Correct! The 120 Ah battery pack is only 40 kg. heavier than the 60 Ah battery pack.
Several European and Chinese mechanics seem to have figured out how to upgrade i3 battery packs without problems, apparently even including higher capacity battery cells that were never installed in i3's by BMW. Whether U.S. i3 owners will ever benefit from these upgrades remains uncertain.
Not sure it is a good idea to tow any electric vehicle. When they are towed all four wheels up and not just the front two. The rear wheels in the i3 are directly connected to the electric motor as I recall. No tranny. If you really meant a trailer hitch, there is one aftermarket one but the load must be small (e.g., bike rack). You cannot get much support because it is not a good idea to drill holes into a carbon fiber frame.
Yes. There were samsung battery cells in the i3 as I recall. If you get someone to upgrade the samsung battery cells to solid state, they would have more universal usage and possibly lower costs. But getting the software upgraded to support the updated cells would be a problem with BMW. BMW is not looking back. They want to sell new cars. Maybe if right to repair takes off, there may be some accommodation some day.
I think that you can determine via BMW how many i3's were sold in the US. I would imagine that it was half of the total of 50,000 cars. Many of these cars, like my wife's, is a REX. This car was originally envisioned as a metro vehicle. My wife loves it and at some point, probably when the battery range gets down to about 35 miles, I will want to get the battery replace. We have a 2015 and it is still at around 60 miles of electric range but likely to deteriorate more quickly. I can tell you that most i3 owners love their cars and would be happy to spend upwards of 6k to replace the batteries. Someone could readily open up one location in the US and they would be very busy.
Of course, nobody outside BMW knows in detail the profitability of the i3 to the company, but there seems to be plenty of evidence that it simply wasn't profitable for them.
That in itself is a problem for BMW. The one thing that the EV market is not short of is SUVs - there is nothing distinctive about an SUV for them, and SUV style cars are heading down-market. That's not where BMW can afford to be, because the Chinese will obliterate them if they try to hold onto the cheaper/smaller end of the market.
The question is a bit loaded and limits a lot of owners.
I'd much rather have much less than 500-600 miles range and a much, much lighter EV. Improvements in charge density might never result in a 500-600 mile EV that I'd want to drive. Our 2000 Honda Insight hybrid had a 600+ mile highway range and weighed just over 1,900 lb., so it was very light and agile. The hope is that the public and private charging infrastructure and the DC charging power will increase enough that stopping to charge every 200 miles would not be an objectionable experience. That's when EV's will take overtake ICE vehicle sales and become mainstream.
Considering its lightweight, strong, corrosion-resistant, expensive aluminum, CFRP, and thermoplastic construction, I considered the i3's new price fair compared with the alternatives. But then I also considered the $20k new price of a 2000 Honda Insight hybrid to be fair considering its lightweight, corrosion-resistant, expensive, all-aluminum construction and extreme fuel efficiency.
That would be fantastic because I really love my 2015 i3 please keep me posted thanks (Dan Ewing)
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