Battery replacement/upgrade service in North America?

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Marvinski

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Oct 20, 2022
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New here, hope I'm posting in the right session. If not, Admin please move. Thanks

I'm planning on getting an i3 in Canada, and while doing my research I found this youtube video about battery replacement/upgrade for the i3 in HK.

Im wondering if there are anyone performing something like this in North America??

BMW i3 Battery Replacement ! 130km to 360km !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjqMeoSWQPQ
 
As you probably read, this battery pack replacement using Chinese cells cost U.S. $11k in Hong Kong. These cells were described at Samsung SDI 120 Ah copies although they look quite different from Samsung's cells. They appear to be assembled in proprietary modules that aren't the modules that BMW used although it's a bit difficult to know for certain. The replacement battery pack is claimed to have a gross capacity of 48 kWh. Some have claimed that BMW's 120 Ah BMS doesn't support a usable capacity greater than 40 kWh, but it's not clear whether a proprietary BMS is included. I don't know whether the customer can keep the original battery modules and cells. It appears that the original battery pack compartment is being used.

A big red flag for me would be battery cell quality. I don't trust Chinese battery cells of unknown origin to be of the same high quality as Samsung's although they certainly could be. When I owned a first-generation Honda Insight hybrid, some third-party replacement battery packs used low-quality Chinese battery cells (or maybe more accurately, cells not designed for the high current requirements of the Insight's battery pack). These battery packs failed fairly quickly. A third-party battery pack supplier would need to be an established company that would be almost certain to honor its warranty, and I would want that warranty to be long if I paid more than $11k for the battery pack.

At some point, third-party i3 battery packs will almost certainly become available in North America if quality cells at reasonable prices become available.
 
It is not economical to upgrade the battery at current prices. You are better off buying a newer car with larger battery than upgrading an older car.

Some day it could become economical, there are a lot of i3s on the road in US and Europe, so it is one of the models that has a better chance of getting a third party upgrade.
 
alohart said:
. . Some have claimed that BMW's 120 Ah BMS doesn't support a usable capacity greater than 40 kWh, but it's not clear whether a proprietary BMS is included. . .
The BMS doesn't know the difference if voltages and wiring configurations are the same.
 
ksnax said:
alohart said:
. . Some have claimed that BMW's 120 Ah BMS doesn't support a usable capacity greater than 40 kWh, but it's not clear whether a proprietary BMS is included. . .
The BMS doesn't know the difference if voltages and wiring configurations are the same.
However, the software component of the BMS could include a usable capacity limit. We just don't know.
 
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