It's track time! The first hand story:

My previous post was a video that showed some quick clips of an i3 racing around a track. I was happy to see BMW finally posting this video as I've been waiting for some performance-orientated marketing as I've had my fill of the Eco-Sustainable-Recylable side of the car for now. Of course all that stuff is very important, and BMW should be proud of how the i3 is the embodiment of BMW i's mission. But now it's time for some fun and this video is just the beginning. My good friend (and practically neighbor) Chris Neff was asked by BMW to spend a day at Monticello Raceway in an i3 piloted by race car driver Erin Crocker so they could film the i3 - and I suspect Chris's reaction. You can see Chris in passenger seat in some shots of the video below which is just a teaser, the real stuff hasn't been released yet. Chris was asked by InsideEVs.com to talk about his experience that day and the post below is what he wrote. I "borrowed" this from InsideEvs.com but they should get the credit for the original post which you can view here. Here is what Chris had to say:


Taking the BMW i3 on a track�a real race track, riding with a professional driver at the absolute limit for a full day at Monticello Raceway in New York and having it all caught on video; all this is what was spinning around in my head days before the shoot was set to take place.

Finally�The BMW i3 is on a Race Track � Image Copyright Chris Neff

I�ve been driving EVs since 2009, a MiniE and now the BMW ActiveE.  I�ve always been the kind of EV fan where performance was first for me, the eco was the bonus.  You can find me touting the benefits of EVs at many �green,� events but you will find me more often happily showing off my EV at exotic car meets and, in the past year, joined by other EV drivers who make it to the meets.  I�ve always felt the best way for people to embrace EVs is to show them off where you would never expect to see one�parked next to a Ferrari or Lamborghini or Mclaren�we all love cars and mine is a fun daily driver.
Now, along comes the i3, with its funky look and skinny tires.  I have to admit I was wondering if the i3 would be as fun as my ActiveE, I mean how could it be, just look at those tires.  Still, I liked the styling, it started to grow on me�.but would it be fun to drive?  I know that is the question on the minds of many.
�and now here we are, I�m ready to learn if the i3 is a real �drivers� EV and on a race track.

Monticello Raceway � I3 Handles Those Curves With Ease

It�s track day and now I get to meet the professional driver who is going to take us around the track.  Let me add that she is a professional race car driver.  Erin Crocker, who has been racing competitively since 7 (Nascar racer, sprint car racer, stunt car driver and EV newbie, nope never driven an EV) and she�s just an all around cool person.  She is laid back and, like the rest of us, loves automobiles.  So, this is going to be a real blast then right? I�ve never ridden in an i3 or been on a race track and Erin has never driven an EV.  I begin thinking we will just hit some decent speeds and test the handling�what could possibly go wrong.?
While filling out the final paperwork in preparation for the day I was asked if I kissed my family goodbye�.umm�.yes.   A few others came up and asked if I would be �ok� today�umm�.why?

Any concerns I had quickly turned back to pure excitement when we headed over to the garage and there was the i3.  Photos do not do the i3 justice, you really need to see it in person.  No, it does not scream BMW, but it doesn�t have to.  It is a beautiful car in its own right, the eye catching details are plenty.  Erin and I did a quick walk around and I pointed out some of the unique attributes to an EV as well as the i3.  Especially those tires.  You are immediately drawn to them as they are so skinny and you have to wonder how this car can ever handle a road much less a track.

It�s close to 8 am and we head out.  Erin is scanning the dash and soaking up the new controls she will need to get used to.  That took maybe 30 seconds and then we are off.  I don�t mean gradually.  Nope, she really went for it right away.  I calmly looked over and asked if she wanted to get familiar with the i3.  She replied �no it�s ok.�   I then asked has she ever driven this track.  Never, she replied.  Right�ok�.now this is getting interesting.
So we do about 3 laps and the speed is increasing.  Erin is feeling more comfortable, I�m not and it is not because of her driving, this is a first for me and all I�m seeing is how fast we are heading for a hairpin and no regen or braking is going on at all, at least not until the last second and when we go into that turn we are right back on the accelerator to pull out of it�..the i3 never flinched�I can�t say that for me.  I had such little time to process what was going on, but one thought was clear�the i3 is impressive.

