Rating and Buyer Reviews for Bmw I3 2014

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Past Jonathan Crouch

Introduction

At its launch in 2013, BMW'south i3 was an electric vehicle unlike any nosotros'd previously seen. It could be bought either in pure electrical form or with a Range Extender petrol engine added to prolong the menses owners could travel betwixt potentially rapid charge-ups. The calorie-free weight of a specially adult land-of-the-fine art carbon fibre and aluminium chassis further help with extending that mileage and, along with the startling power of the battery pack, this besides plays its function in creating the kind of dynamic driving experience you lot simply wouldn't await an electric vehicle to be able to provide. Simply so this is BMW's approach to EV motoring. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. Here, nosotros evaluate the original 2013 to 2017-era version of this i3 as a potential used car purchase.

Models

Models Covered: Meaty 5-Door hatch - i3 full-electric / i3 Range Extender

History

BMW were the first of the prestigious brands to enter the mainstream part of this electrical vehicle marketplace with this motorcar back in 2013 - the i3.

In size, equally you can run across, information technology's not a lot different from the kind of smartly badged pocket-sized Audi, Mercedes or BMW that, in decently pokey diesel fuel automatic class, would cost you lot about the same. The concept on offering here though is far more forward-thinking - that of offering cipher emissions in a premium bundle, all the same at an affordable price. Such an objective might sound straightforward only the engineering necessary to deliver it is anything but. Hence the reported £2 billion evolution cost for this, the first in a whole series of alternative drive i-branded models we'll exist seeing from the Munich maker.

Like its sister model, the hybrid i8 sportscar, this is a very different accept on EV motoring, designed from the ground-upward as an electric vehicle and unusual in this segment in its use of rear cycle drive and its accent on an engaging at-the-wheel experience. Information technology's groundbreaking besides in the lightweight chassis and bodywork solutions that accept left it far less heavy than other pure electric rivals. That enabled BMW to fit larger lithium-ion batteries that helped with the operating range, which in real-world terms was around 80 miles with the originally-launched model. Things improved greatly in 2016 when a new 94Ah/33kWh bombardment unit increased that range past almost 50%. Buyers yet not convinced by that can become themselves the alternative 'Range Extender' version with a tiny two cylinder petrol engine out back that almost doubles the length of journeys you can take between potentially quite rapid charges. A facelifted i3 range was launched here in early 2018, complete with an extra, slightly more potent i3s derivative. Here though, our focus is on the original 2014-2017-era model.

In some ways, the i3 is a car of contradictions. An individual pick, yet with mass entreatment. And an eco warrior that a petrol head might also relish. Ultimately though, information technology'south a BMW built-in to be electric - which ought to be a very proficient thing indeed. Let's discover out.

What You lot Get

One matter's for sure - y'all're not going to mistake the i3 for any other BMW. Interestingly, the German make elected to commencement clothe its futuristic eDrive technology with as futuristic bodywork, rather than simply install it into a familiar existing model, a safer approach that the Volkswagen Grouping took with its rival eGolf and Audi A3 etron models. Doing something similar would certainly accept been less risky than producing a design as wilfully improvident as this. It would have been easier and cheaper as well. After all, prior to the launch of this i3 in 2014, this Munich maker had already adult hundreds of MINI East and BMW i Serial Active Eastward prototypes that enabled potential customers across Europe to test the new technology.

And then why didn't they go that route with this i3? Well, because in doing so, they would have created but another electric automobile, rather than the definitive EV. Think of two of the main reasons why y'all might be hesitant to buy a model of this kind - restricted range and stodgy handling. Both accept a lot to do with the heavy weight a vehicle of this sort has to carry around. Reduce that weight and the car becomes lithe, agile and able to go a lot further between charges. Sounds uncomplicated doesn't it? Problem is, there'south merely and then much you lot tin can practise to reduce the bulk of the battery pack. What you can exercise though in developing this kind of machine is to reduce the weight of the bodywork that surrounds that battery and the chassis it sits upon. Merely merely if you lot pattern the affair from scratch. Only stick a battery propulsion pack in a vehicle originally designed for a combustion engine and compromise creeps in, with space wasted where components like the fuel tank and exhaust system would normally be housed. Plus you've the original version'south heavy steel underpinnings to have into account.

