Any i3 owners up here?

I've recently started a 60 mile round trip commute for work and some of the 14 and 15 model i3 have popped up for less than $15k. A couple years ago I drove one for a short minute when a buddy picked one up. I love the interior and just the car in general, but the idea of owning a BMW that's a few years old AND being electric has me on the fence. Am I barking up the wrong tree? My FRS is not set up for much other than autocross or track days, and I'd like to keep my toy. Another option is Veloster N after selling the FRS and trying not to modify or do anything to it.

Anyway, here's one of the cars I'm looking at : CLICK ME

I'm sure there are others out there at a better price, but this is the first that popped on my radar. I'll gladly buy and have it shipped if there's a "more gooder" deal available.

I don't know a lot about the i3, but I know the range got longer and longer over the production run.

Can you plug in at work? How much variance is there in your day to day use - for example, do you run to the grocery store on the way home? You'll want to make sure you have enough range to do that, including in cold weather. Since you're looking at keeping an ICE in the fleet, you do have options for when the EV doesn't suit. A 60 mile commute with an ideal range of 81 miles seems to not have a lot of margin for side trips or weather.

EVs do make great commuter cars because they're unobtrusive. And I really like the i3 interior.

I had a colleague who had one after seeing my Leaf way back, and he loved it. They sure look neat on the inside.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I occasionally stop by a store on the way home, so that's worth thinking about. Typically I run few extra miles during lunch to grab a bite as well. The good news is I should be able to plug in while at work assuming standard 110 outlet is acceptable.

The interior is one of my favorite parts. I loved it the first time I saw it.

There are a couple of i3 owners here. Unfortunately, the forum search is not working for me right now.

Charging rates on 110 are usually really slow, like 3 miles of additional range per hour. Still, over an 8 hour workday, that's almost enough to get you back home again.

What sort of speeds are typical on your commute? The i3 is a GREAT suburbs/city car. It's fine at highway speeds, but that will eat up your range. 

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Most of the miles would be 70-75 mph interstate.

Karacticus on here has one with the range extender option, along with an i8.

Will tuning it for a larger fuel tank give you enough range? I've read that voids warranty, but I'd be surprised if a 2014 BMW is still in warranty.

Ok so I had one. First let me get this out of the way. LEASE ONE. There is about 12K in dealer hold backs, another 2500 in lease capture and another 1500 through some banks. You can lease a i3 reX for about 259 out the door with taxes in California with maybe 1500$ down on a 15K lease.  They want these things gone. 

I loved mine warts and all bu I had like number 3 off the boat to the US. All of my concerns have been fixed by now. 

Personal opinion, the bigger screen with enhanced navigation and the bigger stereo are the only required options. Fast charge I think you get now standard so that is great as well. Do the European tank hack to get 5.5 gallons of gas and drive the tar out of it. They are astonishingly fast 0-40. 

My only reason not to get one is if you live where it snows or is very cold 60% of the year if you get the non rex version. You lose to much mileage IMO. 

You only need the range extender if you're exceeding your battery range, of course.

I've got a 2015 Rex.  Smallest (only) battery available in that model year.  It's a great car, though somewhat expensive to insure, if it meets your use case.

Bought it used, CPO'd, with 15,000 miles on in for less than 1/2 the orginal sticker (which is essentially meaningless, as it was orginally leased)

I do 27 miles each way to work, the majority at 75 mph.   It won't do that without charging at work if the commute involves winter or darkness.  If I drove at 60, it would probably manage the commute a lot better, but I don't.

Charging from a 120 v plug isn't going to get you more than 5 miles of range an hour at best, about a quarter of the best you can do on AC.

It's not really a deal breaker, but avoid the 20" wheels if you can-- there's only 1 tire made that fits them, and it's a summer only tire.

I've not had any particular issues with the Rex, but I'd prefer a newer vehicle with a larger battery over the additional mechanical complication of the Rex.

I own a Matchbox BMW i3. It has given me any issues but ymmv.

We get the tiniest amount of winter mix, but when that rolls in I drive my Montero or the wife's h3. Summer tires should be fine.

The mileage range has me a bit worried.

Not a fan of leasing, and from my cursory reading it requires $4k at signing with a $309 monthly payment for just the base model.

Maybe it's just not the car for me. It's neat, just not sure it's as practical as I want it to be especially if insurance is much higher than usual. However if I'm not filling up gas a couple times a week there's some cost benefit analysis to be done.

