Hi, we're about to buy an i3 in the UK

[i3evie]

Hi all, we're new to the EV thing, but feel it's time we jumped on. Just had a very enjoyable three day extended test drive of an i3 (not the i3s) from our local BM dealer this week and we were very impressed with it. It was great to be able to drive it on familiar roads and take it home for a couple of overnight trickle-charges through the three-pin wall plug in the garage.

Loved the handling, the silence, the re-gen (oooooh, the re-gen!), the modern carefully thought out style and practicality, the cloth interior materials and the quality of the switches etc, the light airy cabin and the great visibility. Looking to buy a good value used example so currently searching all the dealer approved used listings, as well as the Autotrader site. The one we tested was blue, on a '67 plate, with the larger battery and the REx, but we're most likely going to go for an older one with the smaller battery and either with or without the REx, because we think it'll still cover our 25 mile each-way daily commute.

'Likes to have' would be the diamond cut 19" wheels, the park assist package (for the rear camera) and maybe the larger (full-width) media screen, maybe in white, silver or grey - so not too much to ask then

We're excited to find we liked the car so much as we'd previously assumed we'd be going with the older shape Leaf, but once we drove it we were very taken with the feel and it's much more innovative styling.

Be very grateful to hear of any particular things to watch out for with buying a pre-owned i3, so please let us know if you've had any experiences (good or bad) that might be of help. Thanks for reading my first post intro - hope I'm posting it to the right section of the forum.

 

[alohart]

If your planned use of an i3 would be satisfied a high percentage of time by an i3 BEV, you'd avoid the additional complexity and apparently lower reliability of the REx system.

If you can avoid 2013-2014 models, you'd probably experience greater reliability although many of the early problems should have been repaired during the warranty period.

19" tires provide a more comfortable ride and better pothole protection for the wheels.

 

[LithiumKid]

Hi i3evie,

I just purchased an i3 BEV (33kwh/94Ah) in mid June. (My wife and I absolutely love it.)

I spent a few months monitoring the used UK BMW web-site waiting for the correct specification to turn up at a sensible price.

As previously mentioned avoiding the REX will save you purchase costs, servicing costs and remove components which are inherently less reliable than the batteries/electric motor. The BEVs are rather rare.

I spoke to three dealers in the course of the purchase. Only one was knowledgeable sadly.

I eventually purchased a high specification vehicle, but sadly without the Park pack. I still cannot accurately gauge the length of the nose (its way shorter than my instincts tell me, every time). Reversing is not so difficult, the distance beepers are very accurate.

In the weather of the last month the vehicle has returned 5.5 miles per kwh. (160 range). That however is gentle town motoring with little heating or A/C usage. The Harmon Kardon system is always on loudish though (it does affect range!). I expect that will drop to 140 range in more typical usage.

Charging via a normal mains plug is working fine. A full charge can be obtained overnight (12 hours). For flexability we are having a 7KW fast charger installed. (£200 after grant). There may be more electric vehicles in our future!

Shout out if you have any more specific questions.

Regards

 

[i3evie]

Thanks for your insights Art and LithiumKid, good advice and appreciate your replies. Will be keeping an eye on the listings, hopefully a car that ticks all the boxes will turn up if we just bide our time. Thinking along the lines of 94Ah without REx, which should be plenty sufficient and future-proof us for a little while. Quite happy to recharge overnight via the 3-pin, at least to begin with. 5.5 miles/kwh sounds pretty good LK, reckon we'd be happy with 4+ but you've given us something to aim for there

May well be looking to add All Season tyres when we eventually get ours, they would definitely help us negotiate the last half mile of track up to the house, especially over the winter months; we live out in the wilds a bit, rural North Yorkshire.

Couldn't believe how effortlessly the test-drive i3 munched it's way up the steep hill gradients we have around here, almost like it didn't even notice them. The battery range did fall a bit, but we managed to make some of that back up again on the re-gen down the other side, so don't think it would be too much of a problem.

I know we're going to have more questions as time goes on, so thanks again. Great little forum you've got going here!

Evie

 

[alohart]

May well be looking to add All Season tyres when we eventually get ours, they would definitely help us negotiate the last half mile of track up to the house, especially over the winter months; we live out in the wilds a bit, rural North Yorkshire.

To date, only summer tires are available in 20" (i.e., no all-season or winter tires). Summer, all-season, and winter tires are available in 19". Except for winter tires, all are low-rolling resistance tires designed to maximize range which is best for limited-range EV's like the i3.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, it's my understanding that the two winter tires available for the i3 are low-rolling resistance (well, any winter tire will likely be worse than a summer or all-season, but compared to 'normal' tires, they're good). Bridgestone is the OEM tire supplier, but Nokian does make a good winter tire for the i3. I've not tried the Nokian one, but if I own mine long enough, will probably try them next.

