BMW i3 - Why did you get one, OR Why do you want one?

[harrisonm]

Hey guys,
I'm considering an electric car and have obviously seen and heard all the pros and cons from multiple different sources that involve this type of vehicle - but I want to hear from regular i3 owners.

which leads me to asking the BMW i3 community.
Why did you get (or want) an i3?
and why not just a regular fuel powered vehicle?

I'm very interested in what you guys think, because I am yet to own a car that runs with or purely on electricity.

 

[jadnashuanh]

I'm retired, live not far from most things I visit (stores, friends, doctors, recreation) and all of those short trips are just nasty on the life of an ICE...plus, the ability to precondition the EV at will and always having the 'tank' full along with the structure nearly impervious to salt (I live where they tend to use a lot) and almost no routine maintenance required, mean that while I did retain my ICE for longer trips, I use my i3 nearly all the time. It's ideal for running around town - great turning radius, great acceleration, quiet, comfortable, and sized so it's easy to park while still able to carry what I generally need. Plus, I like the freshness of the car's design.

 

[harrisonm]

I'm retired, live not far from most things I visit (stores, friends, doctors, recreation) and all of those short trips are just nasty on the life of an ICE...plus, the ability to precondition the EV at will and always having the 'tank' full along with the structure nearly impervious to salt (I live where they tend to use a lot) and almost no routine maintenance required, mean that while I did retain my ICE for longer trips, I use my i3 nearly all the time. It's ideal for running around town - great turning radius, great acceleration, quiet, comfortable, and sized so it's easy to park while still able to carry what I generally need. Plus, I like the freshness of the car's design.

Thats an awesomely convincing reply, Thank you. This has just made me wonder how many i3 owners actually have an ICE car laying around still or have they completely converted? when was the last time you had to use your ICE car Jadnashuanh?

 

[jadnashuanh]

My ICE sits in my garage with a battery maintainer on it. It gets driven maybe every other month or so. In reality, I could probably get rid of it and rent a car when I needed it, but it's paid for, comfortable, and there when I need it. If I couldn't afford it, I'd get rid of it. I'm hoping that the i5 may have a large enough battery so that I could not need to run the ICE around town, but it will offer an option of using it on longer trips as well. If it does, I may trade both cars in for one, or something that does work for me. Where I live, there is not a good CCS network, and I fear it will be quite a long time before it exists, if ever. Some places, it's viable, IMHO, not here, at least on the paths I normally drive. When I do take my ICE for a trip, it's generally 400-1000 miles at a whack and my stops are more for personal issues, not to refuel the car (or recharge it). The USA is a big country, without good train service, and while planes are faster on longer trips, not really on the trips I take once you figure in the commute to the airport, waiting for security, getting there, getting your bag...often, you can drive in the same time and often, for less out of pocket costs, especially when you consider you may need to pay for parking and maybe a rental car at the other end...much prefer my car.

 

[Lithiumman]

Love the simplicity, efficiency and drivability of an EV.

So, in considering an EV we kept track of our daily distances over a 12 month period. We travelled over 150km in a single day on only 7 occasions, during that time. We previously owned an ICE (2010 Subaru Forster) so I calculated that the maintenance and fuel costs for the Subaru over its 120,000km / 5 years, was AU$23,555 and 27 tonnes of CO2 emitted. The fuel and maintenace cost of an i3 over the same distance and time would be AU$4377 using an off-peak electricity tariff for charging and the BMW 5 year fixed price service option. The real cost of driving the i3 however is actually almost zero because we have a good grid feed in tariff with our 5kW rooftop solar PV system. This meant that considering purchase costs and 5 years of ownership the BMW would come in actually below par against an up market Subaru - and that's not taking into account the externalised costs of pollution.

More so than this however, the driving of an EV is far far superior to any similarly priced ICE in performance, pleasure, control and quietness. And the design of the i3, especially the interior was seductive to us both. It is a very special car in many ways, although far from perfect - no car is.

Now we don't have an ICE at all. There are a gradually increasing number of DCFC at about 100km distance way from here along 2 of the 3 major routes we take. So we often take the EV now when we would not have done so 2 years ago when we first bought the i3. We have given our Subaru to our daughter who was in desperate need of a new car and who lives only a few kilometres away. So for any of those very rare times that we need an ICE it is a simple swap. Could not see the point in buying another ICE with huge backend fuel and maintenance costs 500% more than an EV, for the very rare need of more range. I felt that to buy another ICE because of range advantage, would be like buying any car for its top speed advantage - so what, it never gets used! Oh and no wasting time to refuel as you have to with an ICE. We now have in essence the best both world's for us.

