moving to EU with i3 REX

I am planning to move to Holland by the end of this year and would like to bring my USA bought 2014 i3 REX. My i3 doesn't have the quick charge option, only the J1772 plug. I've noticed that in the EU they have a IEC 62196 type 2 plug. Are there adapters? can I charge my i3 in Holland?

The electrical protocols are the same, but two things seem to come up from others I've read here - some of the EVSE's available utilize 3-phase power, and using one phase may be problematic, since it can put an unbalanced load on the mains, and that's not allowed. The upcoming version for the EU seems to have added that capability. While possible, I've not seen a plug adapter. If it were done with a two-headed cable, it would be fairly costly as the plugs themselves are not inexpensive. It would only need to be passive, not active. I may have gotten that 3-phase part confused with Belgium. The Menikes (sp?) plug has internal shutters to protect the power contacts when not plugged in. The J1772 connector relies on the logic to ensure there's no power applied until the plug is installed. I do not know if the plug locking pin functionality would work. I do know, at least awhile ago, BMWUSA would not sell an i3 for European delivery because of the charging issues. FWIW, the J1772 protocol allows 3-phase charging, its just that the i3 does not have those pins in its socket, or the hardware inside to support it as sold here. You'd need to get the radio reprogrammed to account for the different channel spacing, or your FM radio reception would be wonky - likely hit or miss, if at all, and I think their HD radio signals are also different, so that may or may not function. I think the AM radio portion is enabled in Europe, but it is not available in the USA without programming. The on-board cellular connection may or may not work, so if you have real-time traffic, that may not work. You'd have to buy new maps, but that's relatively inexpensive, assuming you do it yourself verses take it to a dealer.

The EU has different rules on lighting than the US, and that might be an issue. You'd want to pick up a warning triangle and first aid kit to be compliant during travels.

You will also need to get import Type approval and may well be taxed on importation, aside from the lighting regulations mentioned you would also need to change over from Miles to KM on the speedo. Short answer is... it is probably better to just sell up and repurchase an i3 in the Netherlands rather than pay the shipping costs and other charges that may apply.

For what it's worth, we imported a U.S. Honda into the E.U. in 2009. It was a painless process that cost very little more than the shipping cost. Because our car was not new, we did not have to pay an import duty.

The E.U. allowed only white parking lights in the front. In the front, our Honda had 2 front-facing white and 2 side-facing yellow parking lights. There was no E.U. requirement for white side-facing front parking lights, so I just removed the bulbs in the yellow lights to make our Honda's lighting E.U.-compliant.

Photos of E.U. i3's show no side marker reflectors that U.S. models have in front of the front wheels and behind the rear wheels. If the E.U. doesn't like these reflectors, you could do as some in the U.S. have done and simply paint or vinyl wrap them.

You wouldn't have the more adaptive LED low-beam headlights that were optional on E.U. models, but your headlights should be E.U.-compliant.

Our Honda's instrument panel could be changed between metric and English units by pressing a button, so the metric instrument panel requirement was easily satisfied. Can't the i3's instrument panel be switched between metric and English units?

Our U.S. radio seems to work just as well in Sweden as it did in the U.S. with no AM or FM tuning problems. It's 16 years old, so it doesn't receive HD radio signals, but the i3's much newer radio should. I suppose there could be some frequency differences that might cause some problems.

The biggest problem would likely be charging. The 120 v. North American Occasional Use Charger would not work with the E.U.'s 230 v. power. You might be able to have the J1772 port replaced by a IEC 62196 type 2 port, but BMW is probably very proud of this port (i.e., doing so might be expensive). Not having the DCQC option could be quite limiting in The Netherlands with its reportedly excellent DCQC infrastructure. Adding DCQC would likely be very expensive, if even possible.

It's likely that the U.S. warranty on your i3 won't be valid in The Netherlands which could result in a significant unplanned expense.

Some incentives available to Dutch i3's might not be available to yours because it doesn't have an E.U. certification and can't easily get one. Our Honda's CO2 emissions are so low that it would be exempt from paying the annual registration tax in Sweden. But because it is not an E.U.-certified car, we must pay the annual registration tax of a car that emits more than twice the CO2 as our car.

With a low resale value, selling your U.S. i3 and buying a used Dutch i3, whose resale value might be higher if the initial purchase price was higher, could be a very expensive option. But then shipping your i3 to The Netherlands would be a significant cost as well.
Tough decision! Good luck!

On the FM radio, the channel center point and steps between channels is different between the USA and at least most of Europe. Some line up, some don't. It's possible the car might figure this out, but on the several portable, digital tuning radios I have, they have an internal switch to step at and stop at the required intervals. An older, analog tuner would not have any problems, but a digital one could. The station ID info may not be encoded the same, and would be missing.

The headlight patterns are different, but may or may not be a deal breaker. Many of the EU vehicles have a different function on the turn signal to allow marker lights to be used on one side or the other when actually parking that the US vehicle doesn't support. It's fairly simple to switch the miles-Km on the readout as a user option. I'm guessing that the bumpers are the same, but they may not be - EU has different requirements. THey probably allow personal import, but you might not be able to sell the vehicle there. Unless you're in a job that might be exempt, you'd probably have to pay the VAT, which is a pretty significant hit. The duty in the US is about 3%, and sales taxes vary a lot from none to maybe in the 10% range, depending on where you live, but VAT is often closer to 20%, and you wouldn't get credit for the US duty or sales tax already paid.

The tires might not have the proper markings for the EU.

Long time ago, I imported a car to Europe, but I was a contractor for the US military, so was exempt from most of the tax and other issues. Times change. FWIW, at that time, it cost me almost twice as much to ship it back as it did to get the car there (long story, I'd planned to sell it before I left, but the trip got cut short, and I didn't have time).

jadnashuanh said:

THey probably allow personal import, but you might not be able to sell the vehicle there.

Click to expand...

I think personal import is the key. Many of the differences that you have listed don't seem to disqualify a vehicle imported for personal use, or at least they didn't in 2009 when I had my E.U. import experience. The tires on my imported car aren't approved for sale in the E.U., but I wasn't forced to replace these tires. In fact, I imported 4 more of these non-E.U. tires several years later and a Swedish tire dealer installed them without hesitation.

As car manufacturers sell their cars in more markets, they are probably doing what they can to minimize the differences between their cars intended for different markets. I think the O.P. has more difficult problems to consider with his proposed import than the E.U.'s import requirements.