Had a 2013 Leaf now an i3 BEV. The Leaf is based on a Versa - a lower priced car with the look and feel to match. The i3 has a higher end vibe, as you would expect. The difference between the two cars isn't subtle - the BMW wins by a wide margin. The driving experience is significantly better in the i3 in every way. Add to that the wonderfully designed BMW interior and the choice, at least for me, was an easy switch.
BUT, the i3 range in cold weather is abysmal. The BEV has an EPA range estimate of 82 miles or so, but in temperatures under 50 I struggle to reach 60 miles. In sub freezing weather I fall into the low 50 mile range, and occasionally the high 40 mile range. This is totally unacceptable and BMW knows of my displeasure, but to date they are unable to extend my range despite a new KLE, full diagnostics, rebooted system computer and lots of other things. None of them worked.
BMW suggests that I drive in Eco Pro Plus mode. Really? I can't use the car's heater or seat heaters, and can't drive over 56 MPH in order to extend my driving range to still be 15 miles short of the EPA estimate? Really? Beyond frustrating.
Equally frustrating is the requirement that to get better range you must precondition your car. Fair enough, I have a home charger, but the i3 doesn't allow preconditioning easily. The car doesn't "shake hands" well with my EVSE (Clipper Creek, but many others have similar problems - the EVSE brand doesn't seem to matter) and when the car tries to precondition it rapidly cycles the EVSE on and off several times a minute. I complained to BMW, showed them a link to a YouTube video showing the problem and their response continues to be that they can't duplicate my "unique user episode". That same video has a link on this forum.
The final straw is a BMW internal marketing piece supposedly for dealerships. It's titled something like BMW i3 Rex Real World Driving Range - may be titled differently. That document shows that BMW estimates that in 5-20F temperatures the expected battery range of the i3 ReX is 55 miles, and in "adverse" conditions it could be as low as 45 miles. Adverse is defined as not only cold weather, but also likely if the car isn't pre-conditioned prior to driving. As I noted above my preconditioning cycle doesn't work, so I'm often constrained to sub 50 mile range. That's a 25 mile radius from my home, and that assumes that I won't be on the lower 45 mile range estimate.
The i3 on paper is wonderful, I fully support their efforts, but before you commit scan this forum fully to be sure that if you make the switch you are doing so with eyes wide open and realize that the i3 has wonderful potential, but for many of us it's still a work in progress.
I love the i3 and hope that it can be adjusted to deliver what I bought. But if not, it's a toy to me, not a functional vehicle, and that's unfortunate for all of us. My heart/mind want an i3, but my head says "No". After all a car is a transportation device and it has to deliver that utility first and foremost.
