Strong Turnout at JMK BMW For i3 Drive Event

One of the i3's at JMK before they needed to take it off the showroom floor to use for test drives. I'd guess at least 50 test drives were given during the day.

Manny Antunes, JMK BMW client adviser and BMW i3 specialist admitted he was overwhelmed with the amount of people that came to check out and drive the i3's the dealership had for the day last Thursday. BMW gave JMK two i3's for the day and the original plan was to leave one on the showroom floor and use the other one for test drives. However as soon as the day began it became clear they needed both cars for test drives because there were so many people there that signed up to drive an i3. Manny did a great job and was at it all day. He didn't even stop for lunch as there was a line of people waiting all day for test drives.

Manny Antunes & I after a long day

The problem was, once they took the car off the showroom floor there was nothing there for the people waiting for their turn to test drive one to look at. Plus since Manny had to use another client adviser to accompany the customers in the test drives, there really wasn't even anybody from the dealership that could stand there and take on all the i3 questions. However that's exactly why he asked me to stop by, just in case they needed help with answering questions about the i3 or electric cars in general. I usually never mind talking about electric cars, but even I was worn out after over 8 hours of nonstop questions from the 100 or so people that came to see and drive the i3.

Even with running both cars not everybody got to drive one, since both cars drove well over 150 miles they needed to be charged a few times during the day to keep them going. Witnessing the strong demand for test drives was very promising. The range of people I talked to was also surprisingly varied. There were Nissan LEAF owners as well as people that have never even driven in an electric car but had heard about the i3 and were interested in buying one. We also had about six ActiveE drivers stop by to take another look before they decide to place their order for the Electronaut Edition i3 or not.

I'm really happy Manny and JMK reached out to me to give them a hand with the i3 launch. The i3 is going to be like nothing that BMW dealers have ever had to deal with before. Dealers that understand this and reach out for help will be the ones that excel with the i brand and sell a lot of i3's. Nissan and Chevy went through the same thing when they launched their electric car offerings. Some of their dealers are selling plenty of LEAF's and Volt's, yet other dealers in the same markets sell very little. What is the difference? Being prepared. Knowing the product and training the client advisers to know what questions to expect will make all the difference. I know JMK BMW is taking this serious and I'm sure they are going to be one of the areas leading i brand dealerships. Wherever you live, if you are thinking about getting an i3 check out a few of your local BMW dealerships and feel them out a bit. Make sure you find one that is making an effort to really know the i3 and have people on hand that can answer the unique questions that battery electric cars have. If your dealer doesn't know the difference in level 1 and level 2 charging, or they don't know the details of the i3 battery warranty then my recommendation would be to look elsewhere.

It was a crazy hectic day, but it was really great to see how many people came out to test drive this truly revolutionary new BMW.

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JMK BMW To Host The Area's First "i3 EVent"

 

On Thursday, January 16th, (tomorrow) JMK BMW in Springfield NJ is hosting a "Get to know the BMW i3" event from 10:00am to 7:00pm. For most, it will be the very first time they have the opportunity to actually see the i3 in person and test drive it. JMK client adviser and i3 product specialist Manny Antunes will be there to answer questions and take reservations on the spot if you decide to order an i3 while you are there.

I have been working with JMK to help prepare them for the coming i brand cars and have already ordered my i3 through JMK. I appreciate that JMK recognizes that these cars are different, and will elicit different questions and concerns from their potential buyers so I have personally tried to help prepare them for these potential issues. It's encouraging that they understand this and have reached out to make sure they can offer the best possible customer experience and service.  That is why I recommend considering JMK if you are from the area and considering an i3 or i8.


I will also be there for most of the day to help answer questions and provide information to anybody interested in my personal experience driving and living with an electric car. I hope to see you there and please introduce yourself to me if you've been following my blog, I love to meet the readers in person.


Event Details:


JMK BMW "Get to know the i3" Event
JMK BMW
391-399 Route 22, Springfield, New Jersey 07081

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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.

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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.

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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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Live From The LA Auto Show

I just arrived in LA for the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show. In addition to their usual area inside the show floor, BMW has an additional pavilion set up outside, across the street from the Convention Center in one of the parking lots of the Staples Center. This has been set up to allow people to test drive the i3.

