Does anyone else feel let down about their BMW i3 BEV

[hayleys900]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced any problems or have generally felt that the i3 doesn't match brochure specification?

Thanks
Hayley

 

[dirtboy]

My BEV is exactly what I expected it to be. It's been trouble free and lived up to what I thought it would be.

 

[WoodlandHills]

The manual and documentation is a joke. The Geniuses at the dealer are mostly idiots. The neutering of the Rex is a profit driven safety hazard. And the claimed range numbers are lies. Other than that I like mine and would lease another if the small Tesla is not ready yet.

 

[BrianStanier]

Few people ever read the manual. The iGeniuses here are very good indeed. And I get the stated ranges (in summer temperatures). Niggles? Yes a few but nothing more.

 

[archieb]

i3 meets all my expectations. Do I wish I had opted for a few more options or a higher world, yes. Overall I am very satisfied with the i3 BEV. The i3 replaces a Volt I drove for 3 years.

Happy Earth Day.

Archie

 

[psquare]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced any problems or have generally felt that the i3 doesn't match brochure specification?

Thanks
Hayley

I'm guessing your criticism is linked to the BEV and not (at least predominantly) the REx. Please let us know for how long you've had the BEV, what exactly your gripes are - who knows, some of the BEV owners on here can help you with some of your problems.

We own a REx and love it. I researched the car intensely (on places like this forum) and made use of 3 long test drives (two times having the car overnight, including charging) before I signed on the dotted line. Knowing the facts gives you a huge advantage when separating fact from marketing fiction. Choosing a REx over the BEV (which works perfectly well for a lot of people on here, as you can see) was a personal and difficult decision.

Let us know how you're getting on.

 

[jadnashuanh]

My BEV does everything that I bought it for, has been fun to drive, and has met my expectations. It is my first EV, and unless I find a plug-in hybrid that can meet my needs (none yet), I'll probably keep it for a very long time. There will always be people that don't research the vehicle before they buy it or do not understand the limitations. It can take some time to separate the marketing and perception discussions from actual fact. What taints things a little is the pre-release discussions of the i3 verses what was actually released to the USA buyer. To be fair, the listed capabilities were updated prior to first official sale to reflect reality. Range, I don't see it as much different than what is listed for any ICE out there...there's always a range of mpge or mpg depending on the driver, the weather, and the traffic situation. It's just that with an EV, you start with a much smaller tank than a typical ICE. If you bought it to replace an ICE and expected no compromises, you made a bad decision! It works quite well for what it was designed for. A big differentiator is creature comforts...on an ICE, heating is almost entirely a waste product...on an EV, it's fuel (energy) out of the battery. If you have a BEV and you have the heat pump, it's not much worse than cooling, but the REx does not come with a heat pump, so it is a 1:1 watt out to heat in the car. Throw in the colder it gets, and ANY battery has less capacity, and it can get messy if you can't precondition things or are taking lots of short stops with multiple needs to rewarm the interior.

5-years from now, once more people will have had a viable EV experience, the 'common' knowledge will be more accurate. Until then, it's buyer beware and it behooves any potential buyers to do their research.

 

[I33t]

Let down? BEV? Nope, it's better than expected.

Beats me why people with REX are answering a question about a BEV.

 

[psquare]

Beats me why people with REX are answering a question about a BEV.

This is almost funny.

 

[FrancisJeffries]

We love the car, despite a few niggles, the top of the list being that it has four times wound the windows down all by itself while still locked! :shock: The first two times it was pouring with rain overnight and it took 3 days to dry the car out. :evil: The last two times it was dry, so not quite as bad.
The BMW wind-down windows on long open-press on the fob is supposed to be preventable, but the dealer tried coding it out, and it didn't remove the "facility". But note: when the windows are down, the car is still locked, so it's a bug, and happens only rarely, thank God.
We still love the car though.

 

[hayleys900]

Few people ever read the manual. The iGeniuses here are very good indeed. And I get the stated ranges (in summer temperatures). Niggles? Yes a few but nothing more.

Hi Brian,

What niggles have you had?

Thanks
Hayley

 

[PluviaPlumbum]

Hayley seems to post like a journalist fishing for a bad news story.
Or if I'm mistaken perhaps Hayley can instead enlighten us with any issues you have had with your vehicle that led to your original post?

 

[hayleys900]

Hayley seems to post like a journalist fishing for a bad news story.
Or if I'm mistaken perhaps Hayley can instead enlighten us with any issues you have had with your vehicle that led to your original post?

Hi, I am not a journalist. I order my i3 Bev in Jan last year and it was ready on the 1st sept 2014. I really researched the car first and look at all the facts and figures quoted. I have a few probs with the car, the main being that tbe car was fully charged at 40 miles in eco pro+. Apparently it was a software problem, but since then the performance fron the car does not seem to be doing what has been quoted and tested. I just feel I either have lost some faith in the car

 

[noakey]

Awesome car... Just the range is not 80-120miles... Real world is 60 to 100..

 

[jadnashuanh]

Unless you route and routine is identical and symmetrical from one day to the next, the estimated range indicator is not going to represent reality. Let's take a fairly common situation...say you live on a hill or maybe near the exit of a major highway. When you've coming home, the last miles driven are done at high speed and maybe uphill. The estimate for the next day will be MUCH lower than reality for most people, depending on how far you actually drive because it is based on the last 18-miles of your driving, which may not represent reality, or the fact that in the morning, going downhill means your distance traveled per Kw is much higher than coming home.

