Roof Rack

Has anyone seen or know about any roof rack options. I live close to a SKI resort, and would love to take the skis to the slopes on top of the i3, without breaking them in two...

We nearly bought an i3. Two issues stopped us. The main issue was the reduced size of the REx fuel tank in the U.S. version, 7 liters vs. 9 liters in the Euro version. Speculation is that the smaller U.S. tank was installed to qualify the car as BEVx under CARB rules.

But that wasn't your question. A second issue for us was the lack of an available rack for the car. I carry one or two bicycles quite often, and wanted a bike rack. The salesman we were dealing with said he was confident that BMW would eventually offer a rack for the i3 (though they don't offer one now) because he's been with BMW for 20-odd years and they've offered a rack for every model he's ever seen. Not willing to rely on that speculative answer, and well aware that the i3 is also a very different car than "every model he's ever seen", I asked someone else at the dealership to check into it. Here's his reply: "Bike Rack: I contacted the BMW Accessory Product Manager for the i3, his response as follows, "The internal decision was made very early to not offer a bike rack for this vehicle". Since racks generally work by installing parts specific to a particular car that will then attach to standard bars, I think it's safe to assume that if there's to be no bike rack, there won't be a ski rack either. Impossible to imagine they'd offer one without the other. Since our other car uses a Yakima rack, and they have great customer service, I called Yakima. Their answer was to the effect that there are many other (higher-volume) cars for which Yakima hasn't yet developed the necessary parts to mount Yakima racks. The i3 would we way down on their to-do list, and I shouldn't expect to see a rack from Yakima for this car.

Sorry it's not the answer you want, but I hope it helps.

Most of the more modern BMW's that support a roof rack come from the factory with 4 attachment points in the roof or already have rails on the roof. Those don't seem to exist on the i3, so if they were to offer one, it would have to be unique. The other ones, pretty much are interchangeable, except for the length of the cross-bar. I'm not sure how well a hook-like attachment would work as is used in many of the aftermarket racks nor how well the CFRP would like the point loads.

Have you considered just taking the front wheel off and seeing if it would fit in the back with the seats folded down? I have a recumbent trike (it folds), and it does fit in the back. The alternative would be to see if one of the rear mounted racks might fit. Personally, I don't really like it on the roof - I've been in a hurry and had a couple of incidents with the overhanging deck and garage door! So, I stopped carrying it on the top of mine. I was able to install a trailer hitch, and use a basket back there to hold the trike, but it would just as easily hold a bike rack. FWIW, a trike rack would have cost 4x what the basket cost me, and works just fine for what I need.

Personally, given the generator capacity of the REx, if I regularly needed to drive longer than the battery would last, I'd look into a different car. The thing can work as a longer distance transport, but I would not rely on it for regular use. One of the big benefits of a pure EV is not having to worry about oil changes, mufflers, coolant, spark plugs, etc. That's lost when you add the REx. Keep in mind that gasoline doesn't age all that well, and if you rarely used the REx (in the USA, you can't even manually turn it on until the battery is nearly shot), when it finally was needed, it might be quite stale, and not perform very well.

see this thread - My bike will fit in the back of an i3 with the front wheel off (very similar to my 3 series).

http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=934&p=7999&hilit=bike#p7999

If you need more than one bike on the roof - in the same thread someone posted this product and it suctions to the front window and looks like it would work as well.

http://www.seasucker.com/product-category/bike-racks/

Hope that helps

Yes, we concluded that a bike with the front wheel off would fit in the back of the i3 with the rear seats folded. That's based on measurements; we didn't actually try it. That's why the lack of a rack was a negative but not a show stopper.

I know this is off the subject of roof rack, but I'd like to comment on jadnashuanh's comment : "Personally, given the generator capacity of the REx, if I regularly needed to drive longer than the battery would last, I'd look into a different car. The thing can work as a longer distance transport, but I would not rely on it for regular use. One of the big benefits of a pure EV is not having to worry about oil changes, mufflers, coolant, spark plugs, etc. That's lost when you add the REx. Keep in mind that gasoline doesn't age all that well, and if you rarely used the REx (in the USA, you can't even manually turn it on until the battery is nearly shot), when it finally was needed, it might be quite stale, and not perform very well."

Here's a different perspective on your excellent observation that the gas in the tank will get old. First question: do you need or want the REx? We live in Arizona where distances between destinations can be long and the charging network is likely to develop more slowly than in areas where there's simply a greater density of both people and electric cars. For these reasons, we've concluded that we want the REx. I know, it would be nice to be free of oil changes and other ICE annoyances, but we honestly think the REx will better suit our planned use of the car. We've also speculated that if we have the REx, we'll probably actually drive more electric miles, because we'll take the i3 rather than our other car for trips that are close to or might exceed the range of the i3 BEV. We've even entertained the possibility that the i3 could be our only car as we rarely take road trips and could rent or borrow a conventional car when needed.

So if the answer to the first question is yes, that we're getting the REx, then the second question is how to deal with the stale gas problem. Here's where I disagree with your observation that if you "regularly needed to drive longer than the battery would last, . . . [you'd] look into a different car." In fact, if you assume you're going to have the REx, then for the reason you mention (stale gas), it's actually better to use it from time to time. Not sure what you mean by "regularly" and you don't say why you wouldn't rely on it for regular use, but we would expect to drive the car about 200 miles in one day about once or, rarely, twice in a month. That sounds like just about the right frequency to keep the gas fresh. Better that than to carry that gas around and never use it, right?

pdurham said:

Yes, we concluded that a bike with the front wheel off would fit in the back of the i3 with the rear seats folded. That's based on measurements; we didn't actually try it. That's why the lack of a rack was a negative but not a show stopper.

Click to expand...

This was in another post...

http://paulchensystem.net/products/en/bike-carrier/bmw/i3.html

Long, highway trips are not the best use of the an i3. The generator, even at its highest output level will not keep things fully charged if the load is high (like going up a long climb with the heaters on at speed). The generator and motor are sized for keeping things going on the flat. So, while you certainly can take it on longer trips (one blogger in Europe did over 1,000 miles), you do not have the flexibility of when you turn on the REx in the USA.

The other big issue where the i3 comes into its own, is that it is as efficient in the first mile as the last (if you can precondition things before leaving on the external power). The REx, since it is small, should come up to temperature fairly quickly, but still isn't at its best until it does get there. The vehicle is designed for shorter trips, and it is my belief that they added the REx to overcome the fear of running out of power with no way to recharge along the way. For that, it certainly works. But, stretching the maximum range on a regular basis just isn't what it was designed for.

An ICE on a longer highway trip, once it is fully warmed up and just cruising down the road is pretty efficient, and some similarly sized vehicles can beat the mpg of the i3 when running on the REx's power output. And, that ICE will not have to turn off the heating or a/c or limit its speed while going up that mountain grade, even though coming back down again may restore a lot of that lost energy.

I have not bought an i3 (yet), have a nice ICE that works for me on longer trips, and my normal routine is almost all short trips...an ideal situation for something like the i3.

Can it work for you? Maybe, but you might find the design parameters and limitations when trying to use it beyond the typical commute not worth the anxiety. ANd then, maybe it will work fine.

For my use, and yours certainly could be different, spending the extra on the REx isn't justified.

We decided to buy the car, a Giga REx with all other available options except 20" wheels. Picked it up yesterday. Painful to write the check! Will report our experience under appropriate topics here, but I expect I'm finished posting to the Roof Rack topic for a while.