2015 BMW i3 Range Extender DETAILED Review and Road Test

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The review claims to be that of a 2015 i3. Those will reportedly have black side mirrors, so the i3 in the review is not a 2015 model. However, nothing has changed with the 2015 model that would make this review invalid.
 
alohart said:
The review claims to be that of a 2015 i3. Those will reportedly have black side mirrors, so the i3 in the review is not a 2015 model. However, nothing has changed with the 2015 model that would make this review invalid.
Not sure about that side mirrors thing, or it may be Region specific. Mine is a 2015 UK model (winter pack as standard) and has body coloured door mirrors.
 
psquare said:
A 3 series is quieter than an i3? Seriously?
Yes it is. At highway speeds. I was driving 328 last week when my i3 was in service and that's the first thing I've noticed. At low speed engine sound overpowers everything, on the highway it was surprisingly quiet. Way quieter than my i3 is.
 
Tomasz said:
psquare said:
A 3 series is quieter than an i3? Seriously?
Yes it is. At highway speeds. I was driving 328 last week when my i3 was in service and that's the first thing I've noticed. At low speed engine sound overpowers everything, on the highway it was surprisingly quiet. Way quieter than my i3 is.

Fair enoughski. I actually haven't taken my i3 onto the motorway yet.

9 days in, also have not yet used a single drop of the full REx tank the car came with.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but why is your i3 already getting serviced? Mine needs 2 services over 5 years. First service for mine is in 2017.
 
The i3 at motorway speeds 65mph+ makes a slightly greater tyre roar, possibly due to the tyre compound being somewhat harder than a conventional car. It's subjective and probably down to the absence of other ICE noises to mask the sound anyhow. A decibel meter would give a more definitive result though.

One thing I have noticed at speed is that although the i3 has fairly weight steering around the straight ahead steering position; its does seem to be knocked off line by road imperfections much more than other cars I have owned. I would put this down to the quick rack set up for in town manoeuvrability. That is probably incorrect terminology as it will be electric power steering, BMW could improve the cars cruising ability if they addressed the level of sensitivity.

I jumped into my sons VW yesterday to go to work and found I had forgotten how to drive an ICE in a week, what with gears and brakes & so forth.! :D
 
At 5:20 he claims that the level 1 charging can be set to 16 amps. Is that really true? I thought the maximum was 12 amps. I'm referring to US models.
 
MarkN said:
At 5:20 he claims that the level 1 charging can be set to 16 amps. Is that really true? I thought the maximum was 12 amps. I'm referring to US models.
I believe that the Level 1 standard specifies a 16 amp maximum current, but the North American i3 Occasional Use "Charger" (actually, EVSE) is limited to 12 amps. The maximum charge rate setting for the on-board charger is also 12 amps.
 
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