So who's getting an i3?

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Discussion

Synchromesh

2,428 posts

165 months

Thursday 3rd October 2019
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Could anyone tell me the motorway range of a 60Ah i3 at 65mph and 80mph, in typical conditions and worst case?

And does the range degrade with age and mileage of the car?

biggles330d

1,527 posts

149 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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120 kWh i3s here (bev). It's my second, the first being a '65 60 kWh (bev). Both had/have the aux heater although I never really understood what it did but I optioned it mainly because I'm in Scotland and it's colder, and on my first i3 at least, it was said to improve the range a little. With the range often not much more than 80 miles (I think I got 100 on the range just once, on a nice hot summer day) I figured every little helps. It was also spec'd with the fast DC connector, which is now standard anyway.

Both had pro-nav (standard on i3s, optioned on my first one)
Both had H-K (optioned on both), as I listen to a lot of music and crappy car radio's really irritate me.

Initial i3 had the standard interior - it seemed to wear well over the two year I had it, but so it should! It was a bit 'grey' though. I spec'd the suite interior on the i3s, which makes it a much nicer place to be in.
Initial i3 had 19 inch option wheels - the 5 spoke black/silver ones. On a white car, they really lifted the look over the standard wheels. i3s is on 20's as standard. The ride is reasonably hard but no less unbearable than any other m-spec BMW, and not a lot different from the 19's before.
I spec'd the rear camera on the i3s. It wasn't that much extra, but I reverse down a long drive every day. Works fine, although the lens is mounted on the bumper and quickly gets covered in dirt / mucky water.
Initial i3 had tinted glass, on a white car. It looked cool (to my eyes anyway!), bit like a storm troopers helmet! The i3s is red with clear glass, identical spec to most of the publicity spec cars.

While it's a marmite design, I really liked the look of both and the blatant ground up philosophy of the car - light weight, advanced materials, structure built around its powertrain.

Range on the i3s is properly double the first i3 I had. The range metre at full charge is often at 170 miles and in good weather even more which, even for me in central Scotland is plenty to get me anywhere I want to go. We're lucky to have a lot of public chargers and free charging up here though.

i3s is significantly more stable on the motorway and in cross winds than the earlier i3 was and was a primary reason for choosing the 's'. The standard car was quite prone to cross winds being fairly tall, slab sided and on skinny tyres. The wider track and slightly lower stance of the 's' makes a world of difference.
Also noticeable between the '65 and '68 models is the advanced in electronics, which on the earlier i3 often led to un-nerving lag while with the re-gen and traction control when backing off on bumpy or slippery ground. All lag has been eradicated on the newer i3s.

Performance wise, its plenty for 99% of the driving I do. The instant torque is addictive in everyday driving and its plenty fast enough for all 'normal' roads. It's not the last word in handling and driver engagement, but it costs less than 1/3rd to run (less using free public electric) than my previous 330d, which was pretty efficient itself, averaging 45mph over the 6 years I've had both an e90 and f30.

Yes, I do have another car, a Discovery 4. That's the lugger and long distance car, which is a lolloping old beast with a bit of a drink problem, but is very enjoyable to punt around and will brush of 500 miles very comfortably. It sits in the garage for weeks and weeks on end though, proving to me that range anxiety really is in the mind, not an everyday reality for the vast majority of trips I do.

Fingers52

20 posts

88 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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We took delivery of our i3S around 4 weeks ago, and I couldn't be happier.

Coming from an XF 3.0 turbodiesel was no problem, and I love the peace and quiet, acceleration, 'nippiness' and the look. My wife's Q2 will now be relegated to the second car for long journeys.

We drive in 'eco-pro' all the time with no problem, and wish we knew of a way to set this as the default (?). The car suits our 12 mile (each way) trip to the office down country lanes, which are getting more clogged with wide lorries and people who favour driving down the middle of the road, so a narrower car is a major plus point.

Still waiting for the home charger to be fitted, however, so having to charge it in town and walk back (5 minutes only).

One question I have is that I can park it with 160 miles range left, but when I get back in the next day the range has lost around 5 miles. Does anyone else's do this?

Fingers

dmsims

6,450 posts

266 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Does it not come with a granny charger (3 pin plug on the end) ?

Daaaveee

909 posts

222 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Fingers52 said:
One question I have is that I can park it with 160 miles range left, but when I get back in the next day the range has lost around 5 miles. Does anyone else's do this?

Fingers
Are you just talking about the GOM (guess o' meter) range changing, or has it actually lost some percentage of battery? If its the GOM range then yup thats normal, its just a guess based on recent consumption and will re-calculate often. If its battery percentage then the only time I've seen this drop between leaving and coming back to the car is when I have a departure time set and its preheated or cooled the cabin.

Daaaveee

909 posts

222 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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dmsims said:
Does it not come with a granny charger (3 pin plug on the end) ?
Yes it should do, I believe they all come with it from the factory. The Type 2 cable is one you might have to ask for from the dealer, which they'll usually throw in as part of the deal but some will try and get away with not giving you one.

The 3 pin granny charger works well if you don't do that many miles daily. We used to top up with it every other night before we got a home charge point installed. Just make sure the socket you're plugged in to can handle a constant ~10A draw for hours on end. The socket and wiring to it should be in good condition, not worn out (even 'modern' looking ones might be worn and not making good contact with the pins) and also not be getting hot to the touch - just check after a few mins, half hour, an hour etc until you're happy its not getting too hot. If in doubt though replace the socket and get an electrician to check. Also be very careful about using extension leads. A lot of normal reel ones are not up to the job and even if they are make sure you uncoil them! I used a high quality extension from toughleads.co.uk.