The i3s are starting to arrive today

Even though there will be about seventy i3s there for test drives, members of the press had to schedule their time with the car because BMW expects a strong demand for test drives as this is the first time the i3 has been available to the media in the US.  I have a test drive scheduled for tomorrow morning, the opening day of the press activities. This i3 test drive pavilion will be open to the general public starting this Friday. 

I'll also have another chance to test drive one on Thursday. BMW has set up a private event for ActiveE lessees. We will be able to drive an i3, ask program managers questions and we will hopefully learn if BMW is going to offer those of us who have been participating in the trial lease program any kind of special deal or preferred ordering should we want to go directly from our ActiveE into an i3. I'll have a full report on the i3 driving experience in a couple of days, once I get back home. If there are any particular details or pictures you'd like me to get just leave them in the comment section and I'll do my best.

The BMW i pavilion is set up in the Staples Center parking lot across the street from the LA Convention Center. This is where the i3s will be staged for the test drives.

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i3 vs M3: Mano e Mano

Last week BMW held a press event for the UK launch of the i3 and allowed journalists the opportunity to have an extended test drive of an i3. However that's not all they let them do. BMW also arraigned to have the journalists drag race an M3 that was driven by one of BMW's professional drivers.

The first day of the event the i3 was beating the M3 to 60 mph which took a lot of people by surprise. While the i3 is a very quick car, it isn't M3-quick so some of the journalists were scratching their heads a bit. However it was lightly raining that day and while the M3 was struggling to get traction, the i3 with its thin tires was jumping off the line much quicker and holding off the late charge of the M3. When one journalist questioned if the M3 driver was holding back, BMW let him drive the M3 himself in another race and he promptly lost to the i3 also.

The next day was a little different with dry pavement as seen in the above video. The i3 still jumps off the line quicker, but the massive engine of the M3 is too much for the i3 and halfway through the race to 60 mph you can see it gaining and then easily passing the i3 before they hit the goal of 60 mph.

I've enjoyed the instant torque that my EV's have offered and frequently comment on how that is one of the advantages electric vehicles have over internal combustion engine cars. It really helps to make the EV driving experience better in my opinion. However I can't help but wonder if the M3 didn't have traction control working or if it had some other handicap that we weren't told about. The i3 is quick and I promise it will be a blast to drive, but the M3 is built for one thing- speed, and goes 0-60 in about 4.8 seconds compared to the i3's 7 seconds. It's hard to see how this race was as close as it appears. Still - this is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see from BMW. The i3 is a competent performer as well as an efficient EV built with a focus on sustainable manufacturing and materials. Sustainable is great, but it's the fun stuff like this that gets people excited about the car and what will ultimately sell them!

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Have i3 Questions? Ask Nikki!

A good friend of mine, Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield just reached out to me to let me know she would have some driving time in an i3 this Friday. Nikki runs the Transport Evolved Network and has had me as a guest on her Transport Evolved podcast a few times in the past. Anyway, she scored an i3 for an extended drive  and wanted to know if any of my followers had any specific questions that she could answer, or any road test she could perform for you while she was driving. Here's the link to her site where she asks:

"BMW i3 Electric Hatchback: What Do YOU Want To Know?"

Click through and post your questions. Nikki will do her best to answer every one of them!

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US i3 Orders To Begin in November

Photo Credit: The Car Addict

InsideEvs.com recently reported that Jacob Harb, BMW's North American Manager for Electric Vehicles, told them that i3 orders for US customers will begin in November. That means we'll soon get information like pricing for options, warranty details and hopefully what leasing deals will be offered.

BMW has reported strong demand for the i3 in Europe with over 8,000 pre-orders already and the car won't even be available for another month there. Here in the States we'll have to wait a little longer. All BMW has officially said is that the i3 will launch here in the second quarter of 2014, and recent rumors have been pegging the launch for April or May which would mean early to mid Q2.

Photos courtesy bmwblog

California dealers have also been telling their customers that they will be getting i3'\s for display and even test drives, and that there will be as many as 50 i3s at the LA Auto Show in late November for driving events. That would make a lot of sense since the LA Auto Show is one of the big auto shows in the US and California is the number one market for plug in vehicles. 

