Does anyone else feel let down about their BMW i3 BEV

[WoodlandHills]

My views exactly. Including the wait for the Tesla......

BTW, all of issues stated above are common to the i3, not just the BEV......

 

[jelloslug]

It's exactly what I expected, including the BMW oddities. I drove a Leaf for a few years before I got my BEV i3 so I was well aware of how the range would actually be and how to maximize it if need be. I'm also in the same boat of using this car as a bridge for the upcoming Tesla Model III (or even one of the newly available CPO cars).

 

[tiburonh]

I love my BMW i3 BEV and, after close to 8,000 miles of trouble free, gas free, and fun loaded driving, I don't feel "let down" about it any degree. If anything, the car has exceeded my expectations.

Of course I do feel let down by the customer service experience from BMW corporate, and the customer service experience from dealers is very hit or miss. But the car is fantastic.

 

[peteinlongbeach]

Buy it for the city and you'll love it, buy it to drive 50 miles each way on the freeway every day and you'll be rationalizing your EV purchase every day.

No rationalizing here. My other car is a Mercedes R, which is very comfortable for long trips, but I find myself taking the i3 for my weekends out of town every time. Range is no issue with the REX, even with the requisite fillups ever hour. The seats are much more comfortable than I imagined (there's some strategic foam engineering in there somewhere). The front suspension could be a bit better, but unlike the Fiat I'm not beaten up by it after 2 hours. The climate control works great. And, the steering is much less twitchy since I lowered the front tire pressures a bit (BMW's specification seems to be a compromise for the sake of range and cornering).

Always room for improvements, but it can be easily useful outside the city as well.

 

[barrychan]

I too at first found the range was short from advertised but soon found there's ways to drive to reach the max. range. ( was a little too heavy on the right foot haha)

 

[noakey]

I too at first found the range was short from advertised but soon found there's ways to drive to reach the max. range. ( was a little too heavy on the right foot haha)

you mean 120 miles?

 

[DerfSdrawd]

I love the car too... it is a HUGE JUMP to switch to pure electric drive. A lifestyle change, more akin to my days when I decided to only be a motorcyclist and did 200,000 miles on those in a few years.

You have to be a fanatic.....

Spot on in my view.

Am almost at 21k miles in my i3 BEV and it is brilliant, provided you don't expect/have to drive 70-100 miles without charging. The very best I've squeezed out of it is c90 miles, and probably on a warm day tootling along at 55mph coasting as much as poss you might just get to 100+ miles that BMW say. But if it's cold, windy, you're in a hurry, traffic speeds up then slows down, i.e. normal every day road conditions, then 60-80 is what I'd count on. How many ICE cars get anywhere near the mpg figures the manufacturers put out though - it matters less because range and refuelling is not so critical - but some of the consumption figures are laughable.

I think BMW could be more frank about the effect of temperature, speed, wind etc have on range and they could train the dealers better but the agency model in the UK seems to disincentise the dealers from really getting to know the car. Who the hell knew about the 3 hour time period for battery preconditioning for example (thanks to Tom M for shedding light on that)?

The UK charging infrastructure is not ready for mass consumption yet - too few stations and too unreliable. For "splash & dash" charge, only the ultra fast CCS is viable and it's 50:50 whether it will be working or available when you get to it. I had an amusing moment the other day where someone was parked next to me in a car park, trying to charge their Leaf. Turned out the guy had hired this car from Avis in Heathrow then driven to Reading, having no idea about range, charging etc. He had a chargemaster card from Avis, which didn't work because they'd hole-punched it! I used my card to get him charging, then spent the rest of the day wondering if he'd ever be able to disconnect...

But no I don't feel let down in any way by the i3. I'd get another one in an instant - it just works for my & family.

 

[marcus1701]

I only feel let down on the range. For how much time I spend charging it everyday, I'm not yet used to the fact it will eat up all that time spent in a matter of minutes. My prius C costs $20-$25 to fill a 9 gallon tank and has a range of 500 miles. At the speeds I travel on the I3 I could easily get 60 plus mpg and push the range 500+. The ext. ranges extra 300lb also hurt the car. I'm planning a road trip to Washington, and based on BMW's estimates I should be just fine, but I'm a little scared from what I've been seeing in the real world.

