Born Electric Guest Blogger: Meet Bill from The UK

Hi, my name is Bill and I was born electric on 14 March 2014. 

I've done 2,000 miles in my i3 so far so I thought it was time to contribute first impressions viaTom's blog (thanks Tom). As you can see from my photos, this i3 is definitely not a city dweller, although in the south of England you're never that far from a city to be honest. Driving country lanes so much makes it really tough to keep clean though.

I came to the i3 via a curious route, because I had really been looking for an electric motorbike. Sadly, there are not many to choose from and none from the established mainstream motorcycle producers. The more I looked into things the more I was convinced I could live with the range limits inherent to EVs; my daily commute (25 mile round trip) is very compatible with the range of most pure electric vehicles. Coupled with the luxury of having other family vehicles available if needed, it made it really easy to make the switch. But when I started looking to replace my ICE car, nothing really excited me, until the i3 that is. The focus on weight reduction resonated with what I look for in motorbikes; the development of new car construction technologies was unusual in the EV market and designing the car to be an EV from the ground up rather than converting an ICE model seemed much more satisfactory. All this indicated to me that BMW have a level of commitment to this EV which is very welcome as a consumer. Although the price point of the i3 comes in for some criticism, next to the competition I think it is amazing considering the development. And, in the UK at least, the price benefits from a plug in grant which is not the case for electric motorbikes.

Car specification and options assessment

This car was bought primarily for my daily commute and circumstances meant that I decided early on to go for the pure electric model. The REX is a great choice if you need the daily range or you are buying one as your only family car, but that wasn't my situation. As I was buying a BEV I initially specified the following options to help with range on the odd occasion that I might want or need it.

ZWT Winter pack, includes 494 (heated seats), and ZHV (high voltage battery preparation).

4T9 Auxiliary cabin preparation

4U7 DC rapid charge   preparation

As for the cosmetic options, I will probably keep the car for some time so went for the Suite interior hoping that the leather will wear well. I added turbine 428 wheels and LED headlights, and finally added parking assist when I realized it was the only way to get front parking sensors. The Pro navigation system and real time traffic info was a free of charge upgrade. I chose Arravani Grey as my colour option.

Of the options I didn't chose I'd make the following comments. I've had cars with sun roofs before and never used them. I don't like how cruise control takes away my control of the car so the idea of the driving assistance package did not appeal at all. My commute is virtually traffic free down country lanes so it would not have much use anyway. I don't need to make much use of my phone when on the move so enhanced bluetooth was an option without much benefit. I was coming from a 20 year old Mazda which had no remote central locking so I'm still enjoying the �thrill� of opening it without using a key making comfort access seem like overkill. I don't need the car to have the internet (I have a smart phone) and couldn't justify spending the extra on the premium sound preparation when it cost more than I spent on my home hi-fi speakers. I won't often take more than 1 passenger so the lack of rear speakers is not a worry. On the specification front I would say that a lot of the details about what these options actually do were only filled in after I placed the order, and having owned it for a couple of months I'm still not sure what the adaptive part of the headlight function refers too! 

Having lived with the options I thought scoring them might be of interest to potential buyers:

Winter pack �  heated seats hardly affect range at all, even on full chat � a must have for temperate climates 10/10

Auxiliary cabin preparation � not sure how much this helps so difficult to score.

DC rapid charge preparation � time will tell but a potent game changer in functionality terms so I wouldn't be without it 10/10

Suite � love the mix of leather and wood so 10/10.

LED headlights are an expensive cosmetic option which I think I could have done without. As is common on modern lights they produces a blue halo around the edge of the beam which is off-putting for me and other drivers and I quite regularly get flashed by cars heading in the opposite direction even though I only have had dipped beam active. In the past I've had motorbikes which produce a light with a blue halo and I've had cars in front of me on a motorway brake hard and pull onto the hard shoulder because they thought I was the police � not ideal! 2/10. If I did it again I would probably drop LED lights in favor of the premium sound preparation.

Park Assistance front sensors are very handy but the rear camera takes some getting used to using and trust. Park assist parallel parking works very well although day to day I don't have much call for it. 10/10 for how well it works but 5/10 in value terms as it is an expensive option if like me it's just to add the front parking sensor functionality.

Efficiency, Range and average speed

My daily commute is 25 miles and at the end of two days commuting I typically have 25-30 miles of range left, but I haven't tried a third day without charging yet. I commute in Eco Pro mode with the speed limit set to 55 mph. When I can get away with it I just use heated seats (climate control only being used for demisting). Bear in mind that morning temperatures for the bulk of my mileage were rarely above 10 C here and most of the time I've owned the car the evening temperatures have been similar. My 2 day cycle therefore normally includes one pre-warm while attached to the mains and 3 pre-warms without mains. My longest trip between charges was 84 miles with 4 miles remaining. The trip was made early morning at temperatures between 6 and 10 C, the last 15 miles was warmer, up to 14 C. This was in Eco Pro mode with no climate control apart from some occasional demisting, along mostly country lanes and A roads, rarely breaking the 55 mph limit I have set in Eco Pro. The car tells me my average speed is 29.0 mph, average consumption is 4.2 miles/kWh and I've done just over 2000 miles. The car once told me I had 111 miles of range, but I didn't believe it!