We did a few more laps then pulled back into the pits.  Wow!!! I was full of adrenaline, a combo of fear and excitement.  I never expected the i3 to do that.  But wait, there is more, another 10 hours of this was left to go.  You see, this was to be a video shoot which means take after take�..we had two i3s to play with, one was the full electric and the other was the REx (extended range).  How would they both hold up through repeated on-track abuse?  We were going to find out and that was exactly why we were there.  Yes, I said 10 hours.  Now I understand why they were asking if I was �ok� with this.  Going flat out was pretty scary, but how long could that last?  Apparently close to 10 hours.  Okay then, let�s do this!!!
I won�t talk about the details of the shoot in this writing, I�m going to focus on what I think you all want to hear, how did it do on the track.   There are lots of reviews to be had on the i3, but none of them are about a track experience so here we go.
�before I head into my thoughts let me quickly chat about Erin, this was a fun experience for her.  It was clear she was eager to see what this funky little car could do.  While we zipped around the track I filled her in on EV terminology which she got a kick out of��frunk� was probably her favorite word.   She is truly a pro, she has been racing since 7 and does the sprint car circuit now, those are those tiny little 700hp race cars that go round and round a dirt track, very aggressive because you have to be.  Her driving style is all on or all off with quick turns of the wheel.  In many ways, an EV suits her style since they deliver power immediately or don�t and the i3s steering is instant quick�it was an observation of mine and she absolutely brought out all the i3 could do�.I definitely got more grey hair that day.

Bet You Never Imagined You Could Fit All This on the I3's Dash

Handling
First and foremost, the i3 is an extremely nimble critter.  How in the world can a car handle that well with such skinny tires and on one of the i3s was all seasons?  I�m no engineer, but a low center of gravity and low weight play an important roll.  The i3 looks tall, but the weight is down low and that chassis is as stiff as can be.  The i3 leans, but not enough to unsettle it.  Erin commented a few times how she was impressed at how easy it was to take a turn, very predictable and the front tires just kept grabbing.  Granted, the electronic stability brains were keeping us from sliding out, but not so much to ruin the fun.  The real issue that kept us from creating a slide was the computer cutting the power, there is no way to fully disable the anti-skid brains unfortunately.   Is this a problem?  Not in the least.  We were taking hairpins and long sweeping turns extremely fast, there is a sharp uphill hairpin, turn #18, and during the shoot we must have taken that 12 or more times both ways.  Not once did the i3 flinch�I sure did.   Especially going the other way where it banks to the outside, I could swear we were headed for the grass, nope, it was like the i3 was on rails�.maybe it is.
The steering is incredibly quick, Erin had a real chance to test it in the slalom.  You will notice at around 20 seconds in the video is an abrupt turn to the right, the i3 can do that all day, left then right and vice versa.  It is hard to tell in the video but those cones were pretty close together and Erin got through them all a few times, that is her skill and the i3 was keeping up with her with lightening quick steering and a chassis that likes to dance.  The i3 was definitely in its element here.  Erin and I both said�wow.

That�s the chase vehicle � a Mercedes-Benz AMG ML63�.the i3 had no trouble staying ahead of it

Turning radius
The i3 basically turns in on itself.  This is one sharp turning radius, take a look at 24 seconds into the video.  We were actually trying to get the i3 to do doughnuts, but the computer would not let the rear brake loose, still, you can see how it held and how sharp we were turning�.about 27 times in a row.
Braking
In a word�.wow!  We did a number of hard braking  shoots where we would be rolling along at 30 or so MPH and Erin would slam on the brakes�my eyeballs popped out with my brain following.  This car really does stop on a dime, we did this a few times and the brakes never faded.   In fact, the first time Erin slammed on the brakes it caught her by surprise, we did not expect it to stop that quickly, this car can stop!  This just might be the best braking street legal BMW out there.  We noticed no difference with the REx.
Ride quality
BMW has nailed it, of course this was a track and it was smooth but we hit those rumble strips regularly and fast.  The i3 never shuddered, it just soaked them up while still holding the track with composure.   It is one thing I noticed right away, the i3 ride is not punishing but it is extremely composed.   I�ve been driving my ActiveE for nearly 2 years and I do find the ride firm and a bit tiring after awhile but not the i3.  We even had an opportunity to have a full car, 4 adults, with gear inside, the i3 managed it well, never bottomed out or felt floatie.  This truly is an everyday comfortable driver that is athletic.
Chassis
Another wow, we had 2 cars to play with and we were on the track for nearly 10hrs.  The cars never complained, they came and left with the same tires, not a single creek or rattle and believe me when I say both cars were pushed to the edge time after time.  The i3 has no B pillar on either side�.it does not need them.
Acceleration
The i3 is quick, probably the quickest street EV other than Tesla that is available.  It has basically the same power as the ActiveE, 170hp and 184 ft lbs torque but it is pushing over 1,000 pounds less.  The i3 is quicker at everything and very refined, power delivery is amazingly smooth and that�s saying a lot since EVs are inherently smooth.   The i3 also keeps up its acceleration all the way to top speed, around 90.  There is also a cool �Sail� feature where basically there is a neutral spot between acceleration and regen where you can coast.  Erin did it at around 80mph a few times.
I was very impressed with how both cars kept taking the punishment being delivered to them.  They never faltered and were consistently comfortable.