In essence the EV is much cheaper to run despite its higher up front price. The longer we have it the more we both appreciate it. It is as if a paradigm shift occurs that only happens when you live with an EV for a period of time. You relax into it - we never fret over range - we trust that car to do exactly what it was designed for. We have almost 40,000km on the clock with no sign of battery degradation. It is in every way a better car. It ideally matches our driving habits and our values. We will never be going back to an ICE.

Hope this helps

 

[ASUN]

- Free chargers at work
- Local government incentive/rebate
- Less maintenance
- Smooth, quiet ride
- Fun driving experience
- Fuel prices too high
- Daily commuter to and back from work
- Quality built compare to Nissan, Toyota, etc.
- Overall, it's a cool looking car, unique on the road

I do have an ICE at home. It's mostly in the garage only used for longer road trips.

 

[pfanning]

I was replacing an M3 after 19 years of ownership since new. As I was no longer going to the track and only needed a nice commuter for my daily ~50 mile round trip the i3 was intriguing from a few points. The i3 is fun to drive, light weight, with good handling (though I wish there was more ultimate grip) and acceleration. The i3 is a nice environment for 1.5-2 hours a day commute with a pleasant, flexible to haul stuff, good audio (with HK option), and fairly quiet and comfortable interior. The car is simple to own with no gas stations, oil changes, and very limited maintenance, just plug it in at home every night. The i3 is also inexpensive with low lease rates and operating expenses, I spend ~$1US in electricity vs ~$7.50US in gasoline per day for my commute. I also like the engineering that went into the i3, from the materials, to the technology, to the effort at sustainable manufacturing, it's a very well designed car.

The i3 was bit of an experiment to see how I'd like a pure electric. I've been happily surprised and like the car more than I thought I would. It's likely I'll trade this for an outright purchase when the lease is due either on this car or for an updated i3 'S' with improved grip.

We still have an ICE 328ix wagon for road trips. For us, in our region (NW US), for our use, electric cars aren't ready to be a single vehicle as the charging infrastructure is still years away from off the beaten path road trip use. Electric cars are absolutely ready to be the prime vehicle for the daily grind and could be an only car if you only travel distances once or twice a year (rent a car).

Overall very happy with the i3 94ah BEV, I'm unlikely to go back to an ICE as a prime vehicle.

 

[Rurali3]

I use mine (UK 94ah REX) as a long distance (170 mile round trip - mainly on motorways) commuting vehicle. I live in the middle of a farm so it is about as far from the 'city car' concept as you can get. Slightly hard ride and sensitive steering aside, it is a very relaxing car to drive over a distance and with the free EV recharging points in the town I commute to, extremely cheap compared to the price of fuel in the UK. I got it kitted out with various tech extras and the adaptive cruise control is excellent along with adaptive LED lights and professional media package which provides a sat-nav linked to the traffic flow sensors on UK main roads and motorways.

Coming up to 5,000 miles in 3 months so the mileage is racking up quickly... The vast majority of that was on electric, and I suspect over 50% of that was using adaptive cruise control.

Reasons - an excellent piece of technology (appeals to my inner geek) that is relaxing to drive and cheap to run, so fits my needs very well.

 

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

Approaching retirement, I wanted to minimize my out-of-pocket expenses and EV is the answer. But I also knew we would like to do cross country trips to family. So our initial change:

Two Prius -> One Prius and One REx

The 03 Prius was 'sold' to our housekeeper and replaced by a 14 BMW i3-REx. The 10 Prius was kept as backup which turned out to be a good-news / bad-news backup. The 14 BMW i3-REx had a motor mount bolt failure that took the car out of service for two weeks. Switching over to the 10 Prius was much easier than dealing with the typical BMW loaner BUT lack of collision detection and dynamic cruise control, I test drove the 17 Prius Prime.

One Prime and One REx

We sold the 10 Prius and bought a new, Prius Prime Plus, an unplanned to affordable expense. The first drive, 1200 miles @55.7 MPG. Radar based, dynamic cruise control and collision avoidance, it has worked every time and gave me confidence even in foggy conditions. The Prime should be paid off the end of this month and has a 25-30 mile EV range versus 72-80 of the REx.

