i3 (without REX) range deterioration

[bmwi3owner]

Is anyone else experiencing material deterioration with the range of your i3 (non REX)?

For the first 5 months of ownership I was consistently getting approx. 85-95 miles on a full charge in ECO PRO mode. Suddenly a month ago I experienced a deterioration. Sometimes getting as low as 59 miles range in ECO PRO on a full charge, sometimes 65-70 but nothing like before.

BMW has done a reset of the vehicle but it doesn't appear (yet) to have made a material impact. They are maintaining that there is nothing wrong with the performance (although they keep using the word 'currently' at the end of the sentence) and say that this is wholly down to the drop in ambient temperature. BMW has told me that I am not alone in experiencing this deterioration and that they have seen '5-10' cars with the same issues (he couldn't recall the exact number) but that of those 5-10 'only 2' have raised further concerns after the reset. It is quite concerning.

A 25 mile (c. 30%) reduction in performance due to slightly colder weather in London sounds hard to buy. Even if that is genuinely the entire cause, that in itself is worrying. BMW promised an 8 year guarantee of performance. In less than 1 year the performance has materially dropped.

BMW seems to be somewhat sweeping this under the carpet. I would like to know if others are experiencing similar deterioration?

Thanks

 

[noakey]

Is anyone else experiencing material deterioration with the range of your i3 (non REX)?

For the first 5 months of ownership I was consistently getting approx. 85-95 miles on a full charge in ECO PRO mode. Suddenly a month ago I experienced a deterioration. Sometimes getting as low as 59 miles range in ECO PRO on a full charge, sometimes 65-70 but nothing like before.

BMW has done a reset of the vehicle but it doesn't appear (yet) to have made a material impact. They are maintaining that there is nothing wrong with the performance (although they keep using the word 'currently' at the end of the sentence) and say that this is wholly down to the drop in ambient temperature. BMW has told me that I am not alone in experiencing this deterioration and that they have seen '5-10' cars with the same issues (he couldn't recall the exact number) but that of those 5-10 'only 2' have raised further concerns after the reset. It is quite concerning.

A 25 mile (c. 30%) reduction in performance due to slightly colder weather in London sounds hard to buy. Even if that is genuinely the entire cause, that in itself is worrying. BMW promised an 8 year guarantee of performance. In less than 1 year the performance has materially dropped.

BMW seems to be somewhat sweeping this under the carpet. I would like to know if others are experiencing similar deterioration?

Thanks

Hi... am uk owner with 7000 miles on bev... same 56 mile round trip commute each day. Normally return home with 30 mile indicated range... only noticed a 1-2 mile deterioration since the cooler weather.. i run eco pro with cabin temp 17 celcius.

 

[pastyboy]

I am in UK also. I have not had any reset or upgrade since collecting the car in second week of September, unless it was done remotely. I know it is only a guessometer but the GOM started off giving me about 78 miles range on full charge. About three weeks ago it suddenly dropped to a regular 65 miles and sometimes goes as low as 59. I cannot say the weather has been especially cold yet, in fact today is quite mild. I am disappointed about the range, which is not as good as the demonstrator I borrowed and I cannot help but wonder if BMW are trying to limit it a bit now so that they can raise it later and tell us that we are still within 70%, therefore not having to pay for new batteries. Or am I just a cynical old git...................?

 

[noakey]

I am in UK also. I have not had any reset or upgrade since collecting the car in second week of September, unless it was done remotely. I know it is only a guessometer but the GOM started off giving me about 78 miles range on full charge. About three weeks ago it suddenly dropped to a regular 65 miles and sometimes goes as low as 59. I cannot say the weather has been especially cold yet, in fact today is quite mild. I am disappointed about the range, which is not as good as the demonstrator I borrowed and I cannot help but wonder if BMW are trying to limit it a bit now so that they can raise it later and tell us that we are still within 70%, therefore not having to pay for new batteries. Or am I just a cynical old git...................?

Well given that the marketing indicates 80 to 120 miles, I would think 70% would be 70% of 80miles.. ie.. 56miles... oh.. exactly my commute!