Other Than 110 Chargers in the Pits � We Had Some Portable Chargers

Regen
The regen of the i3 is much more refined then the ActiveE is, more linear.   When I drove I did not really get a chance to try it myself and to be honest we never slowed down enough to experience it.
Interior
Other than the bits I was grabbing for dear life I did get a close look, mostly because my face or body was plastered on different areas of the car so I can confirm there are lots of soft touches in the i3.  This is a very high quality interior.   The i3 feels much bigger inside that you would expect and outward visibility is excellent all around.  The EV is quiet even at high speed, while cruising along at 90 the wind was not that bad�.I never had to raise my voice to speak to Erin�.well maybe when I was screaming in fear.
In the wet
Now this was pretty interesting.  The goal was to get the i3 to drift through water, no matter how hard Erin tried the i3 would not keep a sustained slide.  The anti-skid computer electronics kept the car in check even when flying into a puddle at high speed�.is this a bad thing�not at all, this is a safety feature.  The i3 maintains control.
Range
Well basically we killed it, none to speak of.  The i3 had its �juice� pedal mashed to the floor most of the time so it was impossible to tell what range we were getting, however with that said, I was able to see how efficient the regen was.  It was amazingly efficient, now I�m comparing to the ActiveE but just a bit of a roll down a hill and the i3 had some juice back, a few more rolls and we had even more.  For those know even a 1% difference is huge when you are trying to get home.  It looks like the i3 will have some very effective regen.

Erin and I After Our Awesome Day�The i3 Truly Impressed Us Both

So what was the REx like?
We had a pre-production REx version so it still needed some software programming but it works.  The little engine kicked on automatically with around 5 miles left of range, once it got us up to a few more miles it turned off, it was pretty quick, it pumps energy into the battery fast.   We had the chance to whip it around the track and it felt just as fast and just as planted.  Erin said she thought it felt a little better balanced�..all I know is it stayed on the track and I was extremely happy about that.
Summing it Up
I finally got my chance to drive the i3, it was a quick run but I got to feel it�s handling and acceleration.  The i3 is worlds ahead of the ActiveE.  I was really impressed, for me driving an EV is about performance and the eco part is the bonus, the i3 nails them both.
This was an absolutely amazing experience, being that this was my first true tack experience, that alone was cool enough, but that it was in the i3 and with a professional race car driver that had never driven an EV before made it all the more fantastic.  As EVers, we always want to give EV newbies seat time for that �A ha� moment but the opportunity to get a professional race car driver into one and watch her expressions as she clearly enjoyed the car was icing on the cake.

I�m sure you are wondering how does it compare to other EVs? It does not compare, it�s a whole different type of machine. Did Erin really push the i3 to the edge�without a doubt�yes.  What you see in the video is not all out, there is more to come.  In the beginning she was holding back a bit, maybe giving me a chance to recover from shock, but eventually she opened it up, game face on, all business, and we were flying�literally�we caught some air.  We once went off the track into the grass but the i3 held the line and just tip toed over the blades of green and back onto the track.  There were a number of times I really thought we were headed for a guard rail or into the woods but Erin and the i3 just took it in stride�.oh and the seats were comfy too, even though I was only in them half of the time.

There are some sounds of what appears to be tires squealing in the video�.that is probably me.

The First-Ever BMW i3 Hot-Lap Video

Now this is more like it! I've talked to quite a few people within BMW that have driven the i3 on a track and have promised me it is a capable performer, worthy of the BMW name. The test drives for reporters and the public so far haven't really allowed for this kind of performance validation so it's good to see the i3 tearing around a track. This appears to just be a teaser video, so hopefully we'll get a longer version of this driving event soon. This is my kind of sustainability: Sustaining my driving pleasure!

