Park?

Just curious if anybody knows how the "Park" function works on the i3? On an ICE car, "Park" is a mechanical parking brake that locks the gears in the transmission. But the i3 has no transmission. I'm not talking about the e-brake, but rather the "P" button on the drive selector.

Its an electrically operated lock in the transmission, very similar to normal auto transmission park lock.
The i3 will prevent engagement until wheels are turning slow enough, but if it grabs early there will be some uncomfortable lurching. It also can't engage with no movement at all, so the dash warning comes up with the car might roll away message.

For these reasons I usually press the P button whenver stopping to get out of the car, so I know what mode it is in.
If you just open a door, it will try to engage as well as cutting off drive readiness, sometimes with a delay.

Explanation in the manual is confusing.

If you just open a door, it will try to engage as well as cutting off drive readiness,

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This quite startled me one day when I opened the door while still coasting into my driveway parking space in a hurry. I figured this had to have been what happened but wondered how much damage it does to the system to shift into park at 3~4 mph from opening a door. The sound it made wasn't good, but hopefully BMW knows what they're doing. It seems a bit strange that they are saying you can never drive the car with the door open. It really puts a damper on my driving-action movie I was planning with only i3s in it.

I would be worried about damage to the motor mounts/bolts on the early cars. I am always at a 100% complete stop with foot on the brake whenever I touch the shifter knob, to avoid shocking the motor mounts.....

MagicCarpet said:

Its an electrically operated lock in the transmission, very similar to normal auto transmission park lock.
[snip]

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The i3 doesn't have a transmission?

The motor maxes out at about 11K RPM. So, yes, there is a transmission to reduce the rpm to something useful...IOW, yes, there are some gears in there and a mechanical lock, similar to an automatic transmission in an ICE will work for the park function.

FWIW, the car won't automatically go into park when you open a door IF you still have your seatbelt on. SO, yes, you could open the door while moving if you wanted to. From a safety viewpoint, if you don't have your belt on, yes, the car will try to stop it as fast as it can.

jadnashuanh said:

The motor maxes out at about 11K RPM. So, yes, there is a transmission to reduce the rpm to something useful...IOW, yes, there are some gears in there and a mechanical lock, similar to an automatic transmission in an ICE will work for the park function.
[snip]

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Interesting! Good info. Thanks.

It isn't a transmission per se, more like a reduction gear and some sort of differential. There are no selectable gear ratios.....

Great pic! Thanks.

The reduction is something between 9:1 and 10:1.