Second live with double range for the i3 60Ah?

[JoeCool88]

The BMW i3 is one of the rare BEV on the market, where modern technologies like carbon fibre composite structure, a lightweight aluminium chassis, plastis parts etc. are used, and at the same time each HV battery installed, whether it is the 60 Ah, 94 Ah or 120 Ah type, has exactly the same external dimensions. Could early 60 Ah models because of their low range be considered to be of low value on the retail market, a further degradation of the 60 Ah battery most probably means their end. Battery degradation is and will be an issue on all BEV. But on the i3 it's not only the replacement, it's an upgrade to double range, which could be considered plug-and-play. So we will most probably see a growing market for battery replacement on the i3 in the future. E. g. Mandrill (mandrill-automotive.de) offers such an upgrade from 60 or 94 to 120 Ah, for roughly 13.6 TEuro. Together with their battery specialist Lion Smart they could tune the capacity even up to 147 Ah, using NMC911 cell chemistry, they say. This means some 400 km range, together with a better battery cell stability and lifetime, according to them. If it's preferable to invest in a car that you know well since years, or to loose about the same amount of money in the first two years when buying a new BEV, everyone has to decide on his own.