Now yous run across why a stand solitary model like this i3 was necessary. Going from a clean sheet of newspaper, the BMW eDrive design team could create a lightweight body perfectly balanced to conform the specific needs of its electric powerpack. That weight saving could then be 'invested' in larger batteries to amend the operating range. That was the idea; the i3 represents the reality, with bodywork fabricated from the kind of aluminium and carbon fibre mix you'd find on a McLaren P1 supercar or an F1 1000 Prix racer. Those are the headlines, simply the reality is that near of the carbonfibre used is blended with plastic - which sounds far less exotic. All the same, what's important is the terminate result. Without the batteries, what we take here would be hands the lightest car on the marketplace. Even with them, this BMW even so only tips the scales at virtually 1.two-tonnes - about the aforementioned as a conventional Ford Fiesta and between 200 and 300kgs lighter than pure EV rivals similar Renault's ZOE and Nissan'southward LEAF.

That's impressive but whether it all justifies a design quite every bit curious as this one is a judgement potential buyers will have to make. Simply about the only car that we can retrieve of that looks anything like it in profile is Audi's old A2, another design thought of equally being well before its fourth dimension. The i3 is much bigger than the A2 though, measuring four metres in length, which means information technology's a few centimetres longer than a Ford Fiesta but, at nearly 1.6m high, quite a flake taller. Having said that, yous don't encounter too many Fiestas riding on 19-inch wheels similar those included here - unless y'all've got a few one-time copies of Max Power stashed away somewhere.

Nosotros certainly like the forepart, which introduced some subtle new vocabulary to BMW'due south well-established design language. The Munich maker'southward familiar forepart kidney grille is present and correct, but it's purely cosmetic as the electrically powered i3 doesn't require any cooling air, even if yous do cull one with the supplementary petrol engine out back. Positioned at the same superlative are sleek, characterful headlamps which sweep dorsum well into the flanks and are framed by U-shaped LED light units. A neat black border connects the lower edge of the apron with these circular fog lights.

Motion around the car and the aesthetics go a piffling more controversial, with the major signature feature being what BMW calls a 'black belt', this made up of darkly-coloured panels that extend from the bonnet over the roof into the rear with its starkly-styled vertical tailgate, a hatch be-jewelled with 'floating' LED light units.

If you're shocked past that, a closer expect at the side profile will crusade an always greater double-take. Yes, the familiar so-called 'Hofmeister kink' that characterises the trailing edge of the rear side windows on virtually all BMW models is nowadays and correct simply you'll wait in vain for anything else to visually connect this improvident blueprint with anything else you'll observe in ane of the Munich maker'south showrooms. Perhaps the most curious impact is the sudden dip in the pronounced 'streamflow' shoulderline just rearwards of the front doors. It's evidently there to create a larger side window surface for the rear rider compartment only it looks similar a bit of an after-idea.

Yous'll be glad that it's at that place though, if yous have to have a seat in the rear, which would otherwise be a bit of a black hole. And pretty impossible to get to were it non for the opposing coach-style doors that open to reveal the lack of the kind of central B-colonnade that virtually every other car in the world has to accept. Back seat occupants would be pretty much trapped if this BMW had ane only the bodywork and chassis of an i3 are so stiff, information technology isn't necessary. And so it is that, rather confronting the odds, what we have here is a car that'south incredibly easy for anyone of whatever age to get in and out of. It is unfortunate though that the rear door tin can't be used until the front one has been opened - which means that you'll e'er have to act similar a chauffeur when dropping the kids off on the school run.