Test Drive Video From The LA Auto Show

During the LA Auto Show BMW held a private event for the people in the ActiveE field trial. The purpose of the event was to introduce us to the i3, let us take one for a drive and to answer any questions we had about the i3 or the ActiveE program we are in. All of the ActiveE lessees were invited but since this was held in LA, the East Coast ActiveE drivers (except for me) did not get the opportunity to attend. I was there covering the LA auto show for PlugInCars.com so I was able to attend. BMW has arraigned a similar event for the East Coast ActiveE drivers next week, which will be held at BMW headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

My passengers

Everyone was able to take an i3 for a test drive through the streets of LA, but because of the volume of people, they were limited to just one drive. I had already driven the i3 a couple times the day before and I wasn't going to use my slot that day but since I heard some of the others saying they wish they could go for another drive I told them to come with me as passengers and we'll use my turn. So I headed out to one of the waiting i3's with three of the other Electronauts (that's what BMW calls the ActiveE drivers) - which I won't name since I didn't ask them if I could mention them by name here.

Getting the camera set up for the drive

As we approached the car we were met by a BMW i marketing manager who explained we got one of the "lucky cars". BMW set up six i3's with iPhone's attached to the rear window that would snap pictures every couple seconds and they would them put them together and make a short video of the test drive. I'm not sure if it will actually be used for anything, but they gave the six of us that had the special cars a link and a password to the video as it wouldn't be posted publicly at this time. The video isn't all that exciting -all it shows is us driving around downtown LA but it's definitely a cool idea. It would have been better if I could have broke away from the LA traffic for a while and zipped around some winding roads.

What do you want to know?

Before I went out to LA a couple weeks ago I asked people to post questions or requests for specific pictures in the comment section. I think I got just about every question and picture requested. With the East Coast ActiveE private meet next Wednesday, I'll make the same offer. Post anything you want to know about the car in the comments section. However we will not have the opportunity to drive a REx i3 while the battery is depleted and in range extender mode, so unfortunately I won't be able to answer questions about the REx performance, noise, etc. Anything else is fair game though. I'll try to get every question answered and every requested picture taken.

No Numeric State of Charge Display on the i3? Really?

One of the advantages of not being first to market in any industry is the fact that you get the opportunity to study the competition's product and see what worked and what didn't so you don't make the same mistakes. One example in the EV industry would be to look at how Nissan is having difficulty with early battery degradation in the LEAF, especially in hot weather climates. It seems clear a sophisticated active thermal management system greatly reduces these issues by keeping the cells from overheating and from remaining at very high temperatures for prolonged periods of time. Besides watching the competition, BMW also gained a lot of useful data and feedback from the MINI-E and ActiveE programs. This, in my opinion, should have greatly reduced the chance that BMW would make a major mistake with the i3.

The MINI-E SOC was front and center

After driving the i3 four separate times now, I am pretty convinced it provides the driving experience I was hoping for. It's very quick and instantly responsive, has very precise steering and extremely short braking distances. The regenerative braking is nice and strong, although it's slightly weaker than it was on the ActiveE. It definitely is the "hot hatch" I was hoping it would be. That being said, it's not perfect - and I didn't expect it would be, but I didn't expect BMW to make an obvious critical error that could have easily been avoided, which I believe they did by omitting the state of charge display.
 

The ActiveE SOC & Battery Temp

Both the MINI-E and ActiveE  had a numeric SOC display and honestly that is all I ever use when I'm driving. I don't care what the estimated range indicator says. No matter how precise it is, it doesn't know how fast I'll be driving, if I am carrying three passengers with cargo or driving alone, if I'm going to be driving up a mountain or on flat ground. All these factors will influence how far the car will take you on any particular trip. The state of charge indicator is crucial for me and I believe I'll feel lost for a while driving an electric car without it. Sure, I'll get used to the bar graph on the drivers display screen, and I can kind of figure out the approximate state of charge, but that's unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. Let me see my state of charge and I know how far I can go. I'm not saying BMW should eliminate the other information they want to show, like the bar graph and estimated range. Go ahead and display that on the main drivers screen if you like, but give me the SOC somewhere so I can look at it if I want to. The car has the information available, why not include it on a screen somewhere, I don't mind if I have to look in the iDrive to find it.

What's the state of charge? 54%? 56%? I guess it's somewhere around there but I want to know precisely. Every percentage point counts some days in an EV when you are stretching the range. I want to see the SOC displayed in a simple numeric value somewhere.

BMW had a special event private at the LA Auto Show for ActiveE drivers only. I believe most people felt as enthusiastic about the i3 driving experience as I did, yet a lot of the conversations were about the lack of a state of charge gauge and how baffled many of us were about this. When the time came for a Q&A session it didn't take long for it to be asked and BMW tried their best to explain that the i3's range predictor will be so accurate that a proper SOC gauge isn't needed. That didn't sit well with the ActiveE drivers and the protest continued until the managers said they hear our displeasure and promise to revisit this, opening the possibility to adding the state of charge display before the US launch - or possibly just to quiet us down a bit and move on the the next topic!