 

[Gonville]

I think each of us has different real world experiences.

I am very happy that I have only been to the Shell station once this year.

I currently have a very nice F10 5 series 535d luxury with every single option. As I said to the lady at the dealer when I was having the alloys descuffed "It was the best car in the world....0-60in 5.3...simply the best".

Every trip I do now the only question is can I avoid a 3 hour charge somewhere by using CCS? (we have a BEV). My partner says I am obsessed but she loves the car "her car" for around town.

I am thinking of chucking in the 5 series for another i3 REX...that is how good it is.

No the dealer didn't pay me to say this - it's just true. ;-) 3,768 miles and still grinning.

Best range so far 80.8, average best range in UK is 77.7. Someone has done 124. Real world stats.

Average consumption UK 3.8mi/kWh

 

[barrychan]

Last month a DC fast charging station was install in a mall and if i need " juice" fast, i just go there, otherwise charging at home is just fine, i think there's lots of DC fast charge now along the America Hiway??

 

[Blue20]

Last month a DC fast charging station was install in a mall and if i need " juice" fast, i just go there, otherwise charging at home is just fine, i think there's lots of DC fast charge now along the America Hiway??

Depends on which part of the country/continent. There is no DC fast charge for i3 in BC or WA. The nearest one is in Portland, OR.

Even BC Hydro's Powertech test lab in Surrey still doesn't have a CCS test unit.

 

[jadnashuanh]

CCS units are in very short supply. The only state that has more than a few is probably California. There isn't a single one in my state of NH, and only one in Massachusetts, and it's too far away to use. BMW and VW have announced they are going to install a series of them along I95, but that's not my normal route, so essentially useless. When they're in, I may make a trip so I can at least see if my DC charge port actually works! I think in a couple of years, there will be more.

Many places in Europe are doing a better job about installing them, but the population density may tend to be higher.

I bought my BEV knowing this, and its range is sufficient for my needs.

 

[barrychan]

Last month a DC fast charging station was install in a mall and if i need " juice" fast, i just go there, otherwise charging at home is just fine, i think there's lots of DC fast charge now along the America Hiway??

Depends on which part of the country/continent. There is no DC fast charge for i3 in BC or WA. The nearest one is in Portland, OR.

Even BC Hydro's Powertech test lab in Surrey still doesn't have a CCS test unit.

you are right, the fast charger i thought is not for our car, it has a hugh adaptor, sooo why we paid like 750.00 for it and no charger????

 

[PhilH]

you are right, the fast charger i thought is not for our car, it has a hugh adaptor, sooo why we paid like 750.00 for it and no charger????

Dunno. You tell me why you paid for something it seems you can't use? Caveat emptor.

 

[cove3]

You'll get it back in residual, which without it would be much lower

 

[barrychan]

you are right, the fast charger i thought is not for our car, it has a hugh adaptor, sooo why we paid like 750.00 for it and no charger????

Dunno. You tell me why you paid for something it seems you can't use? Caveat emptor.

Ya guess i should have been here before signing on the dotted line. But hopefully our DC charging will be available....one day.

 

[Blue20]

Last month a DC fast charging station was install in a mall and if i need " juice" fast, i just go there, otherwise charging at home is just fine, i think there's lots of DC fast charge now along the America Hiway??

Depends on which part of the country/continent. There is no DC fast charge for i3 in BC or WA. The nearest one is in Portland, OR.

Even BC Hydro's Powertech test lab in Surrey still doesn't have a CCS test unit.

you are right, the fast charger i thought is not for our car, it has a hugh adaptor, sooo why we paid like 750.00 for it and no charger????

Well, BMW dealers have good sales!

Every time I challenge them, how on earth they know my car's fast charge option is installed, they always said their DC fast charging is coming.

BTW, did you get your car in Vancouver? I didn't know BMW dealers in Victoria carry i3.

 

[barrychan]

Victoria only has one i3 just for test drive, i picked it up in Vancouver.