 

[LithiumKid]

Hi,

One further thought arising from your remote god's county location!

The pre-conditioning feature is very valuable for range maximisation and comfort. (Warm batteries extend the range and the working life of the batteries). Warm/Cooled interior means no big initial power draw from the batteries and no screen defrosting.

The catch is that it can need more juice than a three pin can provide. The draw of power to heat the batteries and the interior can be in excess of 2.5 Kwh. However the 7kwh chargers will provide this easily.

I would now cost in the installation of a 7kwh charger as a given.

 

[i3evie]

Thanks for your further thoughts. Yes, I'd picked up on the 19" rims offering the better range of options for tyres than the 20". We're looking at a car on 19" rims anyway, just for the extra wall depth protection. We have a half-mile long gravelly/stoney access track up to the house, so 19"s would be much more practical.

I've been looking at the Ecopia 600 all season tyres .... http://www.minimumtread.com/bridgestone-ecopia-ep600-review.html .... not sure of their availability, but a quick google search also mentioned the Bridgestone Blizzak LM500 and Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 as well, though these are both M+S and snowflake 'winters' only. Ideally I'm trying to avoid having to change tyres between summer and winter months if possible. I'd prefer to have all seasons so that I can run them all year round. The biggest surprise was discovering the front wheels are slightly narrower (155/70) than the rear tyres (175/60). I'm not quite clear on whether this only applies to REx equiped cars though, because of the slightly increased weight of the REx, or whether the electric-only BEV also has this width differential too?

I wasn't aware that pre-conditioning the battery from an overnight 3-pin 13amp supply could be problematic, so thanks for the heads-up on that 'LK'. I'm sure a 7kwh wall charger would most probably be on our shopping list anyway, once we've got used to living with the i3 a while.

 

[alohart]

I've been looking at the Ecopia 600 all season tyres .... http://www.minimumtread.com/bridgestone-ecopia-ep600-review.html .... not sure of their availability,

For what it's worth, the all-season EP600 is the standard 19" tire in the U.S. with the summer EP500 in limited supply.

The biggest surprise was discovering the front wheels are slightly narrower (155/70) than the rear tyres (175/60). I'm not quite clear on whether this only applies to REx equiped cars though, because of the slightly increased weight of the REx, or whether the electric-only BEV also has this width differential too?

The only i3 with the same 155 tires in the front and rear is the BEV with the 427 "pizza slice" wheels. All BEV's with different wheels and all REx's have wider wheels and tires in the rear. I think this is true in all markets.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The 'square' tire/wheel setup is standard on the base i3...all of the others use the staggered setup. If you do decide you ever want winter tires, though, they are (currently) only available in the narrower version which doesn't work on the wider, rear wheels.

On the REx, don't think it's the extra weight that requires the wider tires as BMW lists the square tire/wheel setup for winter use.

FWIW, the shocks and springs are different between the BEV and the REx to account for the extra weight so that the car rides the same height and level.

 

[i3evie]

Thanks Art and Jim, the interweb is a wonderful thing, from Honolulu and New Hampshire, all the way to Yorkshire ....it's good to be able to tap into your wealth of knowledge

(...oh, and I like that description, "pizza slice wheels", does what it says! )

 

[Mick787]

I don't know if you have bought an i3, we are in the UK and are just entering our second week of ownership. We decided on a REX to remove 'range anxiety'. We have since found out that the cable from our consumer unit to the garage is not rated high enough to be able to install a rapid charger, so if you have any concerns, I'd advise to check this in the event your planned use of the vehicle will require charging each day, especially if you want to use Economy 7. We now have to replace the cable which won't be an easy or cheap job. Until then we just have to ensure we start charging early enough to give us the range needed to run without the REX kicking in.
Our salesman had limited knowledge about the car and actually gave us wrong information. We have spent extra and bought the servicing package which would be a 'no brainer' if your car is eligible for it. (Ours is an ex company staff car, (CBS), with a mere £4k mikes on it). We got it at a good price. The salesman told us it (the service package), would not be worth it, having done the math, he was VERY wrong!
Do we regret buying it, no way, its a superb car. bought to be our second car and used for commuting it appears to be the perfect car.

 

[i3evie]

Hi Mick, thanks for your message and congratulations on your purchase. We haven't made a decision yet, we're still looking for the right car with the right features and mileage. There have been two or three possibles, but each time there have been compromises that we weren't quite happy enough with, so we'll continue our search 'til the right one comes along.