Lessons Learned

Between the Prime and REx, I'm learning how to find EV charging stations, what works and doesn't work:

• home charging - the L1 is OK but caution, running an extension cord or outlet at 80% of rated capacity, they will run warm.
• shopping/dinner out charging - needs to be fast DC or 40A, L2
• work charging - multiple, medium 16A, L2 chargers or 16A, L1 chargers so the employee can do at least half a shift, 4 hours, before needing to move the car

The second lesson is cross country travel is more affordable by maximizing, use of utility-rate, electricity. But finding affordable electrical charging can be difficult or more expensive per mile than gasoline. For example, my trip on Monday to Nashville.

I found EVgo chargers within 3-4 blocks of my physician's office. But http://www.plugshare.com users warned about broken chargers and limited access. This matches my first, experience with an EVgo charger. After 30 minutes, the charger never came on but EVgo did charge my credit card (later fixed.)

Happily, Chargepoint showed a new, 4-port EVSE (aka., charger) that was not on Plugshare which I used:

• $0.85/hour up to 4 hours, 6.6 kW ($0.129/kWh) - this well exceeds the battery capacity of our REx.
• $5.00/hr after 7:30 PM ($0.758/kWh) - Ouch! These are gasoline rates per mile.

The assumption that residential electrical rates would be significantly cheaper than gas holds true. Utility rates don't change as fast as gasoline and today are about 38% the cost per mile as gasoline. But when the Colonial pipeline broke last year, gasoline prices went from just under $2/gal to ~$3/gal. Should another Katrina hurricane hit the Louisiana and Texas coasts, we'll be back in over $3/gal gasoline across SouthEastern USA.

Bob Wilson

 

[brorob]

Agree with all of the pros listed in previous posts. We also wanted to cut down on our carbon footprint so this was another factor. You'll find that the i3 is not only one of the most efficient cars to drive, it's also one of the most sustainably manufactured vehicles. So if that is important to you then the i3 is top notch.

We do still have ICE vehicles, my wife has a long commute to work and no way to charge at work. We also have a poor infrastructure for EVs in the state of MI. We decided to get the i3 and a gas efficient ICE while we learned more about life with an EV. We have one other ICE that gets used for towing a camper and trailer on occasion, and will probably be given to our teenage daughter soon for her first vehicle.

A few cons to note too, there is only one brand of all season tires available and they will wear fast if you have a lead foot. Strangely though, there are two brands of winter tires. The suicide doors can be inconvenient for rear passengers in tight parking spaces. I would recommend getting a sunroof to avoid negative pressure when driving with the windows wide open. No top racks like Thule or Yakima available if want to haul kayaks or bikes on top, there are some rear mounted options available for bikes. Since the vehicle is so light it can take more effort to drive on an Interstate in heavy winds.

Overall I'm very happy with the car. I am leasing an REx model which allows me to use the car for longer trips. Even though I don't use the feature often it allows me to drive the car on trips I wouldn't be able to use a pure EV for.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, BMW says above 25mph, it' more efficient to run with the a/c than with the windows open on the i3. Personally, the sunroof tends to steal headroom that I can't afford, plus, I do not like the glare. To each, their own, but I hate it when they make them standard! The original announcement for US sales had the thing standard on most worlds. Glad the feds wouldn't let them. Not sure if they had to change the roof to comply with the metal requirement, or they lobbied for a change.

 

[I33t]

We run our house and EV at a neutral annual net kWh due to a substantial PV array on our roof.

Even if we had no PV on the roof, in our area, the local electricity production is based on wind/solar/gas but part of the state's power is drawn from interstate from a horribly poor brown coal fired power station. Even so, the annual CO2 benefit would still be there. Additionally, the cost of electricity is less than the cost of gasoline per distance in this area.

The car doesn't have to be taken to a fuel station to fill up with gasoline, and to waste personal time and money. It doesn't need oil changes and has no combustion engine which means less servicing and less disposable lubricants and components. The life of the vehicle is based on just the running gear, tyres, wheel bearings, brake pads (which never wear due to strong regen), brake fluid, windscreen wipers, and eventually the battery which does not seem to have degraded at all. This is a different and more sustainable world compared to a gasoline car.