 

[jasleinstein]

BMW totally mis-represents the car. (BTW my comments are so close to boatguy, I copied much of his text) They played cover up with a serious charging issue when we purchased the car. They only came clean with the issues (failed KLEs) as I have the technical skills to actually test charging and see the car was not charging as advertised. When calling the 800 service I have seldom received accurate information. The mileage calculation on the car is useless, we only use the four bars as indicators.
The software in the car is terrible at best. The I-drive is one of the worst user interfaces we have ever used. We stopped buying BMWs(we have had 11) after our X5, and the I-drive was a major reason. Having to understand how to interface with the entertainment and nav system using the dash, I-drive knob and steering wheel is terrible. We purchased the car on a whim admittedly, after buying a Tesla.

The lack of DC charging is a huge issue. We recently needed to take the car 85 miles over the mountain passes and it took us an entire day to get there. It's maddening to be sitting at a charging station charging for hours and hours while looking at the CHADEMO charger hanging on the other charging station. Its clear BMW has chosen the wrong charging standard with CCS. When talking to BMW 800 call center reps about the issue, they tell me deploying CCS stations are VERY expensive and complicated. The folks at Charge Now (the chosen BMW charging partner) tell me the same and also tell me they have no plans for CCS charging stations in Washington state. Again I can't tell what information is true.
- The range is really 50 -60 for normal driving in Seattle (i.e., a mix of around town and short freeway);

- The owner's manual and other "official" communications are worthless at best and entirely mis-leading at worst. BMW constantly sends us marketing "gifts" in the mail, which angers us to no end. Save the money on trash and trinkets and just fix the dam car.

- The car has a variety of quality issues, windows opening, windshield spray covers falling off, the front items get wet, BMW can't do end user software, there are some many issues with the power and nav system software we ignore all that we can and just drive the car. We enjoy music in our cars, but only do the basics in the i3 as the system is terrible.

- My dealership,Seattle BMW is clueless about the issues of electric on the sales side. On the service side they work very hard to figure things out and most importantly are honest with us. They seem to be careful to not bash BMW on issues we both know are cover ups, but are frank and honest about issues. We knew this was a version 1 car when they sold it and we bought it.

- BMW's insistence on routing everything through the dealer means there is a wide range of customer experiences. , you're essentially on your own, dependent on forums like this for real information.

- The car really is a city car; that was the design brief and they did a ok job on the transportation side. On the use and enjoyment side, it is terrible. It is good in the city and around town, easy to park, turns in small spaces, but it's awful on the freeway compared to any ICE car in it's price range. Buy it for the city and you'll love it, buy it to drive 40 miles each way on the freeway every day and you'll be rationalizing your EV purchase every day.

We bought the car on a whim and use it mostly in Seattle. Its ok for that. After looking at the use of our friends Leafs that would have been a better cost vs use option. But the looks of the leaf turned us off. If my wife needs to drive 30 miles away to visit our daughter she will drive the other car as she has no trust in the i3. Reading the four power bars is a no good for her.

Our car is a bridge to the smaller Tesla, the Model S is just too large for around town, but we are forced to use it as the BMW charge is so poor. Our experience with Tesla, both the car and the company is a polar opposite of BMW. Tesla is open and honest. I far prefer the Tesla mfg direct distribution model and Tesla is years ahead of BMW in software. If the model 3 Tesla is even close to what rumors claim, I'd order one sight unseen today, if given the chance. I did a bit of research on resale value of the BMW i3 and we are going to loose allot on money, even worse resale than our 7 series and X5 by far. It is truly our last BMW we will ever own.

 

[epirali]

I just went from Leaf to an 2014 i3/Rex and have posted some similar observations on an advice thread I started. I do not tend to get positive responses from BMW owners. I do think the Leaf is a better car, specially when you consider the cost differential between the two cars. And honestly the ride is better. The only thing imo that saves the i3 is the range extender.

And not having CHADEMO after the Leaf, and having a useless fast charger, is just a wee bit irritating.

But I knew all this before going in. Sounds like almost all of this was a rude surprise for you. Sorry to hear.