There it is! 85.5% state of charge - only US customers don't get to see it!

One thing I found interesting is that on the European i3's, at least the one's with the range extender option, there is a state of charge display. A BMW i3 forum member sent me the above picture as proof. However here in the US that screen isn't available since unlike in Europe, US customers will not have the ability to manually turn on the range extender once the state of charge dips below 75%. The inability to do so does make the range extender less useful, however how much less useful is a story for another day once I've had the opportunity to properly test drive an i3 REx with a depleted battery in range extender mode. The point is, the car knows its state of charge and can display it for European REx customers, so why not just make the display standard on all i3's and make everybody happy?

Will this prevent me from buying an i3? No. Will it make the driving experience much worse? Probably not. What bothers me more than anything else is this is something the MINI-E and ActiveE were overwhelmingly in favor of and I don't know how BMW missed it. The point of the MINI-E and ActiveE trials were to find out things like this so the i3 and future BMW electrics would be the best they could be. I hate to really harp on this so much but I'm really disappointed this was somehow overlooked. It's not a little oversight, it's a major omission to me because it's something their pool of beta testers appreciated and wanted on their future EV's. When the Nissan Leaf launched back in 2010 it didn't have a state of charge gauge and the LEAF owners were very disappointed. So much so that they complained continuously until Nissan added the state of charge gauge two years later. How did BMW not miss this? It's really baffling.

BMW i3 Euro NCAP Crash Test Video

My previous post discussed the four out of five star rating the i3 received from the Euro NCAP crash tests. Above is a video provided by the NCAP which shows the various tests being performed on the car.

Additionally, BMW offered a press release today, seemingly as a response to the 4 star overall rating, with the intention of reminding customers that the i3 did sores a perfect 5 or 5 in the actual crash:

The BMW i3 achieved the highest rating of five stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests governing occupant protection and child protection that coincided with its market launch. As expected, the electric car matches the performance of the best conventionally powered vehicles in its segment in the area of passive safety. The Integral safety concept covers everything from collision avoidance to Intelligent Emergency Call and also meets requirements above and beyond Euro NCAP.

Its revolutionary new vehicle concept allows the BMW i3 to offer customers not only smile-inducing driving pleasure and outstanding environmental performance, but also top marks in terms of safety. An integral safety concept put together for the BMW Group�s first all-electric model includes everything from driver assistance systems focusing on collision avoidance, via passive safety to the Intelligent Emergency Call function � and complies with all global accident protection standards.

The aim of BMW�s integral safety concept is to achieve an optimum combination of active and passive systems that is geared to real-life traffic and accident situations. Among the active measures included as part of this concept are preventive systems which help the driver to avoid accidents. The Driving Assistant Plus system available for the BMW i3 includes both Collision Warning and Pedestrian Warning with braking function. Unique in the segment, this system helps � in urban traffic, in particular � to either prevent collisions or significantly reduce the intensity of the impact. Meanwhile, precisely defined load paths, generously sized deformation zones, a passenger cell whose strength allows it to serve as a survival space, and electronically controlled restraint systems with precisely interlinked functionality team up to optimise occupant protection if a crash is unavoidable. Likewise unique in this segment is the Intelligent Emergency Call function with automatic vehicle location and accident severity detection � a standard feature in the BMW i3. This system, which automatically establishes a telephone link with a call centre, thus cutting down the time it takes for the rescue services to be alerted, earned the BMW Group the special Euro NCAP Advanced Award from the European crash testing institute in 2010. As things stand, the standard testing process still does not include the Intelligent Emergency Call function in its assessments. Legal requirements stipulating the inclusion of a system of this kind in all newly registered vehicles across the EU will not come into force until 2015. 

The effectiveness of all the passive safety systems in the BMW i3 was analysed during the car�s development process in numerous crash tests conducted by the BMW Group�s accident research specialists and in cooperation with independent experts. As part of this process, all the accident scenarios referred to for vehicle registration processes and consumer protection tests around the world � above and beyond Euro NCAP testing � were taken into account, including an impact by another vehicle against the rear of the BMW i3 and a roll-over situation.

An extremely rigid passenger cell made from carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and the precise interplay of its restraint systems allowed the BMW i3 to record outstanding results for adult occupant and child occupant protection in the Euro NCAP crash test. The testers noted an exceptionally low risk of injury in both front and side impacts, as well as in the Pole Side Impact test. Particularly striking here was the low degree of deformation in the CFRP passenger cell, which also enhances the effectiveness of the restraint systems.