I've been following your thread where you described your cabling issue with your detached garage and I can empathise. We are in a similar situation, the garage is supplied by a lower rated cable than the fast charger would require. However, we think the normal 13amp trickle charge supply from the 3-pin plug will suffice for our charging needs. We'll just plug in when we get home and leave it to top-up until the following morning. We would look into getting the supply uprated for the future if we get along well with having the car. I'm sure most people find themselves in exactly this situation when first changing to an EV; domestic garages won't often have high capacity supplies unless specifically built that way. Ours is an older property, so the wiring predates all this solar/EV stuff, but I'm sure we will get there eventually.

Like you we've found the dealers to be welcoming and enthusiastic but rather limited in their knowledge of the cars. Our salesman didn't even know if the i3 was front or rear wheel drive when we first looked - we told him!!

Can't wait to get sorted, we've set our hearts on having an i3 and we're looking forward to driving the future

 

[jadnashuanh]

In the states, some places are now requiring prewiring for an EVSE in new houses. Given the likelihood a lot of cars will require it in the next 5-10 years, it seems like a reasonable thing. Should I ever get around to selling my place, it may make it a bit easier to sell, so won't be a detriment.

13A * 230vac = 2990W, so about 40% of the maximum the i3 can currently handle. Suggest you consider planning for an even larger load, even if you opt for a 32A EVSE, since, eventually, you'll probably want a larger one as batteries get bigger and their on-board charging capabilities increase to match, should you want to upgrade to a larger EVSE sometime in the future...run the wiring once.

The new Audi coming out early next year will be able to handle 150Kw, but only on a CCS (DC) input. They haven't indicated how big of an EVSE it can handle yet, but larger systems are coming, from all companies. I seriously doubt a typical home would ever have the capacity to handle a CCS unit, though! Maybe a mansion, but then, they may be able to afford it. AN EVSE is essentially a fancy switch...a CCS unit is a monster DC power supply...major difference.

 

[Mick787]

i3Evie, We felt the same way, there was no real need for the rapid charge facility, however, a couple of weeks into ownership, we are moving forward and progressing with the higher rated supply cable for the garage and new garage consumer unit. A 4 hour charge time during Economy 7 is the big draw factor. It is there if we need it. Cost wise, on a 40 mtr underground cable run, we are looking at Just over £1000 including the charging point and Government grant. Please bear in mind, we were told that the Government grant is ending, (at the end of the year?) Steel wired armoured cable does not come cheap! It has to be a minimum 3 core 6mm, we are going for 10mm to give us a bit of extra capacity. If you fully intend to go electric, then I'd seriously consider having the point installed before buying the car and utilising the grant. Its not to be sniffed at! I think I'm right in saying you don't need to have a car in order to benefit from the grant. I've heard of one couple who had a point fitted when the installation was totally free and they still haven't got an EV!
Re using the car, it is an absolute joy. When you start to look at it, you can see the thought that has gone into producing it. It is our second car and the only thing I can see bad about it re design is the lack of run on flat tyres. That is a subject I am looking into and if they become available would seriously consider having them fitted, subject to any warranty issues.
Please take time to have a rummage around on the forums, re service plans and what the servicing costs are. We weren't offered one, despite being eligible. Thankfully I persevered and saved ourselves a fortune by taking up the offer.

 

[i3evie]

Thanks Mick, I'm sure you're right about upgrading the electric supply and it is definitely something that we will look at doing, going forward. Your installation sounds good, if you're going to the expense of having a new underground cable laid then your 10mm supply cable should allow for plenty of draw and will undoubtedly future-proof you too, might as well do it once and do it properly. However, I don't think the £500 OLEV domestic grant is available if you haven't already ordered or own an EV or PHEV, so we may not be able to apply before we purchase, but we'll definitely make use of it if we can.

I agree with you about the thought that has gone into the whole design of the i3, it seems far more appealing than the other comparably priced choices. With regards to the BMW service plan that you purchased, do you know if that is something which is available on all approved used vehicles that can be bought through the BMW dealership network, or does it only apply to cars under a certain age limit?

 

[Mick787]

Hi i3evie, sorry, I have no idea about the service plan, other than the car must not have had its first service. Something tells me we were fortunate because the car had previously been in the care of a BMW staff member for a few months before going to the dealership. If you can find one of these on the forecourt of a main dealer, take the mileage listed on the advert with a pinch of salt. The one we chose was advertised with 6000 miles, it actually had just 4500.
Re the supply cable, it gives you a rough idea of cost. Yes, a 10mm cable will give us the option to go to 50a if we ever found the need. We have decided to go for a non tethered unit and managed to pick up a cable at a good price from a main dealer who was selling them on a well known auction site at a good price. The box just had minor cosmetic damage. Bargain! Hope you find what you are looking for. It is a brilliant car.