Talk of children brings upward a potentially deal-breaking indicate for a family folk with three offspring. Namely that just two people can actually be accommodated back here, fifty-fifty though three would probably fit at a squash thanks to the lack of the usual eye transmission tunnel. Some kids won't like the fixed side windows either. On the plus side, those passengers you lot can have will enjoy reasonable rear legroom (thanks to the sparse front seats) and plenty of headroom (even with a sunroof fitted), although because there'due south a battery pack nether the flooring, your anxiety and knees are a bit higher than would otherwise be the example. It's certainly a flexible space, the completely flat floor making it possible to easily shimmy across the motorcar and exit on either side.

Which you tin can also practise upwards-front: there's a totally flat floor there likewise. Here, the roomy feeling yous get comes with no caveats thanks to the low windowline, the tall airy cabin and, if they've been fitted to the car you're looking at, the optional glass roof panels. At that place's no conventional instrument cluster - just ii loftier-definition LCD screens, one behind the steering wheel and the other (either 6.five-inches or optionally 10.25-inches in size) sited at the top of the centre console and big enough for rear seat folk to see. The gear selector and outset/terminate push button share a stalk projecting from the steering column and yous engage gears using a rotary controller, which moves forrad or backwards. The central design element is an arc of trim extending from the air vents on the left-hand side of the cockpit, which continues behind the steering cavalcade and reaches its total acme above the usefully deep top-lidded glove box.

This surface could be specified by original owners in eucalyptus wood and around it prevarication other renewable materials like naturally treated leather, wood and wool. Everything centres around eco-minded sustainability, with 25% of the plastics that would usually be used in an interior of this sort replaced with recycled or renewable elements. The leather used is treated solely with natural substances, merely we're less keen on the material used on the instrument panel surround and door trim panels which apparently use fibres from the kenaf plant. Maybe so but information technology still reminded u.s.a. of loft insulation. Withal, it would certainly impress your green-disguised friends. Original buyers in search of luxury were offered iii different trim packages by BMW ('interior worlds' as the marketers rather pretentiously called them). 'Loft', 'Lodge' and the top 'Suite' trim level add things like eucalyptus forest, velour floor mats and stitched leather.

That simply leaves the kick, which offers a relatively restricted 260-litre chapters thank you to its high flooring. That's quite a flake smaller than that you lot'll find in theoretical all-electrical competitors similar Renault's ZOE and Nissan's LEAF. Having said that, it is bigger than the trunk you'll notice in a Ford Focus Electric and almost the aforementioned size equally that provided in what is probably this car'due south closest marketplace rival, Volkswagen's eGolf. There are rubber tie-down straps and lashing eyes plus an under-floor compartment simply if y'all practise need more room and can fold down the l:50 split rear bench, you lot'll create a completely flat surface feeing upward ane,100-litres.

What You Pay

Delight contact us for an verbal up-to-date valuation.

What to Look For

You should check following things have been serviced and/or replaced: door seals (particularly on early '63 plate cars), sunroof seals and HV cables. Likewise, check that the motorcar yous're looking at had the necessary software update that BMW appear in mid-2016. Ideally, yous'd stay clear of the primeval '63-plate or 'xiv-plate cars as they've exhibited the well-nigh consumer issues - the '63-plate models (most of which were built for BMW's original demo fleet) particularly. The '14 plate cars can exist a little hitting and miss; many you'll observe will exist sporting redesigned parts; find out from the original owner what these are. It's simply another reason to effort and stretch to a post-2016-erra motorcar with the longer-range 9AH battery. Besides check the nav system has had a current map update; if it hasn't, your mapping is liable to be upward to three years out of date! As usual with a modest family unit auto, kerbed blend wheels and signs of interior child impairment are very possible. Use these as negotiating points with the seller.