Accessories

Public charging cable, cargo net, all weather floor mats and additional 13 amp UK charger. These all work well and like others I find the mats slippery in the wet but this doesn't bother me and I like the way they look. The additional 13 amp UK charger was bought because I wanted to mount the one that came with the car to the wall of my garage but also wanted one to carry around in the car. I've swapped the main beam bulbs for a cooler light as I didn't like the mix of white and yellow beams. I don't have a level 2 charging station at home yet but have started the ball rolling.

Reliability

The app needs a bit of work, both in terms of the functionality it offers and whether it reliably updates. I find the algorithm behind delayed charging (which makes it difficult to predict whether the car will take a charge when you've plugged it in but told it not to) hugely frustrating and wish BMW had included a simple �charge controlled by smartphone� option in the car's charge settings. If I want app control over charging I have to fudge it by swapping from charge immediately to charge using off peak time settings. I've had the car report interruptions to charging a couple of times and I've had it fail to precondition a couple of times but other than that it's been trouble free. A slight grumble with the climate control is that it tends to noticeable oscillate from warm to cold air but I will get used to that. I'm still confused by the preheating function which appears to leave my car with less that 100 % in the battery when attached to the mains. The attachment of the charging socket protective cap to the charging flap leaves a lot to be desired and I still don't have a manual for the Pro-Nav system.  

Public charging

This is my first EV and reading stories about charging points being out of service, ICE'd or otherwise not available has left me nervous about committing to a public charge as the only means of completing my journey. By scouting potential destinations I have confirmed the need to do this as the information about public charging points can be hit and miss. I have come across points listed as operational which were no more than concrete standings and other points listed as public which are really intended for the sole use of the company who have installed them. So when I set out for Bristol which is a 120 mile round trip requiring a charge to complete I was quite nervous, despite having visited and found that the listed charging points were mostly available (most common problem I saw there was being ICED, about 25 % of bays). But the trip went without a glitch and I was pleased to see the BMW app updated the availability in real time which is useful for all users. I moved the car off the bay once fully charged so that another EV could use it. When I returned to the car after the gig I'd been to, the EV bay I'd been in was ICED!

In summary I hope you can tell from my photos that I love the car. The only option I regret including is the LED headlights and if I was buying again I would have swapped the LED lights for the premium sound package. That's not to say that the standard sound is bad, on the contrary it is very pleasing. I could go on as there are so many aspects to this car to but overall so far I'm a  happy EV driver and a very happy i3 owner.

Cheers for now

Bill 

Comprehensive i3 Video Review By Nissan LEAF Owner in the UK

It seems that nearly every day now there are new short video clips of i3 reviews posted on YouTube. When I come across one that I feel is done very well, I'll post it here. Such is the case with the above video made by Grant Thomas from the UK. Grant maintains a blog called "The Grant Thomas Blog: Sustainability, Electric Cars & Technology News and Comment" where he posted this i3 video review.

Grant owns a Nissan LEAF so he is an experienced electric vehicle owner and in my opinion that gives his review a little more credibility than some others done by journalists with very little real life electric vehicle experience. The video is about a half hour long and he does manage to cover a lot so pour yourself a nice cup of coffee (or a glass of wine), and kick back and enjoy!

I Was Born Electric On...The First BMW i3 Owner Review:

 

A while ago I announced that I would be starting a new series here called, "I was Born Electric on...". I'll be featuring readers who are i3 owners and who are willing to share their thoughts on the car after taking possession. They will begin the post by introducing themselves and stating the date they were Born Electric, which is when they picked up their i3. Without further ado, I bring you Andy from the UK, our first i3 owner & Born Electric guest blogger:

 

Hi, my name is Andy and I was Born Electric on Saturday, January 11^th,  2014.

I came to the EV party a bit late in the day, as I was a typical petrolhead and dismissed electric cars as an irrelevance - underpowered, no range, ugly, the usual stuff - and even when I first saw the i3 concept, it looked weird & the projected price seemed way too high (I think a projected �40,000 base price was mentioned at the time).  So I ignored it and carried on driving my gas guzzling M3, even though I wasn't enjoying the daily grind in it: mainly in traffic, 40+ miles a day, costing me around �350 a month in petrol. The only times I really got to enjoy the M3 was on my drives with the guys at Petrolhead Nirvana, who arrange trips to Scotland, Wales, the Alps, and elsewhere - amazing places where you can give a 400hp car a bit of stick. More about them later.