Big deals were (at least recently) out there on new as well, like I was getting "loyalty" offers for ~14k off of new, though I never looked into it enough to figure out if they were including the $7500 federal tax credit or not.  This was for delivery some dealer stock though, and I'm under the impression that dealer stock is very close to zero, so that might have been the "yeah, that's the price when they aren't in stock" offer.

Fight headwinds often on your commute?  That makes a difference too.  I mean it does on any car, but you notice it a lot more when you're already pushing it for range.  Driving my 27 miles home at 70+ mph bucking a 30 knot wind can use over 70% of the battery.

There is definitely a savings to be had on fuel. I did the math a while back on our EV, and while it didn't cover the payments it did make a nice contribution. Your savings would be a lot higher given the length of your commute. It's worth doing the math for sure.

A lot of good info here already. Here are a few thoughts based on owning a 2017 i3 BEV for a little over a year. As already mentioned, it was designed as a city and suburbs car so you pay a price in range at higher speeds (or into a headwind). From my experience, 65-70mph seems to be the tipping point where I notice a drop in range. Physics, aerodynamic drag, and all that...

I have the 33 kWh battery and a 70 mile round trip at highway speed (70-75 mph) in the winter (below 30 degrees) will use up most most of it. You can certainly stretch the range if you slow down and/or don't care about being warm. My indicated battery range varies from 95 to 150 miles depending on ambient temperature and use (speed). Considering your commute, I would suggest looking for a '17 or later with the bigger battery.

The i3 in your link has the 20" wheels which, as Karacticus pointed out, you can only get with summer tires. I have set of 20" wheels along with a 19" set with Blizzaks for winter. Both sets came with my car and I'm in Ohio so that was a factor for me. 

I bought my i3 in January (2019) and used just the 110v charger for 3-4 months. If I ran the battery down to 25% or so during the day, it wouldn't get back to 100% charging overnight. The 220 charger makes a big difference in the winter, especially if you want to go back out in the evening. It also allows you to precondition (heat) the battery (and the cabin) which will improve your range in cold weather. I have (had?) a 40 mile round trip to work plus use it for errands and hauling kids around in the evening, up to 80-90 miles per day. Its been a great DD for the commute and local trips around town. 

The i3 also provides a nice balance for a weekend toy, although it can be an enabler. I had been driving an S2000 as my daily. After I bought the i3, I sold the S2000 and bought an Elise. 

I have a spare 220 line that hasn't been allocated to my fuse panel yet when our house was built. It was for a future welder or air compressor, but honestly I don't need either of those. If I can fit the car into my budget where it makes sense, it's at the top of my list.

Technically my weekend toy is the FRS but an Elise would be more than welcome to take it's place.

Check with your electrical utility. You may find out that the subsidize the purchase and installation of a charger that would use your 220. 
 

You'd want that to be a 40 amp circuit. IIRC, The i3 will pull up to 32 amps on a 220 line. 
 

I'm just slightly oversize on a 50 amp charger and circuit. 

Also, when looking at year round range at 70+ mph, 3 miles/kWh is a pretty good figure to use for the i3. 
 

You might do as much as 20% better in mild weather and do a little worse in the cold and dark. 
 

It's a good rough figure to work with though. 
 

Old fleet picture when I was at personal peak BMW-- Z4 has moved on now. 

maisgelb said:

. After I bought the i3, I sold the S2000 and bought an Elise. 

Funny how many S2000/Elise owners on this forum 

captainawesome said:

Elise would be more than welcome 

YESS!! 

I have a 15 non-REX. Love it. NFW I'd do a commute that long in it though. Get a Volt!

We have a 2015 REX. It's my wife's DD. Fully charged, it will go about 60 miles on a charge under mixed conditions. We're in north FL, so we don't use heat very often, but, when we do, the range is almost halved right off the bat. A/C is less taxing, interestingly. She has a pretty short commute, and does carpool, errands, etc. She will come have with anywhere from almost no miles of range to 50% of range. We charge on a 110v and it usually has to charge all night.

We bought it ~1.5 years ago (iirc) with ~25K miles on it for ~$21k (CPO car). We coded it right away to get the full 2.4 gallon capacity of the full tank. It's actually in the shop right now for the first time, as it developed a fuel leak (ironic, right?) and one of the motor mounts is bad. We have the 20" wheels and they are easy to bend/crack. We have one wheel that is slightly bent and had to replace another one that was cracked.

It's a super fun car to drive and comfortable for our family of 4. It's the first car I grab if I need to run errands.

In reply to dyintorace (Forum Supporter) :

Yes, I should say, I got my 15 CPO in 2018 and it has been dead reliable, knock wood.