So, anyone who focuses on the estimated range indication of reality, unless they've verified it in real life, is missing a lot of flexibility on the use of the car. It is not uncommon for me to drive maybe as many as 10-miles with the estimated range never going down based on different conditions, either traffic, route, load, or weather. Just like the estimated range to empty on an ICE is just a guess based on last driving, the GOM on the i3 is as well. Changing where and how you drive can make it change. Rely more on using the average miles/kw, and the nominal size of the battery pack, and you can get a better estimate which may be more current than the last 18-miles you drove.

This tends to be the major issue with any EV...added to the fact that there often aren't easy and fast charging opportunities, and you can never refill as fast as an ICE.

 

[noakey]

Unless you route and routine is identical and symmetrical from one day to the next, the estimated range indicator is not going to represent reality. Let's take a fairly common situation...say you live on a hill or maybe near the exit of a major highway. When you've coming home, the last miles driven are done at high speed and maybe uphill. The estimate for the next day will be MUCH lower than reality for most people, depending on how far you actually drive because it is based on the last 18-miles of your driving, which may not represent reality, or the fact that in the morning, going downhill means your distance traveled per Kw is much higher than coming home.

So, anyone who focuses on the estimated range indication of reality, unless they've verified it in real life, is missing a lot of flexibility on the use of the car. It is not uncommon for me to drive maybe as many as 10-miles with the estimated range never going down based on different conditions, either traffic, route, load, or weather. Just like the estimated range to empty on an ICE is just a guess based on last driving, the GOM on the i3 is as well. Changing where and how you drive can make it change. Rely more on using the average miles/kw, and the nominal size of the battery pack, and you can get a better estimate which may be more current than the last 18-miles you drove.

This tends to be the major issue with any EV...added to the fact that there often aren't easy and fast charging opportunities, and you can never refill as fast as an ICE.

Hi just wanted to note that my 60 to 100 mile range conclusion is resl world experience over 14,800 miles over 11 months.. personally i dont take much notice of the range indicator as there are so many unknowns. I use the bars as best i can... this is my fuel guage.

 

[hayleys900]

Thanks Everyone

 

[jadnashuanh]

Agreed, using the bars as an indication of how much power you've used is reliable. Using the estimated range to empty is only viable IF the conditions of your past and future driving are going to be the same...exactly the same way it works on an ICE. The MPG on my ICE can change radically if I say get caught in traffic verses driving down the open road...it has a range to empty indication, but it's almost useless under those varying conditions as is the one on the i3. It's the size of the 'tank' that gets people new to an EV all jumpy. Believe the gauge, not the range estimation. Know or learn your 'typical' use, and then relate it to the 'fuel' gauge. TO maintain a buffer, use your current average miles/Kw against the capacity of say 18Kw, and you should never get caught surprised (maybe disappointed, but that's another thing altogether).

Bought for use agreeing with the design, it isn't an issue. If you regularly stress the range equation, maybe it wasn't that great of a purchase decision. Lots of research showed an average daily use of 34-miles. Even on a really bad day, the i3 can do that with a nice margin. Expecting summer ranges in the middle of winter isn't realistic. Caveat Emptor.

 

[i3marc]

I love the car too... it is a HUGE JUMP to switch to pure electric drive. A lifestyle change, more akin to my days when I decided to only be a motorcyclist and did 200,000 miles on those in a few years.

You have to be a fanatic. The car is made as idiot proof and for the masses as possible, but there are still changes to make for those conditioned to a black goop from the ground sucking contraptions from their day of birth.

The way the range fluctuates and the way the battery can be more quickly drained at higher speed are 2 sticking factors but ultimately electric cars will be superior in every way.

 

[Boatguy]

I don't feel let down, but I do think BMW mis-represents the car.

- The range is really 60-80 for normal driving in California (i.e., a mix of around town and freeway); I've averaged 4.1kWh/mi for 6,000 miles.

- The owner's manual and other "official" communications are worthless at best and entirely mis-leading at worst (queue assistant in the US - nope but it's in the manual).

- The car has a variety of niggling issues; BMW can't do end user software (presumably they are doing a better job on the control s/w)

- My dealership is pretty clueless, my delivery "tour" described the removable ash tray as a coffee mug!

- BMW's insistence on routing everything through the dealer means there is a wide range of customer experiences. If your dealer isn't dedicated to electric (and electric isn't paying the bills for the dealers), you're essentially on your own, dependent on forums like this for real information.

- The car really is a mega-city car; that was the design brief and they did a great job. It shines in the city and around town, but it's pretty awful on the freeway compared to any ICE car in it's price range. Buy it for the city and you'll love it, buy it to drive 50 miles each way on the freeway every day and you'll be rationalizing your EV purchase every day.

I got my car for local trips, about a 30 mile radius from my home so we love it. Since most of our driving is within that radius the first person out of the house in the morning always takes the i3. For longer trips we never think twice about taking the i3. We play to it's strong suit.

I leased my car as a bridge to the smaller Tesla, the Model S is just too large for around town. So when my lease is up in 2 1/2 yrs I hope Tesla has something for me. I far prefer the Tesla mfg direct distribution model and Tesla is way ahead of BMW in s/w.