BMW i3 Range Extender: How Robust Will It Be?

There are still many unanswered questions about the i3. What will the EPA range rating be? How will is fare in NHTSA and IICA crash tests, will it cost more to repair, and so on. However there is one particular feature of the i3 that continues to dominate the discussion boards and forums: What can and can't you do with the REx?

Back in June before the i3 was officially introduced, I did a blog post on this very topic which turned out to be very popular. In fact, it's one of my top viewed posts and has been viewed over 5,000 times so  far. We now know a few more details since then so I thought it was a good time to give an update here. While I have driven in REx i3's, unfortunately I haven't had the chance to thoroughly test on while it was in range extender mode. That wasn't a coincidence. BMW has still be fine tuning the software for the REx and hasn't allowed the press access to them for complete testing. However, somehow over in the UK The Telegraph got hold of one and was able to take to for a long drive and use the range extender. Overall the review was pretty favorable and the author gave the i3 four out of five stars. However that's not the whole story. The real "story" within this story is that the author reported this about the range extender and it's caused a but of a stir:

"I thrummed along at 70mph, but it soon became clear that at this kind of speed our comfortable range between fill-ups was more like 40-50 miles. Still, it was impressive how, even when it says it’s flat, the car maintains enough battery power to give an instant shove of torque. Only if you really run it down, which you’ll have to try pretty hard to do (or so I’d been told), would you compromise the performance. Which is what happened next. 

I’d just come through a heavy but localised rain storm on the M20 when the i3 started to slow. It was a gradual process, from motorway cruising speed all the way down to 44mph. By this time I was travelling up a slight incline and had effectively become a slow-moving obstacle. Lorries were catching me with quite frankly terrifying closing speeds. It was three or four minutes - which was long enough to make me consider pulling over - before the i3 recovered; just as slowly as it had lost speed, so it crept up. “It’s not a limp-home mode as such,” a BMW spokesman later told me, “but once the charge runs down to five or six per cent and the range extender cuts in, if you keep driving at 75-80mph it can’t maintain the charge.” Rather than damage the battery by running it completely flat, the i3 had restricted our performance."

This Telegraph video above doesn't mention the difficulty they experienced with the car slowing down at all even though they show it driving along on the M20 while it was raining like they printed version said. That's strange to me since the article seemed to make a big deal out of it. I would have like to have seen video of the car during the explained "slow down" event.

The i3 REx Engine

I've had quite a few conversations with the engineers and product managers at BMW about the range extender and while they are cautious no to over sell it's capabilities, everyone I have talked to promises it's not anything like a "limp mode", and in fact you can do just about anything with it as long as you understand how it works and drive accordingly - I take that as monitoring your speed and if you know you'll be driving up a long steep incline and take it easy for a few minutes before you begin your ascent so the REx can build up a little extra reserve power for the climb. There has been a lot of talk around the fact that in the US, you can't manually engage the range extender once the state of charge is below 75% as you can in Europe. The concern is with the range extender coming on at such a low state of charge (at ~5% SOC) that there may not be a large enough buffer for those instances when the car needs continuous supply of a lot of energy for high speed driving or to climb long, uphill grades at highway speeds.

I don't have the exact answers as to what exactly is possible and what isn't. In fact, I'm not even sure it's possible to offer such a definitive explanation. Sure, the engineers can offer a formula based on total passenger and cargo weight, vehicle speed, head or tail winds, percent of grade you are climbing, etc but who will even understand that let alone be able to transfer that to an actual real world driving situation? There are so many different situations and roads it's just not possible to give a clear black and white definition of what it can and what it can't do and I believe BMW will likely struggle with how to explain this to their customers - maybe that's why they haven't even tried to explain it yet! I have made a request to the program managers to let me drive an i3 REx for a day once one is available. I'll test it in every possible situation I can come up with in the time frame I have including a 220 mile trip to Vermont. Hopefully my request will be accommodated because I believe I can clear the air on this as much as possible, however as I mentioned above there are endless specific driving circumstances so no test will completely satisfy everyone. My advice: Drive one in REx mode to satisfy your concerns before you plunk down your money. I'm sure you can leave a deposit on one and have it refunded if you are not satisfied with the performance once you get the test drive opportunity.

i3 Product manager Oliver Walter

I can say I have spoken with program managers that have driven the i3 REx extensively, and they have assured me that on flat ground, you really have to purposely try to defeat it in order to use more energy than it produces and that it can easily drive along at 70 mph for as long as you need to and still have enough energy for short bursts of power to climb hills along the way. BMW i3 product manager Oliver Walter in particular has assured me the range extender is robust and will be able to power the car in just about any circumstance without the driver even noticing any difference than when it's in pure EV mode. The question becomes how fast can you drive and for how long, up how steep a grade, and right now, we just don't have definitive answers.