Greg_D

6,542 posts

245 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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evezy customers often lose charge due to the software constantly pinging bluetooth/gps etc (don't know if that's just a tesla specific problem)

you can lose charge if you have a preset warm up time as well.

oop north

1,592 posts

127 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Daaaveee said:
Fingers52 said:
One question I have is that I can park it with 160 miles range left, but when I get back in the next day the range has lost around 5 miles. Does anyone else's do this?

Fingers
Are you just talking about the GOM (guess o' meter) range changing, or has it actually lost some percentage of battery? If its the GOM range then yup thats normal, its just a guess based on recent consumption and will re-calculate often. If its battery percentage then the only time I've seen this drop between leaving and coming back to the car is when I have a departure time set and its preheated or cooled the cabin.
Ideally you need to check percentage state of charge to see if that is falling. That never ever fell on my i3 (had from December 18 for three years and 39k miles) but the GOM did change a lot. Particularly noticeable on a very cold day where the drop (in v cold it was 20-odd miles different) meant I couldn’t get home again without charging or using the Rex. If the battery has cooled down then some juice will be used warming it up to operating temperature- that juice would not have been required in the summer

modeller

443 posts

165 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Synchromesh said:
Could anyone tell me the motorway range of a 60Ah i3 at 65mph and 80mph, in typical conditions and worst case?

And does the range degrade with age and mileage of the car?
at 65mph , 80miles summer, 65 winter. It's got 19kWh available. 3.1 - 4.0 miles/kWh is typical.

at 80mph .. 50miles winter at a guess

Shaoxter

4,048 posts

123 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Picked mine up a couple of days ago! 94Ah Rex.
Wanted a BEV ideally as it's going to be pretty much all city driving but there's not many to choose from. This one had pretty much everything (Proper Nav, Suite, HK, LEDs, reversing camera, sunroof) and it was even in my preferred colour of Protonic Blue so I jumped on it.

It's great fun around town and now I no longer have to feel guilty about short trips to the shops, station etc. Been trolling some M Sport/AMG line diesel types off the lights smile

One pedal driving is very intuitive, but I still need a bit more practice when slowing to a stop smoothly. Lack of brake dust will be a big plus! The controls are all very familiar coming from numerous BMWs but I almost smashed into the garage yesterday by selecting R instead of D (having got used to PRND autos).

SWoll

18,206 posts

257 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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Greg_D said:
evezy customers often lose charge due to the software constantly pinging bluetooth/gps etc (don't know if that's just a tesla specific problem)

you can lose charge if you have a preset warm up time as well.
Tesla thing where it pings the car to keep uit awake so it responds to unlocks immediately as they are initiated over wifi, fixed now apparently.

Left my i3 at Manchester Airport Jet Parks for a week last month, didn't lose any charge in 7 days. Good job really as got home with about 5% left. smile

Shaoxter said:
Picked mine up a couple of days ago! 94Ah Rex.
One pedal driving is very intuitive, but I still need a bit more practice when slowing to a stop smoothly. Lack of brake dust will be a big plus! The controls are all very familiar coming from numerous BMWs but I almost smashed into the garage yesterday by selecting R instead of D (having got used to PRND autos).
I advise giving them a bit of use relatively frequently at this time of year TBH. I've found if you don't when you do come to stop when parking and need them it can get a bit 'interesting' at times, especially if you are reversing into a space..

The wife also has had numerous close misses due to the gear selector. smile

Edited by SWoll on Friday 4th October 22:02

Heres Johnny

7,175 posts

123 months

Saturday 5th October 2019
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biggles330d said:
120 kWh i3s here (bev). It's my second, the first being a '65 60 kWh (bev).
For the pendants (like me) it’s Ah not kWh, there’s quite a different

dmsims

6,450 posts

266 months

Saturday 5th October 2019
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"different" what ?

EddieSteadyGo

11,721 posts

202 months

Saturday 5th October 2019
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dmsims said:
"different" what ?
It's a different measure. On the i3 bmw confuse things by reporting their battery pack capacity in Ah (Amp hours) rather than kwh.

To convert between the two you multiply by the voltage (e.g. 360v) and divide by 1000.

kwh = (ah x v) / 1000 = (120 x 360) / 1000 = 43.2 kwh

Fingers52

20 posts

88 months

Saturday 5th October 2019
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Hi

It's the range which seems to drop, so probably as you say it is the guestimated range suggested by the software.

We did get the 3 pin charger but have no garage, so have to trail the lead out of the window, which just about reaches. I did try this yesterday and it worked well, but the pug was quite warm, so I will be limiting its use to emergencies I think.

Thank you for your responses!

Fingers

biggles330d

1,527 posts

149 months

Sunday 6th October 2019
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Heres Johnny said:
biggles330d said:
120 kWh i3s here (bev). It's my second, the first being a '65 60 kWh (bev).
For the pendants (like me) it’s Ah not kWh, there’s quite a different
Quite right, my mistake!!

snorkel sucker

2,662 posts

202 months

Wednesday 16th October 2019
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Is anyone able to advise on the current lead times for either the standard i3 or the i3s?

Current lease car goes back in March and I think I'm fixed on going electric next (yet to drive an EV though...). Unfortunately there are no EVs on the current company car list however either a personal lease or a finance deal would be OK.

Current deals seem to vary quite a lot in terms of cost I have found...

JackReacher

2,118 posts

214 months

Wednesday 16th October 2019
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Mine arrived this morning, 7 weeks from ordering, factory order. Much quicker than expected as was told mid December originally.


SWoll

18,206 posts

257 months

Wednesday 16th October 2019
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Looks great. Enjoy. thumbup

182scott

5 posts

96 months

Thursday 17th October 2019
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I’ve just placed an order through my work scheme this Tuesday, just waiting on some final checks before the order is confirmed. I’ll report back the estimated lead time once I get a confirmation email through.