High mileage/old BMW i3

[Discombobulate]

I get 4m/kWh out of mine. Love it - a hoot to drive. Bought as white goods for work and it has fast become the family's go to car.
Go for the 120 EV if you can. Avoid the Rex if you don't need to do more than 120 miles a day in the depths of winter (in summer mine has achieved 175).

[TDK-C60]

Also been looking at the latest Mini e.

This appears to have the engine from the i3S and some tests show it hitting 60 in 6.6 secs and doing 170 miles on a charge (though not at the same time). This is the LCI 2022 car.

Doesn't have the cool design of the i3S mind, and the early cars looked a bit pants, though I do like the 3 pin alloys.

On balance a i3S still seems a better bet, but interesting.

[Mits]

I had a 2017 94ah i3 Rex for 2yrs and did 40k miles, now have a 2018 i3s Rex for 30k miles. Not a single issue.
Just used for commuting two days a week, 130m in the summer, 100m in winter, Rex used sparingly if get caught out in the winter or traffic. No noticeable drop in range on either car.

For that low mileage usage I would get a full electric i3 or i3s. They hold value well, bought my i3s new for 28k, being offered 22k after nearly 4yrs. Keeping mine as they no longer make the Rex, which has been handy on some longer journeys.

I only charge at home on Octopus ev rate and journeys are all within range or I just use the ice cars. Easy parking in car parks, no door dings as plastic panels. Just get the newest and highest spec for your budget.

[Canon_Fodder]

TDK-C60 said:

Also been looking at the latest Mini e.

...

doing 170 miles on a charge

More like 100 - 130 mile range for the Mini e.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mini/mini/352323/new...

[HelldogBE]

Canon_Fodder said:

More like 100 - 130 mile range for the Mini e.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mini/mini/352323/new...

Don't think the Mini E ever got the 40kWh battery (it's 30kWh, same as the 94Ah middle of the range I3).
It also suffers from the classic design setup, so FWD instead of RWD as well as steel monocoque & panels instead of carbon tub with aluminium subframes and plastic body panels which bring the I3 to a 300-400kg weight advantage).

[Bowside]

One top tip for you, if you search YouTube you can find the combination of buttons you need to press in order to get the health of the battery on the internal display.
I did this on a couple of i3's I was looking at last year and found quite big differences in 5 year old models, as I guess it depends how they have been treated and charged, but well worth doing it on a potential purchase.

[Maracus]

HelldogBE said:

Canon_Fodder said:

More like 100 - 130 mile range for the Mini e.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mini/mini/352323/new...

Don't think the Mini E ever got the 40kWh battery (it's 30kWh, same as the 94Ah middle of the range I3).
It also suffers from the classic design setup, so FWD instead of RWD as well as steel monocoque & panels instead of carbon tub with aluminium subframes and plastic body panels which bring the I3 to a 300-400kg weight advantage).

Yep, the Mini E has a 28.9kWh battery. Range wise, it's 100 in the winter, and we've seen upto 145 in the Summer.

[Niffty951]

why did I just read this after buying my 94kWh i3s REX.

Bowside said:

One top tip for you, if you search YouTube you can find the combination of buttons you need to press in order to get the health of the battery on the internal display.
I did this on a couple of i3's I was looking at last year and found quite big differences in 5 year old models, as I guess it depends how they have been treated and charged, but well worth doing it on a potential purchase.

For the record I'm new to i3 ownership, but now wondering why I'm so late to the party. I feel sad they aren't better understood and feel like my anxieties before buying one were not well founded at all. I love my range extender and wouldn't have one without if just for that comfort blanket of infinite range. Driving 'up North' I waited till it got down to 75% battery and then stuck it on range extender for the rest of the trip. It did 104miles averaging 4.4m/kWh and that included 20mins on sport mode blatting down a good b-road at a pace any golf gti would have found amusing. Running the REX on maintain charge setting doesn't reduce the cars performance at all as long as there is charge there to use and the 30kW of mobile rapid charge power easily keeps it topped up over the course of a drive. I only lost 10-15% over the ~70 miles. At the end of the journey I had about half a tank of petrol and a total range of 128miles remaining.

I'm doing a 250mile journey in it this Friday and temped to see if I can manage it without refuelling, although putting £10 of petrol on at the half way point isn't much of a hardship.

[Niffty951]

I'm pleased to say I checked my battery health and as at 29k miles it's 29.4kWh. Which I think is as factory still.

There are rumours that Tesla batteries are far surpassing expectation on life so fingers crossed the trend extends

[Bowside]

Glad it's fine, I was going to suggest everyone posts how much life they have left in some sort of confession thread!

[TDK-C60]

HelldogBE said:

Canon_Fodder said:

More like 100 - 130 mile range for the Mini e.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mini/mini/352323/new...

Don't think the Mini E ever got the 40kWh battery (it's 30kWh, same as the 94Ah middle of the range I3).
It also suffers from the classic design setup, so FWD instead of RWD as well as steel monocoque & panels instead of carbon tub with aluminium subframes and plastic body panels which bring the I3 to a 300-400kg weight advantage).

I thought I saw a youtube video where someone get pretty much 6m/kW out of a new 2022 one - hence 170miles from its 32kWh battery.

Can't find it now.

[Maracus]

TDK-C60 said:

I thought I saw a youtube video where someone get pretty much 6m/kW out of a new 2022 one - hence 170miles from its 32kWh battery.

Can't find it now.

Best we've seen out of ours driving normally in the summer was a pro-rata 142. To get 170 would take some doing!!

[Paddymcc]

Sold my 2018 Rex i3 a few months back and battery showed no real degredation over the 76k miles.

They supposedly have good battery management systems unlike early Lead models.

[off_again]

Paddymcc said:

Sold my 2018 Rex i3 a few months back and battery showed no real degredation over the 76k miles.

They supposedly have good battery management systems unlike early Lead models.

Nearly 3 years of ownership and over 20,000 miles and a total mileage just under 50,000 total and I saw no degradation in the battery - and very simple maintenance and overall costs. The only issue was the overly expensive tires, but that was the only thing that I could complain about.

[TimJMS]

I've had four of these since '14. The first an early REx was a regular visitor back to the dealer having its various REx issues sorted. The subsequent other 2 have only returned when their term has expired, and I'm a year in to the fourth. Going to miss these when they are gone. Daily fun for a decade, I've loved every minute.

[Niffty951]

TimJMS said:

I've had four of these since '14. The first an early REx was a regular visitor back to the dealer having its various REx issues sorted. The subsequent other 2 have only returned when their term has expired, and I'm a year in to the fourth. Going to miss these when they are gone. Daily fun for a decade, I've loved every minute.

I'm interested what trouble you had? Did you use it a lot and it was unreliable or do you think it was lack of use?

I've guessed that these may suffer under use typically so even though I'm only commuting 65 miles return, I've made sure I turn it on for a drive and run £5-10 through it once since my last long drive. I plan to continue doing that every couple of weeks.

If you used it all the time and that's what failed it then I might reconsider.