 

[Bunter]

See this thread

http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1775&start=50

A big sudden drop in range prediction for me over the last 3 weeks that does not correlate with temperature changes. I have owned the car since March and have plenty of experience of driving it in the 8-12 C temp range. Also now there is no difference between Comfort, Eco Pro or Eco Pro plus. If I look at the car whilst it's pre-warming it predicts 80 miles but by the time I get in it is down to 65 miles. The car is topping off the charge to replace the energy used to pre-warm, I can see it doing this on my house energy monitor.

Something is broken and I suspect it is server side rather than car side.

Bill

 

[MangoSD]

I'm in San Diego California and weather has been in the 70's F all month. My i3 is one month old. The first few weeks the display was giving me an 82 mile range on a full charge. Now that number has dropped to 72. After driving only 2 miles, the range drops another 6-10 miles. I just called dealership and they want me to bring the car back and leave it for a few days which I will do. I'm not happy at all about this. I can't even make it roundtrip to work at 64 miles. I drive ecoplus and I have the BMW charging station in my garage.

 

[noakey]

I'm in San Diego California and weather has been in the 70's F all month. My i3 is one month old. The first few weeks the display was giving me an 82 mile range on a full charge. Now that number has dropped to 72. After driving only 2 miles, the range drops another 6-10 miles. I just called dealership and they want me to bring the car back and leave it for a few days which I will do. I'm not happy at all about this. I can't even make it roundtrip to work at 64 miles. I drive ecoplus and I have the BMW charging station in my garage.

Remember the range predictor is an advanced guessometer... My i3 often said 85 miles range for my 72 mile trip.. then dropped to 54 miles after 2 mins driving... but I still made it back with 15+ miles remaining...

It may be a fault in yours or just a guessometer thing. ..

 

[jadnashuanh]

You could sort of think the range prediction as a fuel gauge, but one that is based on your last driving. On an ICE, you look and see that you have 1/2-tank and you could guess how far you can go before it is empty, but that can be a big difference based on the driving conditions: stuck idling in traffic verses cruising along the interstate with no traffic...in one case, your guess might be way off, in the other, off the other way. IOW, the car is guessing, based on past driving, the weather, and probably some other factors how you'll drive, and that may or may not be the case at all.

If your last bit of driving was aggressive, your indicated range could be lower, even though you don't drive that way all of the time. If you last bit of driving was grandma style, you range estimation could be quite optimistic, unless you actually drive that way all of the time. The car has 18.8Kw of energy, and you can go to your info display and see what your average mile/Kw is, mine typically is in the range of 4.3 or so, so 4.3*18.8=80.84. Try that on yours, and it may be a big difference from the range predictor.

 

[websterize]

I would love a % state-of-charge indicator in the instrument cluster. One of the few things a newer Leaf does better than the i3.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The bar graphs are pretty realistic...each section representing 25% of battery capacity. I think the REx has that % number available, I have heard that it may become generally available on both models after the next s/w update, probably coming out in the next couple of months. The power usage since the last charge is available on the instrument panel IF you've selected it as an option in I-drive via the switch on the end of the left-hand stalk as miles/Kw (or Km/Kw, depending on your units).

 

[jelloslug]

This is why a real SoC readout is needed.

 

[WoodlandHills]

There are two problems here: the number under discussion is just a guess by a computer and without a REX no one will ever drive to zero to find out how accurate that guess might be on any given day.

If there truly is a range degradation issue it will be found by REX owners who drive their cars down to REX start as a matter of routine. What BEV owner would risk stranding to find out if the Guess-o-meter really correct about having 5 miles left.....

 

[MangoSD]

Jim - thanks for all the excellent explanations. You know a lot more that the dealership service department!

I checked as you suggested and my consumption per k/Wh is 4.1 so I am actually getting the range that I wanted. I have to remind myself to pay more attention to the bars than the guess-o-meter!

 

[AlexAtlantaEV]

I have the i3 BEV and got some real going the distance field study type driving today haha when I pulled into the garage with 3 miles left on the guessometer. I made it though! Was interesting to see the warnings at 15 miles, then 8 miles when everything went yellow and warning. I guess I was satisfied though that at 3 miles I was still going ok and able to get home.

It got real cold real fast tonight here from earlier today which I think I lost about 10-12 miles off the charge from that. I'd say my mileage today was about 80, and hitting closer to 90-95 on average.