3 can be driven in drift so beautifully. To drift the i3 is easy, nice. I love it."

Check out the video of the Rally Professor draining the i3's batteries in the best way possible below.

https://youtube.com/embed/O9pQuu4JuCk

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/chrgilbert>)