Welcome to the BMW i3 Forum

DAZ said:

Hi to all. Don from central Virginia. I'm brand new to BMW. Picked up my 2014 Ionic Silver BEV i3 one week ago (091914). Current 2012 Prius Plug In owner since Jan 2013. Ten to fourteen EV miles just wasn't enough, but ICE range is unlimited and it's a keeper for now. Love the i3 and the large EV range. Former Corvette, MB SLK 55, Lexus IS owner. Older (64) and wiser regarding cars. The Prius is fun, but the i3 is a hoot. Retired US Air Force 1970 -1994, and Pawn Shop owner 1994 - present. No retirement plans as I enjoy material things. Thanks for all the great information.

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Hay Air force, me too. Not retired, but 6 years.

This weekend we purchased an Andesite Silver i3 BEV (Tera World) with parking assist package, technology + driving assist package, heated seats, premium sound, and DC fast charging to complement our Model S.





The i3 will be my wife's daily driver since parking her previous car (2009 Acura TL) or the Model S near her office in San Francisco is a serious pain. She also signed up for this forum, but has been a lurker so far.

I really like all the driver assist / park assist features on the i3- many of these weren't available on the Model S when we ordered it in early 2013. But I definitely think Tesla did a better job displaying range and charging details. Luckily these sorts of things can be fixed with a software update.

Hello everyone, Steve from CA here!

I recently ordered a 2014 i3 Giga BEV Ionic Silver with the HK stereo. It will be replacing my 2012 M3 Cab when the lease is up in December.

Some might think I'm crazy for giving up a M car for an EV, but here's my story...

I got an incredible deal on to install solar panels, but when I ran the numbers, despite the factory discounts, the breakeven was still a bit long. I made the offhanded comment that if I had an EV the breakeven should be more favorable. So I ran the numbers and I was amazed.

I told my wife we should get an EV, specifically she should get an EV so I could keep my beloved M3. She told me if I wanted one so badly I should get one, as she will not be driving such a car. That weekend I set off to test drive the i3; my wife on her own free will decided to join me.

The guys at BMW teased me a bit, which I expected. My wife thought the i3 was ugly and refused to sit in the one on the showroom floor. A short while later we were driving off on a test drive...

I was amazed from the beginning, with the torque and the regenerative braking. My wife loved the quietness and how it seemed like a regular car. We could hardly contain our giggling as we drove along. Two minutes into the test drive she asked if I would buy her one! haha

I signed a contract to purchase a 25 panel solar system. Ordered the i3 -- $13,000 in credits available. Still undecided on what charging station to install; perhaps a Juicebox or OpenEVSE. The breakeven on the solar panels is about 3 years, much of it from the cost savings of the M3, but all in told I am estimating around $700/mo back into my pocket. While I like the M3, I'm not sure I like it that much. When my wife's lease is up next year I am planning to add a second i3 to the stable.

I really think BMW hit a home run on this one. It is an incredible car -- truly the future. Looking forward to being part of the sun power club!

dirtboy said:

Some might think I'm crazy for giving up a M car for an EV, but here's my story...

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Not crazy at all - I am going from M3 as daily driver to i3. Only difference is - I'm keeping both the M3 and X3, using the i3 for work & running round town, and M3 will be relegated to weekend toy. X3 will stay as my wife's daily drive and also family car.

My decision was not financial, I just thought the i3 after test driving it was a whole new thing, not better or worse than my other cars, just very different. Don't know why I wanted it, just knew I needed to have one. The fact that the £500+ a month in petrol that the M3 consumes will practically fund the car was the final decider before I ordered. It arrives next month (7 months after ordering), although I had the 32A EVSE charging point installed last week (BMW i Wallbox Pure) so it's starting to feel like it's happening now.