BMW i3 Earns 4 Out of 5 Rating in Euro NCAP Crash Tests

The i3 scored very high marks for passenger safety in all crash tests, so why only a 4 of 5 star rating?

Much to the surprise of quite a few people, the BMW i3 earned a 4 out of 5 rating in the Euro NCAP crash tests. BMW has been proudly proclaiming how incredibly safe and strong the car is due the the rigid carbon fiber passenger cell. In fact it was so strong, they were able to eliminate the need for a proper B-pillar and offer the coach style door setup. So why not a top score? Well like anything, the devil is in the details.

Most people don't want to waste time reading crash test scores, they usually just look at the star rating. If they see a five star rating, they assume the car is as safe as it should be and anything less than a 5 out of 5 can be viewed as a failure on the manufacturers part to produce a car that's as safe as possible. So what went wrong here? We've been hearing how strong the CFRP passenger shell is and how incredibly well it will protect the passengers in the event of a crash for a couple years now. In fact I personally had a lengthy conversation with BMW board member Ian Robertson about this and he went on and on about how incredibly well the i3 did in their internal crash tests, so why now did it not do well? The truth is, the car actually did very well in crash tests, in fact it did actually score a 5 star rating in crash tests for passenger protection, but the overall combined score fell a couple points under the threshold for 5 stars.

What held them back? When I tell you you'll either laugh off your seat or shake your head at the foolishness that allowed them to miss the coveted 5 star rating. Ready? Here goes: For some crazy reason, there is no rear seat seatbelt warning system on the i3. Most cars today have this feature so that omission cost the i3 points.  That, plus the fact that the speed limit notification is optional in most European countries (that is the feature that displays the current speed limit of the road you are driving on and it's a standard feature on all US i3's) conspired to give the i3 an extremely low score in the "Safety Assist" category. Those two oversights caused the overall score to dip just below the 85% needed to achieve a 5 star rating. The fact that they were rated 4 of 5 stars really had nothing to do with how the passengers fared in the crash tests, because the i3 actually had high scores in that area. In fact, the i3 achieved a higher score for passenger safety than a Chevy Volt, which did achieve an overall 5 star rating. (see graph below for comparison)

The BMW i3 compared to the Chevy Volt in the Euro NCAP safety rating

This is a pretty substantial mistake on BMW's part in my opinion. While the car tested out to be very safe in crashes for all of the occupants, the 4 out of 5 rating will give the casual observer the impression that it may not do well in crashes. Could it be BMW thought the crash scores would be so high they would overcome the low score in the Safety Assist category and still average out to be 5 stars? Whatever the cause I can't help but think this was a major faux pas. This sets the stage for an interesting and highly anticipated crash test rating for the US when NHTSA and the IIHS get their hands on some i3's in the Spring.

The LA Auto Show: Driving Impressions & Details Learned

It's been a long time coming but I finally got to drive an i3. I've actually been getting tired of having journalists contact me and ask me for my opinion of it on the road compared to the MINI-E and ActiveE and having to tell them I haven't had the opportunity to drive one yet! So did it live up to my (high) expectations? Yes, it did. It's certainly not "the perfect EV," but in my opinion, it does do more things better than any other electric vehicle that costs less than $70,000. And yes, the $70,000 is the threshold mentioned because slightly above that, (actually $72,240) is the starting point before incentives, for the least expensive Model S you can buy in the US.

Lined up for test drives

Price is worth mentioning here because since the i3 has launched there have been endless comparisons between it and the Model S. My contention is that they are both excellent electric vehicles and while there will be inevitable comparisons and even some cross-shopping, they are really vastly different cars and if they weren't both electric would never be compared. The i3's base price is $42,275. That's $29,965 or about 40% less than a base Model S and that alone should end the need to compare them. However I feel it was important to touch on this because everybody else is. These are both excellent EVs, but they serve different masters. The one thing fascinating about the Model S is that it's such a great electric vehicle, that every other electric vehicle that comes along will now be compared to it, well done Tesla.

The back up camera video is extremely clear

In addition to my test drives I had the opportunity to sit down and interview just about every BMW representative there and I will do a future blog post dedicated to at least one of those interviews. However, here I'm going to focus on my thoughts on the driving experience and answering the many questions about the i3 I've received in the past few weeks in the form of comments, personal emails or posts on the BMW i3 Facebook page or in the BMW i3 forum, both of which I am the administrator of.