So why can't the i3's in the US have the same ability the European i3's have to manually turn on the REx ahead of time, when you know you'll need a lot of energy for demanding driving conditions like climbing a mountain later in your trip? The answer is in the CARB certification of the i3. BMW needs the i3 to be certified as a zero emission vehicle in order to claim the most ZEV credits they can for each i3 sold. However the benefits aren't only for BMW. BMW has been working behind the scenes to make sure that i3 buyers get the same tax credits, tax exemptions and benefits like HOV access that zero emission vehicles get, which in many cases is better than what is offered to PHEV buyers. For example here in NJ, if I buy a zero emission car like a Tesla Model S, I am not required to pay sales tax, but if I buy a Chevy Volt which has a range extender, it's classified as a PHEV and I have to pay sales tax. So if BMW by getting the i3 REx certification approved, manages to get New Jersey to classify the i3 REx as a zero emission vehicle, then I will save about $3,500 in sales tax. To me, that's worth losing the ability to manually turn on the REx early because there will be so few instances that I would ever need to; it's just simply not worth it. This isn't just for NJ though, there are quite a few other States that offer different incentives for ZEV's as compared to PHEV's. However as far as I know, BMW is still working out these details State by State and they haven't announced exactly what the certification will mean in each particular State just yet. As soon as there is more to report on the certification and State benefits I'll have it up here, and hopefully I'll get to report first hand on how the REx performs sometime soon. Happy Holidays everyone!

Of course a robust network of DC quick chargers like the one pictured here would render the range extender irrelevant. But are they coming?

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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.

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The i3 World Premier: What was Learned?

Photo by Hugo Becker of BMWBLOG

The much anticipated World Premier of the i3 has come and gone, so now it's time to look at what was learned. There was a lot of information released and I'll try to touch on as much as I can here, but I also recommend reading the full press release I posted on my post yesterday.

With the range extender - pretty tight!

I had a chance to talk at length with Oliver Walter, Head of Product Management for the i3. We discussed many things, but what stuck out in my mind the most was our discussion about the performance of the range extender. During the day it seemed to me that when reporters asked some of the speakers about the performance of the range extender, they never got a clear answer. So while I had Oliver all to myself I asked him directly if the i3's performance will be drastically reduced as many speculated. When I mentioned the term limp-mode, he looked at me like he was surprised I would even ask that and quickly said "No this is absolutely not a limp mode". He further went on to say the car will actually behave pretty

Without the range extender

normal and that the drive can continue to drive along - even at highway speeds, just as they were before. It will have slightly less power, but still be capable of driving normally in most conditions. Evidently BMW has designed it to come on while the car still has a reasonable amount of battery charge left, so there is enough of a buffer to allow the car to reach back and get the extra energy needed for bursts of speed and to climb long hills. So this also means the car will have a shorter all electric range with the range extender because you'll only have access to the first 80% or so of your battery power before the REx turns on. However I did find out that the driver can turn the REx off so it never comes on if they know they'll make their destination without needing the range extender. Therefore, you can have access to 100% of the fully charged battery as long as you can make it to the next plug without needing the REx to help out. I really like this feature and think users will also. However you cannot turn the REx on manually, before it turns on itself, like you can with a Chevy Volt's "Mountain Mode" This mode allows you to use the generator early in your travels so you save the battery charge for later when you may need the extra energy to drive up very steep hills or mountains. The i3 will have difficulty in these rare situations. If you drive it until the Rex comes on and you then need to drive up very steep inclines for a long time - like 10 miles or so, the REx may not be able to keep up with the energy output the electric motor needs after a while and will likely slow down at that point. This is a complex topic and I suspect the only way to really determine exactly what conditions will be too much for the REx will be once people start driving it. However in most normal driving circumstances, it appears the REx will be able to allow the driver to continue along without any issues for as long as they need to. The range extender option costs $3,850 and which brings the cost up to $45,200 without any other options.We also learned the US i3's will come standard with all LED exterior lighting but the European versions will have halogen lights standard and LED's optional.

There are three trim levels that can be ordered. They are named Mega World (the standard trim level) with Giga World and Tera World available as options and here is what each consists of: (US pricing for options has not been announced)

 Mega World ($41,350; $45,200 w/REx)

• BMW Navigation
• BMW ConnectedDrive with eCall
• BMW i Remote
• Alarm
• Bright, lightweight Sensatec and sustainable cloth made from recycled materials
• Leather trimmed steering wheel
• Grained dash trim

Giga World

• All Mega World features, plus:
• Interior wrapped in leather and wool cloth
• Universal garage door opener
• Comfort Access
• Sunroof
• Satellite radio
• Leather-trimmed steering with contrasting stitching

Tera World

• All Giga World features, plus:
• Luxurious full leather
• Olive leaf-tanned interior, with textile accents and contrasting stitching
• Anthracite floors mats.

An i3 in Solar Orange with the optional 20 inch "Double Spoke" wheels

The 19 inch "Turbine" wheels

However the BMW i3 online Visualizer offers four different interior design styles called Antelier, Lodge, Loft & Suite. I am not entirely clear yet how these fit into the different "World" trim levels, but I'll get that cleared up soon. If you want to go to the i3 Visualizer you can from this link. Each World trim level comes with a different 19" wheel and all are visual upgrades from the standard wheel in my opinion. However to me the best wheel is the optional 20" one that also has wider and lower profile tires then the 19" wheels. These will undoubtedly provide better performance but will likely shave a couple miles off the range of the car because of higher rolling resistance and greater weight.