I totally understand about wanting one and not really knowing why. We were inclined to go electric anyway, but one test drive was all it took to convince. The fact that it is and drives like something from 15 years in the future constantly amazes. I think I am ruined for ICEs forever, I raced a Miata in the mountains on Sunday and had a ball. He was quite surprised! Now I keep asking why going fast has to be accompanied by a lot of sound and fury.... It's the speed that excites, not the noise, that's just a learned response to antique technology.

mark1 said:

Not crazy at all - I am going from M3 as daily driver to i3. Only difference is - I'm keeping both the M3 and X3, using the i3 for work & running round town, and M3 will be relegated to weekend toy. X3 will stay as my wife's daily drive and also family car.

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I think that's pretty cool. I don't have space for 3 cars, and while I can afford to keep the M3, I am setting myself up to be debt free at a young age. I'd love to have an i8, but they are selling over MSRP and there's no topless option, so the i3 was in. Plus I think it's a lot of fun to drive!

While I will miss my M3, when I look at how much I spend to drive it, it's not really worth it.

I've had my i3 now about 3-months, and my ICE (which I kept for long trips or where I needed more room) has only been out of the garage twice. I now don't think twice about running to the store if I need something rather than trying to combine multiple stops when using the ICE to ensure it gets fully warmed up. NO muffler, oil changes, antifreeze, etc. to worry about, and my normal drive is easily handled by the batteries.

I considered the JuiceBox, like some of its (optional) features, but decided on the Clipper Creek 32A unit. Not as many frills, but a much longer track record.

Hi All, Simon from Glasgow here. Been considering the i3 for a while and after a test drive and also having a read through the forum here I have decided to take the plunge and ordered one through my company car scheme. Going to be a long wait till mid-Feb!

My normal commute to work is about a 60 mile round trip which I figured was about on the cusp of whether the BEV would be suitable or not - especially with some of the colder weather we can have up here in Scotland in the winter months, so I have opted for the REX with the hope that I will rarely be tapping into it. Will probably be just my luck if work decides to install a charging station between now and when I get it! I've noticed at least one other i3 in the car park (no idea whose it is) and there's also a leaf about, so we may be able to convince them to get one installed.

Just a reminder everybody. Please enter your location in your profile. It really helps to see where you are from since there may be different answers to the same question based on where you live.

A few questions:
did you know that the car does NOT come with AM radio: but with satellite:
A rumor: you can buy the external analog antenna to get AM???

they will have free vacation loaner cars in three months time?

Do you really need the range extender?

How much in dollars does the home charger cost?

How many miles can you really drive with the range extender and without?

They are lowering the leasing payment substantially

Can you really fit in the back seat?

Leasing: do you get any body damage allowance?

Someone said, and this is just rumor, that the CFRP body and the electronics in the car made AM radio reception almost unusable. I do not think you'll get good results if you try it, but first, you could just try a portable radio in the car with it running down the road to see. Hooking something up into the aux input would work for any audio source.

While this could change, all of the cars are prepped for satellite radio, but it does not come standard on all models.

Whether you need the REx is a personal decision.

Most any J1772 level 2 EVSE should work with the i3, and to get the shortest recharge time with one, it needs to output 30/32A (depends on the country how it is rated - between USA and Europe, those are essentially equivalent because of the way they are specified). So, if you don't need the fastest, you could opt for a less expensive Level 2 EVSE, or one that has excess capacity in anticipation of vehicles that can use more in the future. Discounting installation, in the USA, level 2 EVSEs are available from around $200-over $1000. Installation is a very individual situation, but probably a minimum of a few hundred dollars, and it could be much more depending on the size of the power lines, the distance, and local labor costs (and inspection/permit costs).

I guess everyone who buys or leases a i3 does not care about listening to the am radio

I guess they figured that since AM radio is the home of Rush and Hannity and that none of their listeners would be caught dead in a Green/Eco car, they could drop it without losing any sales...... :lol:

WoodlandHills said:

I guess they figured that since AM radio is the home of Rush and Hannity and that none of their listeners would be caught dead in a Green/Eco car, they could drop it without losing any sales...... :lol:

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Leaving AM radio off was a big mistake --- Sports and news/talk radio are popular during commutes. Not all AM stations have FM sister stations. Work arounds are possible, I am told. SF Giants playoff baseball was exciting in norCal (sorry Dodgers). Frustrating to lose that listening option in our REX.