There is a recent analysis of an EV versus a gasoline car in the state of Missouri which is mainly based on coal fired electricity.

Missouri has a long way to go to clean-up its electric power generation. But even in such a coal-dependent state, driving an electric car is still "better for the planet" than driving the normal gas car. By shifting to my Leaf I was able to avoid emitting ¾ of a ton of CO2 and I saved $287 on my fuel bill for one year. The extra money is nice, but I'm more concerned about drawing down CO2 emissions. To do that our societies need to switch how we generate power from fossil fuels to renewables. As individuals we can help make that switch by moving from ICE vehicles to EVs. Eventually the electric grid will catch up to us.

https://skepticalscience.com/How-Green-is-My-EV.html

 

[Slappymcgee]

We've got 3 young kids (7, 4, and 1) and a minivan as the primary family car, so an efficient "runabout" made sense as my primary vehicle. I commute about 40 mi round trip, or to the airport, both of which have L2 chargers. I also frequently drive one or both of the older kids to their events so the range works well, and we have the REX as a backup, although I have yet to need it in the 2 months we've leased the car.

I was interested in the technology of the car and the convienece rather than "carbon," and much of the charging in our area is still free, plus a $0.04 off peak electric rate saves a few bucks, but obvioauly if it was all about saving we'd be in 2005 civics.

In terms of family use it's been great, although the doors make for some "gymnastics" in parking lots. However if you're driving solo 80% of the time and hauling smaller humans the other 20%, it works well.

 

[alohart]

My wife and I are retired and prefer to walk or bike when possible, so we don't drive very much, but we do need to carry largish items fairly frequently, so we prefer a hatchback car. I had driven a 2000 Honda Insight hybrid in Honolulu since 2002 and had learned about and appreciated the advantages of electric drive in our situation. For a few years after we had shipped our Insight to our apartment in Sweden, we tried renting cars when we were in Honolulu, but that wasn't ideal. In 2012, a few new EV models were available in Honolulu, so we bought a Mitsubishi i-MiEV which met our requirements of compact exterior, relatively roomy interior, and light weight. Its tight turning circle and rear wheel drive were bonuses that we learned to appreciate. However, when we relocated from a relatively central location to the far southeast end of Oʻahu, our i-MiEV's 80-mile range was insufficient for round-trips to many of our favorite destinations, and we could not count on being able to charge a few minutes en route at a public charging station, so we decided to replace our i-MiEV with an EV with greater range.

The EV that was most similar to our i-MiEV but that had the additional range that we wanted was an i3 BEV. I had no interest in a REx because I wanted to eliminate ICE maintenance, didn't need the additional range, didn't want to pay the extra cost, didn't want to drag around the extra weight, and didn't want the lower reliability that usually accompanies additional complexity. I had never owned and had no desire to own a BMW because their ownership costs are high and they tend to be less reliable than Japanese cars, in general. I was really disappointed that neither Honda nor Toyota had designed an EV available in Hawaiʻi and that Mitsubishi wasn't increasing the i-MiEV's range. Like our Insight and unlike other relatively affordable EV's, the i3's aluminum, CFRP, and thermoplastic construction is corrosion-resistant which is important in Honolulu's salty, humid climate we tend to keep our cars for more than 15 years. So we were willing to pay the high cost of an i3 if it met our range requirements hoping that it would prove to be reliable and inexpensive to own.

We asked BMW of Honolulu if we could take an i3 BEV on an extended test drive. If we could circumnavigate Oʻahu on a single charge, ~98 miles, we would enter into purchase negotiations immediately. Our test drive i3 BEV passed the test with 5 miles of range remaining, so we bought a 2014 i3 Giga BEV with all options except metallic paint, HK sound system, and heated seats (really, in Honolulu?!).

Before we purchased our i3, I knew that it had a defective KLE that would be replaced under warranty, but I didn't know that a weak bolt would need to be replaced with a stronger version on the poorly-engineered motor mount system. I now know that even the stronger bolt can break, and that newer i3's have an improved motor mount system. I feel that BMW should have retrofitted all i3's with the defective motor mount system, but BMW has chosen not to do so. Should our motor mount break after our warranty expires, the repair cost would likely be so high that we would get rid of our i3 if a more reliable alternative that meets our needs is available.

