Flat towing a BMWi3 ?

Anybody know if a BMWi3 can be flat towed behind a motorhome ? Or towed home flat with a drawbar if it drops dead a few miles from home :?: ?

I don't know the definitive answer but I think I've seen it said that it can't be towed and I suspect the answer may have something to do with there being no clutch and therefore no way to stop the electric motor being driven if it is towed.

Don’t know a definitive answer but I know that most believed it can’t be towed. However, a couple of people reasonably suggested that as you can charge the car using regen, for example when going down hill, then towing the car should be the same!

This is what the warning label says.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/14010065877_0a0445c551_o.jpg

sorry about bumping this old thread, but I question not being able to tow this (or other electric cars). Some day the RV crowd is going to tackle how to make an EV flat towable. I don't know that today is that day, but some day. Someone will figure out what axle thing needs to be disconnected/reconnected and maybe disconnect a wire hardness or something. They may even engineer some replacement bracket to make the process easier.. perhaps even tool-less. I dream the dream (haha).

I flat-towed a Prius once but it was dangerous as heck. The only safe way is to have the car "READY" so the car's electronics could manage the pack and inverter electronics. Dangerous because the Prius has 'creep' and if you make one mistake, the car would happily crush you between the RV and front bumper. This is not something I recommend to anyone.

Bob Wilson

The i3's rear wheels are directly connected to the motor...turn the wheels, turn the motor...not something you want to do while towing it! Now, if you put the rear wheels on dollies, you might get away with it.

Last friday my battery got empty appx. 8km to my home. It was a snowy day, some people with summer tyres blocked the road & we stuck in a highway exit for 4 hrs... grrr... Anyways it did happen & the day after I made a quick search on the net. I saw this thread, bookmarked it and know I am ready to share with you my experience of towing flat an BMW i3.

First of all, when you run out of battery on i3, you can not move forward anymore, but actually you got some energy left for vital needs. I noticed that after I stopped the car and started to think what to do. The car wasn't moving further, but all lights were in fully bright, I could change the gear on R, N or D... I thought that the car reserves some vital energy in order to protect some electronics & maybe, to let to change the gear in order to flat tow the vehicle for short distance... Of course, it's risky to do that, because you can never know when the energy will be so low & the car protect itself by auto-engaging the gear to "P"...

So, I decided to do this: My friend would start to tow the i3 while I was on the driver seat. We would be on continuous connection by phone, talking each other & reporting everything. I changed the gear to "N" & we started to move... We limited our speed to 20kph max. After a minute or so, I said my friend that I'll put the gear on "D" to mimic a downhill effect and to see what happens. The car towing me was a Discovery 3 with 4.4 V8 petrol engine, so the extra load was not an issue for it. The i3 started to charge itself VERY quickly. In 4.5km/20 minutes, the car has 13% battery load & 14 km range. The range surely was unreliable data, but the battery load percentage was real.

We decided to detach the cars and started to drive the i3. It had this all 13% energy indeed & I made appx 4 km to my home without any trouble.

I charge my i3 mainly through standard home wall jack, 220V AC, 10 amps. 1 hrs charge means appx 11% battery load. By towing the car, it generates roughly 3 times more energy than a standard wall jack! OK, the car towing the i3 burns more gas to realise that but its a life saver! From now on, I know that if I ran out of battery one day, I can do the same thing & get my battery half charged in 1.5 hrs., and drive more than 70km with it!

I think the most critical parameters on that attempt were as follows:

1- The max. speed should not be so challenging.

I don't know what is the max continuous rpm allowed for regeneration. I know that from 154 kph to 0 kph it can continuously generate energy. I know also a 2-3 km of downhill with a 50 kph average speed wouldn't be a problem. So 30 to 40kph seems to be harmless as towing speeds...

2- The regeneration should not be continuous, I recommend to put on "Neutral" about a minute each 8-9 minutes.

It's just for precaution. I don't know if continuous regeneration process cause some heat on cables or anywhere else.

I tried all this on my own risk. I am simply sharing my story here, because it's a thread opened for that purpose. Please do not feel yourself encouraged to do what I did. It worked for me, but maybe I was extremely lucky, or did cause some damage but I am not aware of it, yet.

Спасибо за интересный рассказ. Это очень важная информация!

There seem to be a few youtube clips demonstrating the towing of Nissan LEAFs with re-generation working. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3-...agree we can't be sure what harm may be done.