I bought a used 2018 i3 from Green Eyed Motors in Boulder Colorado about seven months ago. I have worked on cars for many years and this car was in excellent mechanical condition with low (~18k) miles. They got the car as a lease return from BMW financial services.
Seven days after purchasing it, I was involved in an accident where there was some construction in the left lane of a two lane arterial with weekend shopper traffic. We were all going about 15mph to merge together and suddenly the entire line of cars put on their brakes. I was new to the car and know to put my foot hard on the brakes on an ABS car. Let the ABS figure out the right amount to do in order to stop the car, then modulate the brakes by backing off when there is safe following distance and time for the brain to catch up.
Unfortunately in this situation, the brake pedal went to the floor and there was clearly no stopping power except that of the regenerative system. If I had known this was about to happen, I had room to steer the car into the ditch and only affect my car. Instead, it ran right into the back of the car in front of me. The bill on the i3 was in the tens of thousands, the car in front of me had rear end damage as well.
I took the car to Gephardt BMW in Boulder and they went through it and said there was nothing wrong with it. The tech took me out for a drive and carefully put his foot on the brake to demonstrate how the ABS does it's job from 30+ MPH. As soon as I took the wheel back at the shop parking lot, I brought it up to 15MPH and stomped on the brakes. Same issue, the car kept rolling forward.
I bet I could reproduce it with any i3, but I was already committed to this car and who is going to believe you that "the brakes didn't work". Any time I tell the story, I get the eyeroll.
If anyone wants my contact information in a class action lawsuit, DM me. My insurance premiums have doubled and I lost $8,000 returning a car that I no longer trusted to the dealer after it was fixed. I think the insurance company deserves to see the truth as well so they can reconcile what happened.