BMW i3 Long Term Review - Drive Green Used EV Car Specialist

I'm Richard from Drive Green and today we're going to have a good look at the BMW i3. The i3 has always been a long-term favourite EV of mine. I've spent a lot of time with the car and a lot of time with its owners so hopefully I can share the benefit of my experience and help you decide whether this might be the right EV for you. Launched in 2013, the i3 was a revolutionary new kind of EV intended to bring BMW to the forefront of electric vehicle technology. It was designed and launched alongside the i8 sports car and the i3 featured manufacturing techniques that have never been seen on an electric car before like the carbon fibre composite passenger cell. The i3 was developed from the ground up to be as lightweight and efficient as possible. It's a totally new design rather than being repurposed from an existing combustion engine design making it a superb EV. BMW used a lightweight chassis, plastic panels and a carbon fibre shell which is one of the reasons the i3 is so punchy performance-wise and how it can achieve such good range figures for a battery of its size. This is also why the i3 looks so aesthetically different. In fact, BMW built a separate factory and locked away the designers for the i3 and the i8 so they weren't influenced by other sort of traditional combustion engine car designs and came up with something very unique. The car as a result certainly has a unique look. It's very snub-nosed because it doesn't need room under the bonnet for an engine. In fact, the lack of engine allows for a small storage space to be under the bonnet. The i3 is quite a tall car mainly because the battery lives under here underneath the seats. However, to slim the design down you've got this lovely sort of sweeping line on the bottom here especially visible on the lighter cars which I think makes the car seem quite a lot slimmer and sportier than it actually is. It has big 19-inch or 20-inch alloys. They are also super thin tyres to give the car a lower road contact resistance. This also increases the car's efficiency. Personally, I love the i3's individual look. I like things to look different and I like the fact the i3 shouts, look at me, I'm an electric car and I'm different. However, if you do like things that look a bit more conventional, the i3 may take a little bit of getting used to. The uniqueness of the i3's design isn't limited to its build or its exterior. They've actually done a really interesting job on the inside. The dash is extremely open, there's lots of glass, it's really bright and airy and actually it feels really, really spacious for such a compact car. One thing I really love about the design of the i3 is the attention to detail. The designers have really tried hard to create as green a car as possible with as low a carbon footprint as possible from its new manufacturer. BMW built an entirely separate factory for the building of the iCars, all powered by wind turbines and green energy. You've got these fibrous recycled materials evidently on display just to show it off. The fabric in the seats is made from 35% recycled plastic and even the leather in the seats has been dyed, or rather not dyed, it's been tanned using olive leaves apparently, hence why they're so brown in colour. An interesting design feature in the i3, obviously where you've got the carbon fibre shell, it's pillarless and as a result BMW have made the doors coach doors. It has some advantages, I've heard from some owners who think that arrangement is the easiest with baby seats for example, however it is and without its drawbacks. When you're parked in tight in a car park they can be awkward to open, however in those circumstances you move the front seats forwards and tilt them forwards just like you would in a three-door car, obviously a little bit more awkward. Equally another annoying thing is you need the front doors open in order to open the back doors and the back doors have the seat belt attached to it so you've got to unclip yourself and open your door to then open the rear door for your rear passengers to get out. Not a deal breaker for many people, certainly not for me because I do like the fun and funky design and I like things a little bit different in the cars, however if you're a taxi driver or someone who's carrying rear passengers an awful lot of time then the i3 possibly isn't the car for you. It's also much more spacious for passengers in fact than you would expect in such a compact car, however this has been achieved by only having two seats in the rear but it makes it nice and spacious, you've got cup holders in between, you know it's a nice place to be. BMW have also lowered the height of the window glass in the rear doors for the children sitting in the back so they've got a nice view out which I think is a really really nice touch, although it's probably worth mentioning that those rear windows don't actually open. The i3 in its natural state with all the seats up and four passengers in the car has got quite a compact boot, it's not overly small, in fact I think it's a great size, you know I think in most occasions I don't need a huge boot with all my shopping rolling around in it, all my work stuff, however if ever I need to go anywhere where I'm going to need to pick up a big load or carry a big item the i3 is the car I'll always choose because with the the rear seats folded down you've got an incredibly voluminous, almost estate style boot, very nice and level, easy to get into, nice and flat so it's got you know a compact boot in its normal state but the nicest best boot with the seats folded down. The i3's computer and media centre is controlled by something that BMW call the iDrive, it's not a touchscreen like most EVs, you've got a little wheel and some buttons down here in the centre of the car. Although it takes a little bit of getting used to I find it a much better system than using a touchscreen, certainly in terms of safety while adjusting things where you're driving you can drive quite comfortably when you know the system, just twiddle around with your left hand and get the car to do what you need it to do. Also I quite like it in winter, obviously in touchscreens you can't do anything when you're wearing gloves whereas you can still control the iDrive quite happily. The iDrive is a very clever system without going into too much detail, it has whatever you would want and does everything you need with the exception of possibly Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which are not available as standard even on the newer models. If you want to find out more