One factor that can influence the i3's popularity in the US is its EPA range rating which hasn't yet been announced. I have maintained for a long time now that I would be very disappointed if that number comes in lower than 90 miles per charge. Unfortunately judging from the early test drive reports from some reporters like John Voelcker of High Gear Media, it may in fact be lower than 90, and may even be substantially lower than 90 miles per charge. I'm not going to go into this too much just yet because it would just be conjecture. Once the EPA rating is announced I will have a detailed post up within a day, I promise because it is a very important topic to discuss.

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Customer Reactions From The First US BMW i3 Test Rides

The i3 used for ride-alongs at the San Diego National Plug in Day event. Photos courtesy Chris Llana

This weekend there were over about 100 National Plug In Day events held around the US. I was at the North Jersey event held at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey. I was there with my new ActiveE and we had a total of about 25 electric vehicles in attendance. By all means it was a great day and we helped spread the word about how great plug in cars really are. However across the country at the San Diego Plug in Day event something special was happening. BMW had an i3 there, and for the first time in the US they were taking customers on test rides.

No one was allowed to actually drive the car, as it is a pre-production i3 and only BMW employees are allowed to actually drive it, but the driver was definitely giving the passengers a taste of what the i3 is capable of. He wasn't just rolling around a parking lot at 15 mph like many EV ride-alongs do, they went for a real drive on the streets and the driver was punching the accelerator to show off the power as well as the cars grip on the road. Since I wasn't there, I reached out to three people, Peder Norby, Grant Kluzak and Chris Llana, that were there and had the opportunity to go for a test drive to get their impressions.  

Peder and Grant are very experienced electric vehicle drivers. Chris doesn't yet own an electric car, but has been closely following the electric vehicles currently on the market and intends to buy one soon.

First up is Grant Kluzak. Grant drives a Toyota RAV4 EV and his wife Kristine drives an ActiveE and here's what he had to say:

"At the San Diego National Plug-in day event I had the opportunity to ride as a passenger in a pre-production model of the BMW i3. Since my wife is the primary driver of our BMW Active E, I am somewhat of a professional passenger in an electric BMW. I had a slight hang-up on the overall look of the i3, however after the ride, I now think the look fits the vehicles behavior. It's not an SUV and it’s not a traditional BMW sports car. It is truly a cross-over. You do not feel as low to the ground, or sporty as you do in the Active E. 

It appears to handle nearly as well as an Active E, possibly even accelerating faster. One truly amazing feature is the incredibly tight turning radius which will be very handy in tight parking lots or small city streets. The driver told us that the regenerative braking feel is nearly the same as the Active E and that he finds himself one pedal driving most of the time. I’m excited about this because I drive a Toyota RAV4 EV and find the regenerative braking is too light compared to the Active E. The interior cabin was comfortable and supportive as we would expect from BMW. There is an interior finish on parts of the dash and doors that looks and feels like felt. We were told that it is made from recycled carbon fibers. I really liked the look of this new material and was glad to hear it is made from recycled material. 

Riding in the back seat behind the driver was comfortable for me a six foot two large man. That is not something I can say about the Active E and the i3 was much easier to get into with it’s “suicide” doors in back. There are plenty of cup holders, two in the back and one fixed and one movable between four different locations up front. The BMW engineer I talked too found it amazing that Americans were so fixated on the cup holders in our cars. Apparently there was much debate between the US and Germany on the number and location of the cup holders. I think they got it right with one per passenger. Yes, it’s a four seat vehicle. Having loosely followed the development of the i3, I was under-impressed with the slight glimpses we saw of the vehicle along the way. I did not think it would be a good follow on to the Active E. Having now ridden in an i3 and getting to see and feel the ride comfort, I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and test drive one. I think it has great potential as being the vehicle we will replace our Active E with."

Photo courtesy Peder Norby

Next it's Chris Llana. Chris has been a longtime follower and commenter on my blogs and he even helped me out with photo-shopping for my April Fools post here this year.

"I attended the National Plug In Day event in San Diego on Saturday.  There were about 110 privately-owned plug-in cars there, of all sorts, as well as more than a dozen plug-in cars available for drives and rides (the Model S and the BMW i3 were passenger rides only).  There were seven ActiveEs there (and almost 40 LEAFs).  