Fortunately, i3 BEV's have been pretty reliable, in general, especially compared with i3 REx's, so I'm hopeful that future out-of-warranty repairs won't be necessary. Potentially expensive repair costs are the i3's most serious downside for us. Otherwise, we are very happy with our i3 and hope to keep it for more than 15 years.

 

[shaoyu]

EV is a technological breakthrough, it effectively increases world's transportation resources 2~3x, that's massive improvement to world's standard of living. Too much focus is put on the environmental aspect, that its economic benefit is unknown to most people.

Not only that, the mechanical design is much simpler than ICE, so the savings on the industry could be huge too, not to mention the saved time and cost on end users regarding maintenance/repair related to complex mechanical and exhaust control systems.

As to the i3 design, it is a technological marvel. Only Tesla matches it currently. The design philosophy is different, pragmatism vs Tesla's purity. i3 REX is still the only serial hybrid on the market, flexible enough to be the sole car in a family, yet keeping most of the simplicity and durability of EV. From a design point of view, the i3 REX is 90% pure EV, while other plugin hybrids are 60% or less.

It's only a pity that BMW couldn't fully commit to EV strategically and pursue its wonderful technology as aggressively as Tesla did in the last couple years, or else it would be sitting among the top two EV companies in the world.

 

[stumbledotcom]

I chose the i3 because it's optimized for city use. My roundtrip commute is just under 10 miles, all inside the city limits on surface streets, and lots of four way stop intersections; I rarely top 40 mph. The i3's size, agility, high torque, advanced technology, dent-resistant bodywork, interior design, and minimal maintenance needs were in that order the deciding factors for me. The EV drivetrain enables the high torque and minimal maintenance of course but unlike many here I did not buy the i3 specifically because it's an EV. As I approach the end of my initial 3-year contract, I can say with complete confidence that the i3 is the best car I've ever owned.

 

[slipnslider]

I want an i3, or any plug in electric because I am sick of the corrupt, evil sociopathic fossil fuel industry. Their endless greed could end human society if we don't wake up.

Now with Trump and Putin's exxon puppet running the state department and a climate denier dismantling the EPA, I'm enraged to the point of saying NO MORE GAS CARS FOR ME.

But I also want a car with good performance. Not some sluggish eco mobile, hence my interest in the i3. I'm on the list for a tesla model 3, but that would cost twice as much as a used i3.

Voting with your dollar is more powerful than voting at the polls, especially when our politicians are mostly owned by the polluters.

 

[brorob]

The key advantages of BMW i3 are:It is the first zero emissions mass produced vehicle due to its electric powertrain; It is the most fuel efficient vehicle; Its official range is 130 to 160 km for the 60 Ah battery option and upto 200km in the most efficient driving mode.

The Hyundai Ioniq recently passed the i3 BEV as the most efficient vehicle with a combined 135MPGe, the i3 is currently 2nd with an average 124MPGe for the 60Ah version. The new 94Ah model is 4th (behind the tied Bolt and eGolf) with a combined 118MPGe. These numbers are all taken from the fueleconomy.gov website. I'd still get a new i3 over the Ioniq though especially since it's more sustainably manufactured.

 

[i3an]

As a fellow San Franciscan I can second just about everything stumbledotcom says, with the following provisos: the 20" tires have proved to be an unexpected cost on our dreadfully-maintained streets; and though I am fine with the hard ride, others not so much.

 

[redbarn]

We live on a small farm and anywhere (shops etc. etc.) is 10 miles from home. So our weekly gas bill was non trivial.
The I3 Rex has been close to free motoring for us.
Our workshop electric bill went up circa $15 per month after the charger was installed and thats it.
No services, oil changes, visits to dealer etc. etc.
Plus the insurance is less than the ICE it replaced.

We keep a 4WD for use in bad weather and an old truck for hauling trash etc. but these sit on battery extenders for weeks.
The I3 is also quick & fun to drive.
My wife takes it South once a month for a 500 mile each way trip and uses charge stations en route so it is used for long distance.
The one trip where the current mileage is a hindrance is a trip into the City, a 120 miles each way journey.
There are no sensible charging options and most of the trip is done in traffic on the Rex.
We use the 4WD for this trip as it is better for pushing & shoving in traffic anyway
The I3 Rex is just a great solution for our needs.