FWIW: We LOVE our i3. Our driving habits match the i3's range although the GOM is a joke. No complaints here - everything works as it should. Very happy.

George

On 5 November, we traded in our 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV for a 2014 i3 BEV Giga World, Arravani Grey, Tech + Driving Assist, Parking Assist, and DC Fast Charging. We were happy with our i-MiEV's compact size, light weight, rear wheel drive, tight turning circle, spacious interior relative to its exterior size, and decent cargo space with the rear seats folded flat, but a move to the southeast tip of Oahu made it impossible to drive to north, west, and some windward shore locations without charging en route. The number of PHEV's has grown faster than the number of public charging stations making finding an available charging station very risky. The i3 shares most of the features we like about our i-MiEV although it's twice the price! It's our first BMW and the most expensive car we have ever purchased by far. But we feel that the upgrade is worth the cost, especially with our salty, humid climate which might not have been kind to our steel i-MiEV but which should not affect our aluminum and CFRP i3.

We were able to drive our extended test drive i3 BEV on a 100-mile loop around Oahu with 5 miles range remaining. That plus the i3's safety and tech features sold us. So we took a bath on our i-MiEV but ended up with almost our ideal i3 (we didn't need our i3's DC Fast Charging option). EV resale values won't hold up as long as battery technology is improving and new EV prices are dropping, we knew that when we bought our i-MiEV almost 2 years ago, and we know that now. But we hope to keep our i3 for many trouble-free years so that resale values won't really matter by then.

Now if BMW would only do something to improve the pretty terrible iDrive user interface (me being a retired Apple software engineer who expects better)…

GrandpaKeys said:

WoodlandHills said:

I guess they figured that since AM radio is the home of Rush and Hannity and that none of their listeners would be caught dead in a Green/Eco car, they could drop it without losing any sales...... :lol:

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Leaving AM radio off was a big mistake --- Sports and news/talk radio are popular during commutes. Not all AM stations have FM sister stations. Work arounds are possible, I am told. SF Giants playoff baseball was exciting in norCal (sorry Dodgers). Frustrating to lose that listening option in our REX.

FWIW: We LOVE our i3. Our driving habits match the i3's range although the GOM is a joke. No complaints here - everything works as it should. Very happy.

George

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Hello all, Mike in Northern California here. First post. We acquired our Laurel Gray i3 Rex about a month and we really like it. It's primarily my wife's car but I find it very enjoyable to drive as well. Considering that I also drive a 2014 Porsche GT3 and a Cayenne S that says a lot, I think, for the job BMW did in making the i3 a car that has a wide appeal both to gearheads and everyday drivers.

As to the questions about the lack of an AM radio a workaround exists for those who purchased the Technology Package which allows the use of a number of free apps including BMW Connected. When paired using the Connectivity feature in the menu BMW Connected allows access to features including Web Radio which makes local radio stations available, including AM. If one has any kind of reasonable cell signal, fidelity is excellent with no noise or interference.

bmwi3 said:

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the BMW i3 Forum! I thought it would be good to start a forum thread that we could all introduce ourselves and welcome new users to the i3 Forum.

Are you interested in purchasing the BMW i3? Or simply learning more about it as it gets closer to the 2013 launch date?

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Thank you for the welcome greeting. I have ordered a REX an am interested in updating knowledge in this connection.

New i3 Rex owner here. Took delivery of my car on Oct 27. Loving it so far. I am also a BMW master technician who is fully certified on the i3 and i8. Dealer offered me a 2 year lease I couldnt rufuse. But now my wife if falling in love with the car. I just wanted to check in and say hi.

Vinnie50 said:

.... I am also a BMW master technician who is fully certified on the i3 and i8.

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You're going to be popular on here then

Welcome.

FWIW, the service manager where I bought my i3 is planning to lease an i3 when his current lease expires in the spring. He likes it that much, and gets decent rates for any of the vehicles they sell. THat must say something!