Then the i3 proper was launched in August, and at seemingly sensible prices (c�25,000 after the UK grant), with leasing costs at around �350 a month.  Hey, that number looked familiar - an idea began to formulate in my mind... and a few days later, early August 2013, I was putting down a deposit. My man-maths (or man-math for our American cousins) told me that the fuel saving, together with fewer miles on the M3 meaning lower depreciation, less tyre wear & fewer services, could make the i3 a �free� car!  A quick spin in an ActiveE in September blew me away and confirmed my thoughts that I was doing the right thing, then an actual i3 test drive in early November really sealed the deal.  Except the demo car was loaded with extras which I had a chance to play with, so my originally bare bones car ended up, if not fully loaded, at least three-quarters loaded. On top of the gadgets like Parking Assist & Driving Assistant, I liked the wood on the dash, but I also liked a darker interior that wouldn't show the dirt so much, so the Suite (Tera in US) interior was added in too. Suddenly my arithmetic wasn't adding up quite so well, but too late now!

Delivery was scheduled for late January, but you'll have gathered that I was hardly racing to be the first owner of an i3; I figured there had to be many UK buyers who'd been more far-sighted & quicker off the mark than me. So I was really surprised to be the first in the UK - or at least, the first in the UK on the mybmwi3 forum - to take delivery of an i3.  As I write, 10 days after, it seems there have been no more deliveries still, and there's even talk of further delays, so I don't know how mine beat the blockade, but I'm glad it did!

The Wallbox

Before the car was due at the end of January, I had to get one fitted at home, so after a fair bit of chasing, I took a call on Monday 6th January booking me in at short notice for the following Thursday - "we'd better get on with it as your car's at the dealers". Wait, what?! A quick trip down there after work confirmed there was a car matching my order exactly, sitting there quietly - but the dealer at first denied it was mine!  A bit of pushing from me finally established it was mine, but also that there was a mistake on my invoice, putting the dealer's �5,000 grant from the government in potential jeopardy. So while it was all sorted out, my car sat there doing nothing, just out of my grasp, and I eventually took delivery on the Saturday. Frustrating - but in light of the delays others are experiencing now, I should've been more patient!

It turned out my house, built around 1900, had electrics that weren't much newer, so neither the supply to the house nor the cable to the garage were up to the job of charging at the full 7.5kW. I've ended up with half that, but that's plenty to recharge the car from almost flat to 100% overnight. The BMW wallbox is a big ugly thing though, and I wish I'd gone for the smaller & cheaper option made by Polar, or one of its competitors. I think for the charging rate my house will support, it would've been free in fact.

My first few miles

My first day as an EV driver was spent going round friends & relations, and blowing their minds. I'm sure this is old news to all you current EV drivers, but the whole experience is so alien, yet so pleasurable, that a huge grin is inevitable the first time you try it, whether driving or as a passenger. It�s a fantastic talking point too � friends, clients, even strangers are all eager to know more about what the future of motoring holds for us all.

My first long trip. Range Anxiety - what's that then?

Only 6 miles to spare!

Each month, Petrolhead Nirvana (the guys who organize the long distance driving trips) hold a meeting at the Ace Cafe, a famous venue for car & bike owners in northwest London.  January�s meet was only two days after I'd taken delivery, but I was keen to take my new toy to show off to my pals there, although it wasn't quite in the spirit of the occasion - people usually bring their Ferraris & Lambos, M-cars & 911s. I was fairly sure they wouldn't kick me out, but there was another hurdle for someone with a 2-day old pure electric car (I'd avoided the REx on cost, performance, and purity grounds - lugging a petrol generator around everywhere seemed to spoil the whole idea, and with a bit of planning, didn't seem necessary, for me anyway) - the Ace is about a 70 miles round trip, and at that stage of my ownership, a whole week ago, I really wasn't sure if I'd make it.  I know better now! A cold & slow EP+ drive up there left me with plenty of range (especially after borrowing some electricity from the cafe manager, thanks Nick!) to give some rides to my Petrolhead mates, all of whom raved about it - the more demo cars BMW can get out there, the more they'll sell, definitely - and to drive home in Comfort mode, and in comfort, with the heating on and a heavy right foot. I figured that if the range remaining got close to the distance to home, I could soft-pedal and knock it back to EP or even EP+ mode and still get home. Using this method, I had a fantastic fast drive back through London and made it home with 6 miles to spare - a close call, but I really didn't feel worried at any stage.