Ionic Silver with the 20" wheels

My previous post over two weeks ago was 100% correct about the color options. The only thing I didn't have was the official color names. They are "Ionic Silver" which is silver blue, "Andesite Silver" which I called basic silver, "Arravani Gray" which I called dark gray, "Laurel Gray" which I called basic gray, "Capparis White" which I simply called white and I did have the Solar Metallic Orange correct. I expect the Solar Metallic Orange to be a very popular color choice as most people I ask seem to like that the best. It's really the only bold color that "pops". I haven't decided which color I'll choose and I'll wait till I see them all in person. That being said I think the only colors that are out of the running for me are the Capparis White and Andesite Silver, they just aren't for me.

BMW also released the performance figures. It's important to note that the i3 with the range extender will be slightly slower because it weighs 260 more pounds. Here are the performance figures for the i3 without the REx option:

0-35 mph     3.5 Sec.
0-60 mph     7.0 Sec.
50-75 mph   5.4 Sec.
Top Speed   93 mph (electronically governed)

Without the need for engine cooling, the i3's "double kidney" grill is solid to improve aerodynamics. The small grill under the license plate provides all the air flow needed for the thermal management system.

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BMW i3 Concept Coupe Revealed

BMW i manager Oliver Walter introduces the concept i3 coupe at the LA Auto Show

BMW surprised a lot of people at the LA Auto Show and introduced a new variation of the i3, a 2 door coupe to compliment the 4 door hatchback that will launch towards the end of 2013. This new coupe is currently only a concept, but if BMW feels enough people would buy this variant, it could easily go into production.

It shares the same drive platform as the 4 door i3, so most of the engineering is already done. All BMW would have to do is make the different passenger cell and attach it to the same drive platform that the 4 door will be using. Now I'm sure it's not exactly that simple, but I am also confident most of the drive platform would be exactly the same.

The i3's life-drive platform

In fact, Oliver Walter referred to the "i3 family of vehicles" when addressing the crowd of ActiveE drivers at the LA Auto Show. I interpreted this as a sign BMW may use the i3's drive platform to make multiple different offerings.  Since the CFRP passenger cell is literally glued to the aluminum frame which houses the entire drivetrain and batteries, it wouldn't seem to be very difficult at all to offer multiple passenger configurations, provided there was a demand for different offerings.


Many of the people I spoke to were very excited about the coupe, even more so than for the 4 door which is going to be the initial i3 offering. While I liked the look of the coupe, Personally I'm more interested in the utility of the 4 door. The access to the rear seating area is so much better with the coach(suicide) doors on the 4 door. Getting in and out as well as loading and unloading cargo from the rear seats will be infinitely easier with the coach doors and I don't think it takes away from the styling at all, especially since there are no outside door handles for the rear doors. I also think another reason why many others were so excited about the coupe was because looked closer to a production car than the four door i3 does. Lets face it, the 4 door concept car is getting a little long in the tooth and people are getting tired of looking at the glass doors and roof. It was introduced about a year and a half ago and other than a different color interior there has been no changes to it. I get a lot of inquiries about when will BMW show us the production version. The concept coupe has a new, refreshed interior that quite honestly looks stunning and ready for production. I suspect this is very close to what the production i3 interior will look like and I hope BMW doesn't change much because it looks awesome as it currently is.

BMW North American manager of sales and strategy Jacob Harb was also at the event and he spoke for a while and then fielded questions from the ActiveE group. There really wasn't any new news offered. We talked a lot about the range extender option as well as DC quick charge. There was also a lot of discussion on the tires BMW seem to be using on the i3. They are tall and thin and don't look like they would be good for aggressive driving. The concept coupe at the show had 175/60 R20's on the rear wheels and 155/60 R20's on the front. No doubt the different tire sizes were a concept-only feature but the tall and thin nature of them had people wondering if too much road holding will be sacrificed in the name of efficiency. We also talked a lot about the use of run-flat tires. I can say with certainty the ActiveE drivers there, and many others that I have spoken to do not want run flat tires on the i3. I hope BMW got the message and decides not to use them. They are loud, harsh and heavy and we do not want them. Can I be any clearer?

The openness of the i3 is hard to capture in pictures. Although it is a small car, the interior is spacious. During the presentation Walter said the i3 will have roughly the same interior volume as a three series. That's considerably more space than our ActiveE's have now even though the i3 is much smaller. Because of the life-drive architecture and the elimination of the transmission tunnel needed on front engine internal combustion engine cars, the i3's passenger compartment is much more spacious than a comparable gas car of it's size would be.

So while I'm really happy to see BMW thinking about expanding the i3's line to offer different variations, what I'm really looking forward to is finally seeing what the production i3 will look like. We are tantalizingly close now after nearly four years of waiting. I'm figuring I'll get my wish in about three months in Geneva? Anyone else care to guess when and where BMW will show off the real i3?

Here's some more pictures from the LA Auto show:

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