about using the i3's iDrive and computer system please check out our in-depth car controls video. The i3 has been offered in a variety of battery sizes over the course of its life, starting in 2013 they released it with a 60 amp hour model giving the car around 70 mile range, it was available in a battery only version as well as a range extender model at that time. The range extender models have a small built-in petrol generator really, it's not an engine, it doesn't drive the car it just adds extra charge back to the battery. Then in 2016 they introduced the 94 amp hour battery which gave the car I think in my experience close to 130 miles worth of range which is a really big improvement. And finally the last generation launched in 2018 with 120 amp hour battery giving the car about 180 miles worth of range. Most EV manufacturers refer to their car's battery side in kilowatt hour capacity, however the BMW have chosen amp hours as their unit of measurement, that's because they don't want the i3's battery capacity to be compared like for like with other manufacturers. Since they are focused so much on efficiency the i3 is able to achieve much more higher range per kilowatt of battery side than its competitors. To unravel the mystery around the amp hour sizes and what it means in kilowatt hours, roughly speaking the 60 amp hour version was a 20 kilowatt hour battery usable capacity, the 94 amp hour 30 kilowatt hour usable capacity or just below, and when you're looking at the 120 amp hour you're looking at a 40 kilowatt hour battery usable capacity. The usable capacity is quite an important thing because it relates to long-term battery health of the car. What data has shown over the course of the existence of these lithium battery powered EVs is that repetitive charging in the very very top end of the battery like the top 20 percent of its capacity is what will lead to battery degradation, so that's the bit that's at risk, that's the bit that's most stressful to charge. So BMW's solution of course like many other manufacturers was to just not let you charge in that section, so the 94 amp hour battery for example is a bit over 33 kilowatts of actual battery size whereas you're only able to access 29 kilowatts of it in daily driving and daily charging. The results of which is, I mean obviously the BMW i3 is a very efficient car and that efficiency goes over onto its long-term battery life predictions where you're seeing extremely low figures over a very long period of time and lots of miles of driving. One thing I found with the i3 is it seems to favour quite a long continuous drive unlike a lot of EVs where say a long motorway drive for example seems to seriously eat away at the range. I've had some of my longest ranges achieved in an i3 doing these long continuous runs and you know the right time of year with sort of very sensible careful you know EV style driving I can easily get 160 miles out of a 94 amp hour battery which generally I would say is a 130 mile range car. One thing I've noticed from my time spent driving the i3 is that its range predictor is somewhat inaccurate and tends to greatly under predict the range you can achieve. This shortcoming is however quickly overcome once you get to know your car and what it's capable of doing in reality with your driving style and route patterns. The range in the i3 does however suffer a little bit in winter. There is a heat pump option but it's only available on the BEV models and in all honesty it's quite rarely specced. A heat pump heating system is a very efficient heating system it uses compression a bit like an air conditioning unit to generate heat and it's roughly about four times as efficient in generating heat. However in line with the efficiency of everything about the i3, the i3's heating system albeit traditional one it seems much more efficient. You know you will like all EVs you'll see some winter range loss due to cold temperatures and the use of the heating system but it's not quite as acute as on some other heat pump free EVs. If the fun of driving holds any value to you then I think the i3 is probably the best EV you could possibly get. It's incredibly nimble, zippy, punchy, it's rear wheel drive, for that real sporty feel. For me it's without the most fun EV to drive. When you first get in it for your first drive you might find it oh it's a little bit it's not as well planted as I would like. Obviously it's quite a tall car with very thin big wheels and a very very sensitive steering so it might take a little while to get used to it but once you do it is well worth it. Very small adjustments on the steering and it just handles beautifully. It's incredibly punchy, ever so nippy from a standstill as well as from 30 to 50, 30 to 60. So there's plenty of power there for overtaking anything and any zippy off the line manoeuvres you might do at junctions or roundabouts. It's also an ever such a well-assisted car so even if you put your foot flat to the floor from a standstill the car won't actually wheel spin, gets you going a little bit and then rockets you off. Now the i3 has a real true one pedal driving style, it's kind of the first of the EVs to do that. To go fast you push down on the accelerator, to slow you just lift off the throttle. You hardly ever need to use the brake, obviously it has a brake which you might use if you're not concentrating or to hold yourself downwards on a hill but most of the time in driving you will just drive with just the one pedal. Most EVs have multiple sort of regen braking settings however the i3 has just got the one and they've set it I think pretty much spot on perfectly. The i3 is such a good car and it hasn't been ever since its, well its first launch in 2013 and the fact it was one of the first EVs on the market and this good I think is absolutely incredible. Obviously there's loads of EVs hitting the marketplace now however I genuinely think even moving forward I think the i3 is going to be really really hard to beat. The i3 is a brilliant car that really showcases what an electric car is capable of and provides both personality as well as an entertaining drive. Especially with the range extender option it's also an extremely capable long distance driving EV. I love the i3, I think a lot of its value lies in its drive experience so I urge you to come for a test drive if you're able to. This is definitely a car to fall in love with once you've been for a drive. I hope this video has been useful in showing you a bit more around the i3. If you'd like to find out more or arrange a test drive please do get in touch but thank you very much for watching.