Replacement Parts

(approx based on a 2015 i3 Range Extender excl. VAT) Considering this is an electric car, the amount of parts needing maintenance aren't that great, merely there are a few. A pair of rear brake pads are about £75. And a wiper blade costs around £23. If y'all're buying from a BMW dealer, bank check whether the motorcar has the cover of a BMW insured warranty; call up that this applies just in the offset three years from new and without a warranty in place, repair costs tin can exist absolutely ruinous - e.k. a safety box can toll well upwards of £2,000 if it needs replacing. Warranties not issued from VBMW dealers will probably exist useless.

On the Road

Then, what'southward it like? Well, you lot take your identify on the high-set driver's seat and survey the elevated view it offers of the road ahead - surely ideal for urban motoring. Hither is a driving environment very different from the kind you'll exist used to - no gearstick, no instrument cluster and all the data you'll need marshalled by two free-continuing screens. Many i3 models you'll discover volition be fitted with keyless entry, which means you printing a Starting time button which in response delivers a chime rather than the audio of a starter motor. Now you've only to twist the column-mounted gear selector to 'Drive'. In that location's no 'creep' like you'd get from a conventional machine but brush the throttle and the i3 eases away with a gentle whirr from its electric powerplant. At last, it seems, the 21st century has properly arrived.

At present we know what yous're thinking. This motorcar is all about sustainability and the rosy glow that comes with being an early adopter, just you know something? It's not. If always you lot needed confirmation that this model is shot through with BMW Dna, a short trip in i provides it. This is annihilation only an anodyne electrical box, all fifty:fifty weight distribution, experience and feedback, really rewarding you at the wheel. This affair has grapheme to information technology, something evident not just through the futuristic style of the fittings but also from the fashion it matches the instant throttle response you expect from an all-electric vehicle with the crisp steering feedback you don't. This car's been developed and built by people who care.

Earlier we get any further though, we need to make very clear that in the 2013 to 2017 period, in that location were two very distinct versions of the i3 customers could buy. There was a pure electric model powered solely by an electric motor. Early versions of this variant had a 'real; world' operating range of around 80 miles between charges. With the mail-2016 94AH models, that figure was increased to around 120 miles. Go for a 'Range Extender' model and you're looking at a range of up to around 150 miles for an early on car - or around 180 miles for a 94AH model.

The 'Range Extender' variant uses a Korean-congenital two-cylinder petrol generator, a powerplant borrowed from a BMW scooter and at that place to work in tandem with the 360v 22kWh lithium-ion battery that propels this i3 along with impressive speed. Notation that we've called it a 'generator' rather than an 'engine'. That's considering it never actually drives the wheels: existence only 647cc in size and developing merely 37bhp, information technology probably wouldn't be up to that. Its role instead is merely to extend the life of the battery pack so that i3 owners don't suffer the sort of 'range anxiety' that afflicts the drivers of many electrical vehicles who moving-picture show themselves running out of juice somewhere inconvenient or just plain dangerous. If that looks likely to happen in the Range Extender version, yous but pop into a petrol station and top it upward.

The thing is though, this motorcar is at its best when you lot're not using the petrol unit. Recollect of it equally a 'get out of jail costless' card and attempt non to printing it into service too often. How will that happen? Well automatically mostly, the powerplant cutting in with a clatter (that'southward fortunately been well deadened in the cabin) when battery capacity drops below 20%. When it is rumbling away out dorsum, your expectations of what the scooter engine can provide need to exist realistic. Later on all, the tiny 9-fuel tank means it only extends the battery pack'southward eighty-100 mile range by around lxxx miles. And, as we've said, the engine'south assistance doesn't change the style of your near-silent, milkfloat-style battery-powered mobility.

