Max battery 12.6 kwh

I'm on a 7 day trial on a 2015 with 35k miles.

It has a Max range of 44mi and when going to the hidden menu reads 12.6kwh (the lowest I've seen mention of).

I've drained it to 15% once and charged to 90, then drained it to 8% and charged it to 100 with a few extra hours.

I know the hidden menu isn't super reliable, but it's been 40+ degrees at night and in the 50s during the day.

The range hasn't really changed yet (today is day three).

Should I just give up and send it back?

ddwornik said:

I'm on a 7 day trial on a 2015 with 35k miles.

It has a Max range of 44mi and when going to the hidden menu reads 12.6kwh (the lowest I've seen mention of).

I've drained it to 15% once and charged to 90, then drained it to 8% and charged it to 100 with a few extra hours.

I know the hidden menu isn't super reliable, but it's been 40+ degrees at night and in the 50s during the day.

The range hasn't really changed yet (today is day three).

Should I just give up and send it back?

Click to expand...

Is it still under warranty? It's possible depending on the in service date. You could consider taking it to BMW and seeing if they could test the battery and do a replacement.

I assume it still is (it's 8 year 100k miles, right?), but that seems like a lot of work(and expense) when I can just call Monday and have them pick up the car and drop me a different one. If it had come from a dealer I'd be pushing that.

The range estimates appear to be very accurate. A mile of driving drops it about a mile across the whole range, and multiplying the trip computers mi/kwh times the percentage and the remaining charge seems to agree.

I'm thinking if I don't see dramatic improvement with a couple more cycles this weekend I'm going to send it back and look for one with the smaller wheels.

I did the obvious stuff I can think of (work on my driving and make sure the tires are properly inflated) without much impact.

ddwornik said:

I assume it still is (it's 8 year 100k miles, right?), but that seems like a lot of work(and expense) when I can just call Monday and have them pick up the car and drop me a different one.

Click to expand...

That seems like a pretty strong case for a battery capacity warranty claim either now or before the warranty expires. Of course, you'd be the person taking the risk with a warranty claim that would initially cost you a diagnostic fee. However, this fee would be refunded if the battery pack capacity is less than 70% of the nominal new usable capacity. If you'd get a new battery pack out of the deal, no other used 60 Ah i3 would have as much battery pack life ahead.

If you could convince the seller to drop the price because the battery pack is significantly degraded, you could end up with a good deal.

alohart said:

ddwornik said:

I assume it still is (it's 8 year 100k miles, right?), but that seems like a lot of work(and expense) when I can just call Monday and have them pick up the car and drop me a different one.

Click to expand...

... you'd be the person taking the risk with a warranty ...

If you could convince the seller to drop the price because the battery pack is significantly degraded, you could end up with a good deal.

Click to expand...

I'd recommend double / triple checking with BMW now that there are no notes in the system disqualifying this particular vehicle from a warranty replacement, due to some previous incident / abuse. It would be an awesome bargain if this worked out in the OP's favor, but that's got to be balanced with the likelihood that the original or subsequent owner already attempted the warranty route and found the vehicle was disqualified.

eNate said:

alohart said:

ddwornik said:

I assume it still is (it's 8 year 100k miles, right?), but that seems like a lot of work(and expense) when I can just call Monday and have them pick up the car and drop me a different one.

Click to expand...

... you'd be the person taking the risk with a warranty ...

If you could convince the seller to drop the price because the battery pack is significantly degraded, you could end up with a good deal.

Click to expand...

I'd recommend double / triple checking with BMW now that there are no notes in the system disqualifying this particular vehicle from a warranty replacement, due to some previous incident / abuse. It would be an awesome bargain if this worked out in the OP's favor, but that's got to be balanced with the likelihood that the original or subsequent owner already attempted the warranty route and found the vehicle was disqualified.

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Since you have the 7 days if you could get BMW to tell you if they would do the replacement before time is up, you'd end up with a good deal. Some risk, but that's up to you.

How are you driving the car? As you probably know, outside temperature (using heater, not setting departure times), speed (greater than ~60mph, fast starts), wind and hills all contribute to lower range. On my 2014 Rex with 56k miles, my battery Kappa indicates ~16.5, and the GOM generally shows 60 miles in the morning, but this time of year I can't make my 52 mile round-trip commute without charging at work. However, I set cruise at 75, climate control at 76 and I have to ascend/descend ~1000 feet. I generally get to work with somewhere around 25% - 40% battery remaining in the winter (~32F) depending on the wind speed and direction. Spring and fall are a completely different story - No charging necessary.

True that those factors all affect range, but battery capacity ought not reflect a decrease because of it.

My i3 is in the same situation. I would be interested to know if you were able to get a new battery replacement.