Range Reduction vs Miles Traveled

Since my epic(!) trip, it's been the usual commute for the last week, and as I know I'm going to do around 50 miles a day at the most, I drive it without thinking about economy at all. As a result, my iPhone's been telling me I have 75 miles at the start of the day (100% SOC), but then my spreadsheet tells me that my range reduces by about 13 miles for every 10 miles I drive, even though the car's had a few days now to predict it accurately. So if I drove normally (for me), I'd be stranded at about 60 miles. Don't be alarmed though - if I needed to go further in a day, I'd drive differently,  and get maybe 90-100 miles. I don't know for sure yet though, as driving economically is next week's experiment! 

As it is, one thing I'm enjoying immensely is coming home, plugging it in, and knowing that a few hours later I�ll have a full �tank� for minimal cost.  I'm certainly not missing my frequent visits to the petrol (US: gas) station, and it feels strangely liberating each time I drive past one. If you haven�t experienced it yet, you'll love it.

Performance - the i3 vs M3 race

You've probably seen this video of the drag race at Brands Hatch from the UK launch, where the i3 storms ahead of the M3 before finally being overtaken at maybe 50mph. After driving the i3 for a week, and being in the fortunate position of having both cars, I thought it didn't quite seem right, and once the weather improved enough to get the M3 out of the garage, I fired up my Dynolicious app (no, this wasn't going to be a properly scientific test!) and set off - to a test track near me, obviously.  The i3 was very easy to measure consistently � just put your foot down. The M3 needed a bit more finesse, and it was strange having to get used to driving it again after only a week. It turned out that, surprise surprise, the i3 was quick, but not as quick as an M3. To its credit, it was only a second off at 50mph (5.5s vs 4.5s), but then I wasn't really trying in the M3 as it was a bit damp and I had to be careful with the throttle.   If the M3 was properly driven by someone who knows what they're doing, the gap would be much wider I'm sure. Click on the pictures to enlarge:

i3 Stats

M3 Stats

Tech Stuff

I guess I�m a bit of a geek, although I don't profess to be any kind of computer expert. I do enjoy fiddling with technology though, and that's one of the things that attracted me to the i3 - I'm especially enjoying stuff like the Driving Assistant, almost making my commute enjoyable, and the Parking Assist just makes passengers laugh! The voice control is very good, much better than the old iDrive's in the M3, and the phone call sound quality over Bluetooth is much better too, helped by the quietness of the car I guess.  And coming down to a toasty car with a clear windscreen on a frosty morning is superb!  However, I somehow imagined the quiet peaceful surroundings of the car, and using the Active Cruise Control, would get me to work completely relaxed and happy, but that was expecting too much: it still takes me just as long, and there are just as many idiots on the road, after all.  Even an i3 can�t magic them away! Some of the tech is pretty tricky to figure out, even for a geek like me, and I wonder if BMW will lose some of their potential audience - people who aren't tech-savvy but who would otherwise be perfect for an EV might get scared off.

Problems

Waiting patiently at the dealer

There's also stuff that doesn't work so well, including both the things I've just praised. The Active Cruise Control, part of the driving assistant, intermittently (but quite often) switches itself off, saying it's outside its working parameters - even when it's in the same conditions it was working fine in a minute ago. I'm not sure if it�s a design �feature�, or if my car has a fault. The Parking Assist threw a fit last night too, just when I was showing it off to someone, naturally. As it began to reverse, it lost track of where it was and slammed on the brakes (it sounded like the ABS came on, even though we were going slow), with dire messages appearing on-screen about the system being broken and insisting the car be taken to a dealer ASAP.  I turned it off and on again (see, I do know about computers) and it worked fine.  I've dropped it in to the dealers today though, and they're sending the diagnostic report off to BMW to see what they say.

The rear doors can be closed quite gently before you close the fronts - but if you do, a warning appears on the dash as you drive round corners saying they're open! A proper slam to close them does the trick; the dealer's looking into that too. Finally, some of the connected drive stuff is pretty poor (not unique to the i3, I realize); Facebook & Twitter don't give you enough of each post to be useful, email doesn't work at all unless you have a Blackberry apparently, and the apps like Napster & Audible are very clunky to operate.

Andy's stable is worthy of envy!

Summary

So, it's fair to say that overall I'm really pleased with my i3. It's quick, interesting, cheap to run, well made (niggles aside - but it feels solidly put together), and superbly designed inside. I'm still not 100% keen on the exterior looks, but she's growing on me. The Andesite paint looks great in some lights, a nice technical shade of grey, possibly with a very slight hint of brown to go with the dark brown leather interior & the wood on the dash - and in other lights it just looks like old man's beige! I rather wish I'd gone for a different colour, but unlike Tom, I like the contrasting black hood & roof, so the dark greys are out. And I don't like white or silver - so bright orange is what I should've gone for. Next time, eh? For now, I'm looking forward to many happy miles in this futuristic vehicle which seems to get everyone talking.  I might be a latecomer to this particular party, but hey, I�ve got the perfect ice-breaker!

If you own an i3 and would like to participate in the Born Electric series here, you can email me at: tom.moloughney@gmail.com