We should bespeak out earlier nosotros go on that this Range Extender model'southward petrol generator doesn't have to piece of work automatically. Yous can manually turn it either on or off via the car'due south iDrive settings menu. Why might you practise that? Well if you're on a longer trip, once the bombardment'due south range has gone downwards below 75%, you might want to switch the engine in before so that normal battery charge tin be saved for urban center driving later on on in your journeying. The other scenario is one where you're nearly home and the engine'south about to cut in, yet y'all know from your remaining range that you can make it back to base. That's when you might want to stop the engine cutting in and needlessly using upwardly fuel. Behave in mind though that if you get your range calculation wrong and run the battery ability right down to the nothing charge indicate where the engine's forced to cut in, you lot'll and so be giving that little scooter powerplant an atrocious lot of work to do every bit it simultaneously would have to charge the batteries while providing ability to the electric motor. Something would have to give, which is why your pinnacle speed would then be express to just 44mph. Which wouldn't be a lot of fun on the motorway.

And, surprising as it might seem, fun is a big role of why you might want to buy this automobile. As nosotros've been suggesting all the way through, it's everything y'all don't expect a pure EV to be. Yes, as you'd look, all the traditional plus points of total electric motoring are here present and right, so you go the refinement nosotros've just mentioned, plus the low middle of gravity (and subsequent feeling of all-circular cornering balance) generated by cardinal placement of the heavy batteries. But that's not the primary memory yous'll carry away from your exam bulldoze. No, you'll be pleasantly surprised - and maybe even a niggling shocked - by the speed of this thing. All total-electrical vehicles have instant torque from rest but that's usually blunted by the heavy weight they tend to bear around. Cheers to this BMW's lightweight construction (it's no heavier than an ordinary Ford Fiesta), you really get to experience the sheer performance this technology can deliver.

At typical city speeds, this tin be quite startling. We're talking here about a automobile that can propel itself from zilch to 37mph in just 3.7s, which is quicker than a V8-engined M3 super-coupe. In fact, if you've an i3, nothing short of a supercar is e'er going to outdrag you away from the lights. There's something vaguely kittenish but comical about watching a GTI driver cooking their forepart tyres in a bid to catch upward with this eco-minded electric runabout. Who says sustainability has to exist so serious? The Range Extender model is obviously a little heavier than the pure EV version, its engine and fuel tank adding the weight of an extra podgy passenger, just the performance deviation isn't very significant, the pure electric model's 7.2s 0-62mph showing slowing to a still respectable 7.9 seconds in this engine-assisted variant. The top speed is pegged at an identical 93mph in both vehicles. That's if you use the drive system in its normal 'Condolement' or more efficient 'ECO PRO' modes. Switch to the third 'ECO PRO+' setting though and your velocity will exist restricted to just 50mph. Ultimately, it all boils down to the fact that this is the outset car of its kind you could genuinely enjoy driving.

That's i matter yous'd expect from a model with that blueish and white roundel on the nose. Some other is the provision of drive to the back wheels rather than to those at the front end, an unusual thing for an electrical vehicle and another reason why traction away from the line is so skillful. True, the tyres are skinny merely they practice a remarkably constructive task of setting torque to tarmac. The electric motor'southward rated at 170bhp and cranks out 250Nm of pulling power, enough to ensure the need for a fiddling caution if you're pushing on through the bends, though understeer, torso lean and lack of side eternalize support on the seats will ultimately run across you throttling back on the shopping rocket heroics. You'd expect that though from the tall, curt advent, the limitations of which are well bearded past the rear weight bias and the calorie-free but direct electric steering (borrowed from the 3rd generation MINI) that makes the motorcar feel lithe and sporty and, with just two and a one-half turns lock-to-lock, also endows it with quick reflexes in town: the 9.86-metre turning circle is comically minor and beaten only past a London Blackness Cab. We could practice with the ride being a little more forgiving though: potholes and scabby surfaces are more than of an issue in this BMW more than they should exist in what is, beginning and foremost, an urban runabout.

