How is your battery holding up?

[jadnashuanh]

Considering that the process isn't 100%, some is lost in heat, and the various cooling processes along with maintaining the computers and signalling running, that's dismal.

[alohart]

I have an appointment for tomorrow for my dealer to look at the i3. Hopefully they say the battery needs replacement.

I predict that you will depart your BMW dealer with a few hundred dollars less in your wallet (the battery capacity test takes many hours) and with a usable capacity that has magically increased to more than 70% of the nominal usable capacity when new thus not qualifying for a battery pack replacement under the warranty. This seems to be a common experience which makes me believe that BMW can increase the usable capacity by mucking with the battery management system (BMS). Or maybe the process of a full slow discharge followed by a full slow charge to measure the usable capacity recalibrates the BMS so that the usable battery pack capacity increases.

[CanisLupus]

Here's a suggestion . Set a 'Departure Time' while charging on Level 2 . Does that process warm the battery to 25 o C ? If so then that could be the best Max Kappa that you can get . We can try this test if we're wondering what our capacity is .

[TheMK]

As a small update, when I dropped my car off, I was quoted $150 to do the diagnosis. If the diagnosis fails, then of course that diagnostic fee is waived by the warranty.

[TheMK]

Okay, so I was charged $150 + tax for the battery capacity test. There was also a recall on the fuel pressure sensor that was done at the same time. I can not tell that anything has changed. My batt kappa max is still 13.8kWh. I'm going to try to do a full charge again tonight and see what happens. I'm at a loss kind of, since 13.8 is less than 80% of the original capacity.

Not sure where to go from here.

[alohart]

Okay, so I was charged $150 + tax for the battery capacity test. There was also a recall on the fuel pressure sensor that was done at the same time. I can not tell that anything has changed. My batt kappa max is still 13.8kWh. I'm going to try to do a full charge again tonight and see what happens. I'm at a loss kind of, since 13.8 is less than 80% of the original capacity.

What capacity did your dealer measure? Or did you get just a ">70% of the new nominal usable capacity so no warranty claim" answer? For $150, I would want a usable capacity in kWh.

[TheMK]

Okay, so I was charged $150 + tax for the battery capacity test. There was also a recall on the fuel pressure sensor that was done at the same time. I can not tell that anything has changed. My batt kappa max is still 13.8kWh. I'm going to try to do a full charge again tonight and see what happens. I'm at a loss kind of, since 13.8 is less than 80% of the original capacity.

What capacity did your dealer measure? Or did you get just a ">70% of the new nominal usable capacity so no warranty claim" answer? For $150, I would want a usable capacity in kWh.

A generic answer. I should’ve asked the service advisor more questions. I guess I can call him back tomorrow. I had to have a family member pick my car up so that made it hard to talk to someone about it.

Do you think I should call them back?

[Valleeboi02]

You really need to look further into it.
How many miles does your car have on it and what year is your car? A 2014 i3 with normal use should be around 17.5kw usable battery power in 2020. No way a battery as advanced as the battery in an i3 should be at 13kw, unless you've been doing lots of Level 3 charging up to 100%. That can kill a battery quickly along with lots of high temperatures.

[Valleeboi02]

Why not spend $5k and get a larger capacity battery? $5k is certainly cheaper than $100k plus for a Model S.. i3 owners should save at least $1k a year in the possible hopes of replacing the battery if BMW refuses to replace under warranty. $1k a year over a 5 to 6 year span seems reasonable..

For people buying these cars used from 2014, 2015 and 2016 should really look into the battery for degradation. These cars were purposely built for small Euro cities and narrow streets. 10 to 15 miles each way and in some cases with smaller cities 14 miles round trip (Paris, France).

Not good for a massive urban city like Los Angeles or London.

[MKH]

Not good for a massive urban city like Los Angeles or London.

I live in Dallas. 6.8 million population. 2015 i3, I average 12K miles a year, and my battery range is within 3 miles of when the car was new.