Tera World interior is all leather

BMW had fifty identical i3s at the LA Auto Show for test drives. They were all exactly the same color, had the 20" wheels, the top of the line Tera World interior and had every available option the i3 will offer. I later found out from BMW NA i3 product manager Jose Guerrero that these cars were actually the very first i3s to roll off the assembly line and that they were pre-production vehicles and European spec so they had to be updated with US charging ports, navigation software and other small modifications so they could be used here in the US for test drives. Also, after the LA Auto show these cars will gradually filter to dealers all over the US so depending on where you live your local BMW dealer may get one soon for demonstration and test drives.

What about the range extender?

Harb addresses the ActiveE drivers

Unfortunately none of the cars had range extenders so I can't answer many of the REx questions I've had like: "How quiet is it?  Can you feel the vibrations when it's on?  What MPG does it deliver?" I did learn some new details which I'll discuss later in the post though. I will say this though because the question of how robust the range extender is has been a common theme on every website that has an i3 discussion. At a private event on Thursday that BMW held for the ActiveE drivers that question was brought up and Jacob Harb, BMW's North American manager of sales and strategy for electric vehicles said he wanted to straighten out the confusion around a comment that a BMW representative once said, and that was that the REx wasn't meant for daily use. Jacob said you can certainly use it every day if you need to, but that BMW didn't envision the car being used by someone that has a 120 or 130 mile daily commute. The car could do it, but if your daily driving needs were this extensive then perhaps a different vehicle might be a better choice. He was then asked about taking it on a long drive and refilling the tank and continuing to drive. Again he said that BMW doesn't really envision people using the car like that all the time, but technically it's perfectly capable of doing so. He even said that technically speaking, you could drive an i3 from New York to LA simply by stopping for gas every 50 or 60 miles and refueling, and then qualified it by saying, "But I don't know why anybody would want to do that."  And personally I agree.

Driving in LA:

I stopped for quick photo op

I actually had the opportunity to drive the i3 twice, and do a ride along once so I probably spent a collective 20 miles in the car. I had a press pass so I registered for a press drive and then at the ActiveE event we were all allowed one test drive, plus I rode along when fellow Electronaut Todd Crook took his turn. On the first drive BMW handed me a course that they wanted the press to follow. It was basically a 3 mile loop that had you driving five blocks and turn right four times and you ended back where the ride originated from which was the Staples Center parking lot. You were alone, so you could of course vary from the course if you "got lost."  Being from New Jersey and never having driven in LA before I found it difficult staying on course and accidentally drove a little longer. It was pretty much what I expected it to be. Very quick, (we were told it does 0-60 in 7.0 seconds) very quiet (quieter than the ActiveE for sure), it has very responsive steering, an amazingly short turning radius and the braking was probably the best I've ever experienced. I practiced some emergency stops in a parking lot and the car stopped in exceptionally short distances. I can't wait to see official road tests when they measure braking distances. I predict it will deliver some of the shortest braking distances of any car on the road today.

The optional wide nav screen looks great

I really didn't get the chance to push the handling because of the LA city environment but I did have some fun weaving in and out of traffic, sprinting from streetlight to streetlight and mashing the accelerator to the floor at every opportunity. I don't know how it will do auto crossing (yet), but I give it an A+ for making the most fun you can out of city driving. I even tried out the Parking Assistant and it worked perfectly. I also purposely hit every pothole there was - and incidentally LA doesn't have nearly as many of them as we do in New York, and the car absorbed them without a problem and I didn't hear any unusual rattles or noises that I've read a few other journalists report when driving over bumps. The regenerative braking was about 10% weaker than it is on the ActiveE, but it's still by far the strongest regenerative braking on any electric vehicle. I'd say the Volt in low driving mode and the Model S are tied for 2nd, but the i3 has stayed true to BMW's promise of having the strongest regen in the industry which really allows for "one pedal driving." Like on the ActiveE there is what BMW calls a glide mode (basically the ability to coast to improve efficiency). By slightly easing back on the accelerator, the motor decouples and the car freewheels. While this isn't what you would normally need in a city driving environment, it will come in handy at higher speeds on the freeway. By easing back a bit more on the accelerator the motor then reengages and the regenerative braking grabs. 