Perchance the weirdest thing nigh driving the i3 is that you can perform almost of your journeys in it using only one pedal. There are already but two - all EVs are automated of form - only in most scenarios, you can go out the brake pedal well alone. How so? Well it'southward certainly something that takes a chip of getting used to. The moment you lift your pes off the accelerator, the electrical motor switches from 'drive' to a recharging 'generator' mode, feeding power into the lithium-ion battery. At lower speeds, this has the side effect of creating a significant braking strength, which means that if you lot program ahead, you tin soon carry out almost of your slowing downwardly manoeuvres without actually touching the brake pedal. Don't worry near being rear-ended by post-obit cars either. As a rubber mensurate, the brake lights come on if the regeneration slows you significantly. It all means that switching back into a conventional vehicle after using an i3 can be quite alarming if yous forget what you're driving and look the same kind of braking effect to kick in merely by rolling your pes off the throttle.

As for charging, well the ordinary public charging points that the sat nav will be able to direct you to tin, depending on the 1 you come up beyond, generally charge your i3 in anything betwixt ane and four hours. If you're really lucky when out and well-nigh with this car, you'll be able to use i of the then-chosen 'Rapid charging points' beingness placed systematically at central locations such as motorway service stations for long journeys. These put out a fizzing 50kW and can give this BMW an 80% charge in just half an 60 minutes. That'll exist plenty to cover most typical commutes.

Nearly of the time, of course, you'll be charging up overnight at abode - provided of course y'all have off-street parking. If y'all don't, you might as well forget EV motoring altogether. Assuming that's not a problem though, BMW volition sell y'all a seven.4kW 'i Wall Box Pure' charger that provides a zero to eighty% charge in 3 hours and doesn't toll much more than effectually £300 fully installed. You really take to have this we call up, every bit on a standard 240v wall plug, you're looking at seven hours or more for a full recharge. Either style, you can also set up the machine up on its integrated seven-twenty-four hours timer to charge itself on low-price off summit electricity tariffs. If y'all're non happy with those tariffs, you can look at switching your domicile's whole supply to 'BMW Dark-green Energy', an eco-minded electricity supply offered in conjunction with BMW and the 'Good Energy' system.

What else? Well, the Munich maker offers all sorts of clever services for the i3, including a smartphone app that lets you remotely control wallbox charging, see bachelor public charging stations and even gives you turn-past-turn walking directions back to where you parked your car. There's also the BMW 'ChargeNow' package which, for effectually £20 annually, gives customers pay-every bit-you-go access to the largest nationwide network of public charging stations with a unmarried carte.

Overall

If, so far, you've been a bit sceptical most electric vehicles, then you need to effort this one. Even if it doesn't change your viewpoint, you're going to accept a heck of a lot of fun proving yourself right. It'southward distinctive, enjoyable and feels like a genuinely special ownership proposition. Compared to this i3, fifty-fifty a talented vehicle like BMW'southward ain 1 Series seems a bit greyness and two-dimensional. Similar information technology or non, this is the hereafter for small cars. Like virtually British buyers, if we were spending our ain money, nosotros'd definitely go for the version with the Range Extender petrol engine fitted. Information technology gives the automobile the added flexibility you'll appreciate when life doesn't quite become to plan and, autonomously from the premium existence asked, other downsides are few. Quite frankly, why wouldn't yous?

That'southward a question you could ask of the i3 package every bit a whole. And answer negatively past citing prestige pricing, awkward looks and restricted rearward space. None of these thing though, are issues likely to disproportionately carp the vast audience BMW is targeting with this motorcar. People who've so far stayed abroad from the electric vehicle revolution - merely might well join it with this car. The i3 has, later all, marked a existent milestone in EV development. Every bit for buying secondhand, well nosotros'd try really difficult to stretch to a model sold from 2016 onwards. Past that time, early teething issues were more often than not sorted and buyers got the benefit of a gutsier 94AH bombardment with a longer operating range. If that's possible, then you tin can buy with quite a lot of confidence. With a carbon-fibre chassis, brilliant ConnectedDrive services, a assuming and futuristic design ethos and genuine real world ownership flexibility, the i3 proved to be an electric vehicle that did more than just move the game on. It re-wrote the rules.

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Source: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/car-reviews/bmw/i3/i3-2013-2017/

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