 I arrived early and headed right for the i3.  Not a lot of people there at that time, but lots of enthusiasm.  I ran into Peder Norby there; there were at least a couple of other ActiveE drivers inspecting the i3.  The car looked better in person than in photos, Tom, as you have mentioned before.  The interior, in particular, was much nicer than the photos let on.  The driver's position was very comfortable, with ample head and legroom for my more than 6'2" height; the steering wheel was very nice, and placed to perfection.  Visibility was great.   

  The back seat was the big surprise -- very usable by full-size adults, and the front seats did not have to be moved forward to give room for the backseaters' legs.  At one point, both Peder and I were in the back seat -- both of us commented about how comfortable it was, for short runs at least.  Peder is about as tall as me, and not a small man.  We pretty much filled all of the available space, with no extra headroom, but that means most adults will find the back seat more than adequate.  

  I was in the i3 for the first ride of the day (in the front passenger seat), along with two others in the back seat (including one ActiveE driver).  A BMW engineer was driving.  The drive was out on the streets surrounding the parking lot where the event was held -- city speeds, no highway travel.  The acceleration from a stop was impressive, even with four people in the car!  I can only imagine what it would be like with just the driver in the car (and 500 fewer pounds).  With the windows open, the car under hard acceleration sounded like a muted jet engine spooling up -- very cool sound!  The ActiveE driver in the back seat said it was quieter than the ActiveE, and after one spirited take-off, told the driver he had just sold a car!  All in all, I was very impressed!"

Lastly, it's Peder Norby weighing in and he's a real EV pro. Like me Peder has been BMW's e-mobility trial lease programs since 2009. Peder had a MINI-E and now has an ActiveE as well as a Honda Fit EV and has racked up nearly 70,000 all electric miles. Here's what Peder wrote on our i3 group's Facebook wall:

There was plenty of room for Peder and Shawn in the backseat

"I think Shawn is 6'2" and I am 6'3" We thought we would put the two biggest guys in the back. Warning do not try this in an ActiveE! I would never think of trying to shoehorn myself back there.

Lots of room in the i3 for a small car. With the drivers seat fully back there is 4 inches between the seat and the back seat as compared to the ActiveE where the seat touches the back seat. Width wise up front I would say larger than the Active E but not quite as wide a as a 3 series. The space in the rear of the seats is very good, with the seats folded down there is a lot of room. Similar or greater to the Honda Fit EV. The Fit EV is a touch wider but not as deep.

Sitting in the back was very comfortable and we had a 6'0" driver in his comfortable driving position in front of me. I was just fine and not cramped.

Test drive was great, MUCH faster than a Mini-E which is MUCH faster than an ActiveE, and it all comes from the rear so much better control. The driver punched from the lights and it was very impressive even more so than the Mini-E.

Best impressions are:

That the car looks much much better in person, It is very planted on the road at speeds just like the ActiveE and unlike the Honda Fit EV (I love the Fit EV but its a bit of a tinny dancer on the highways. The car for me seemed even quieter than the ActiveE. The interior on the test car was the highest class and it was indeed higher in quality than the ActiveE,

Insights, The rep said that if dealers are taking list it's not official from BMW but unique to the dealer. He also said that BMW will be reaching out to the Electronauts and that they will be in the first group to get the cars. The driver of the i3 said he has lots of seat time in both the i3 and the ActiveE. He described the range on the freeway of both cars as similar and range in the city of the i3 as superior to the ActiveE.

One very interesting conversational detail was that the braking distance in the i3 is among the best of the BMW cars including the M cars. They are validating the stopping distance currently but that it is going to be a big surprise to a lot of people. That bodes very well for performance and for safety

We made some circles in the parking lot and I have never been in car with that tight of a turning radius. The carbon fiber roof is awesome, many areas where you can see the carbon fiber such as the sills and when you open the rear hatch. BMW left a lot exposed and that is good. Love the rear lights.

Very Impressed." 

Peder also maintains a blog about his electric driving experiences and wrote a post on the i3 driving event. You can read the whole post here. So I'd say so far so good. The people at the event that had the chance to go for a ride all seem generally impressed. I suspect it won't be long before BMW gets a lot of production i3's delivered here to the States and opens up actual driving events, that will be the real test.

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