Lift the armrest & you can slide across

The seats were comfortable and supportive and felt like they would do fine holding you in place during spirited driving but definitely don't grab you into place like seats in a sports car would. This, plus the lack of a center tunnel on the floor does allow you to easily slide across to the other side of the car and exit out of the passenger side if you wanted to, which I did just to see how easy it would be. The back seats have plenty of room for two big adults. I even brought along three passengers on my second test drive to see how we all fit and if the extra 600+ lbs would effect the driving dynamics. The car was slightly slower as you would expect but the handling felt just as good as when I was driving alone but again, I couldn't push it much on the streets of LA but I did make some rapid lane changes at about 40 mph and the car felt precise and planted even with the full load. 

What was learned: 

As I mentioned above I've had a lot of people ask me i3 questions recently and I promised I'd do my best to get answers once I drove the car and had the opportunity to speak to the program managers again. Without listing the specific questions here the answers to most of what I've been asked:


-The range extender engine is liquid cooled, but it's a different system and coolant than what is used for the battery management system. In fact, the i3 REx has three separate cooling systems. One for the BMS, one for the passenger cabin and one for the REx engine. The battery pack uses air conditioning refrigerant and the REx engine uses conventional liquid coolant.

-Waste heat from the REx is not used to heat the cabin.

-In the US the heat pump is standard on all BEV i3s, but it's not available on the i3 REx. BMW doesn't believe it's a necessary option if you have the range extender.

-Yes, you can certainly precondition the cabin (heat or cool) and the battery even if you have the REx. (Two people from the UK asked me this so evidently there is inaccurate info somewhere there)

-European delivery will not be offered on the i3.

-There are no optional interior color choices. Each interior level only comes in the color shown. So you can't for instance get the Terra World with gray interior, it only is available in the brown leather like the pictures shown above.

-The REx does not turn on until the state of charge is under 5%. It is robust enough to maintain the charge under all but the most strenuous conditions. You can manually shut it off so it doesn't turn on at all for instances when you know you'll make your destination on battery alone. If you do so it resets once you turn the car off and on again. This way you can't forget you shut the REx off.

-The REx has start/stop technology and shuts off when you are driving under 10mph unless the SOC is so low that it needs to stay on to get the car to 5% SOC. This is so that the car remains quiet at low speeds and while parked. This means you can't park the car with the REx on and let it charge up for a while.

-There is no speed limiter when the REx is running, but there is when you choose Eco Pro+ mode. In Eco Pro+ mode you are limited to 56 mph. Jose Guererro showed the ActiveE group a picture of the speedometer he took while driving an i3 with the REx running and he was going about 70-75mph (I don't remember exactly) he also said the car was maintaining the charge without a problem at that speed.

*UPDATE: The US i3's will not be speed limited in Eco Pro+ mode like I wrote above. The European i3's are though, and the car I drove was a European spec i3, so when I put it in Eco Pro+ mode the speed restriction display showed, which is why I reported it as such.

-Heated seats are optional, and this was a bit of a head scratcher: You can't precondition the passenger cabin with heat unless you get the seat heater option. I don't get that at all, but that's the way it is. Anyone who lives in an area that has cold temperatures during the year simply must get the heated seats option in my opinion or they will regret it later.

-The rear seats fold down completely flat and split 50/50. 

-Comfort Access is standard with Giga and Terra World trim packages, as is the sunroof.

-The battery pack is comprised of 8 modules which each have 12 individual cells. The cells are supplied by Samsung but BMW assembles the modules in house.

-You have to get the Parking Assistant package to get the rear view camera, it's not a standalone option.

-US orders will begin in January, not in November as previously reported on InsideEVs.com

-i3s bound for the US will begin production in March, likely arrive in the US for delivery sometime in April.

I was also asked to take some specific pictures, here they are:

Taken by my friend Andre

There were 6 CCS quick chargers there

The display while DC fast charging

One battery module contains 12 cells

There is one more thing that I learned. For some reason, BMW has decided to omit a state of charge gauge. My head nearly exploded when I found this out. Both the MINI-E and ActiveE had state of charge meters and quite honestly it's all I use when I drive. I never use the predicted remaining miles, or the bar graph. I love the simplicity of a simply number, from 0 to 100% to tell me how much energy I have to work with. I am not alone either, when the other ActiveE drivers found out they were as shocked as I was. In fact we brought it up and protested so much the i3 management team promised they would revisit this. I'm going to dedicate my next blog post on this topic, because I don't want this post to be all about the SOC. Other than this topic, most everything else was extremely positive. The car drives as great as I had hoped it would and BMW announced to the ActiveE group that as a thank you for our participation, they would be making a special edition i3 that will only be available for us, and our cars will be some of the first i3s delivered to the US.  I hope I got to everyone's questions and requests. Please leave any other questions in the comment area and I'll answer them if I can.