Originally Posted by
Will
I had similar perspective - BEV? No way! - until I leased myself a 2015 i3 BEV (Giga, Parking + Tech Pkg). With exception of the range (about 75 miles with that battery size at the time) it relegated my e46m3 to the garage, which was fine by me.
Mileage-wise over the 32 months: ~38k miles on the i3, and ~1.5k miles on the m3 (and this included a ~550 mile round trip to Vegas).
The i3 was just a fantastic car, the only downside was the limited range which has improved since I had my '15. It's nice to just hop in a car and go, with all of the latest tech, safety upgrades, and none of the worries about maintenance.
What I liked:
- Elevated seating position, for looking further down the road and for not having to step up or drop down for ingress / egress (I appreciate the little things, and I'm lazy like that. lol)
- Fantastic visibility
- Carbon fiber chassis and the torsional rigidity. I had no shakes/rattles. This is a safer platform than e46, too.
- Low C.G.
- Rear weight bias
- Instant torque, was zippy around town and even getting onto freeway.
- Spaciousness - I had 4 adults in the car and everyone, including those in backseats, noted how spacious it was
- Large door aperture for ease of ingress / egress
- How quiet it was, great for DD.
- BMW suspension tuning. Fun to drive, familiar handling to other BMWs.
- Seats are really supportive and surprisingly comfortable, could use slightly more side bolstering but that never was a problem
- The tech, like radar cruise control (this is great for slow moving traffic)
- LED headlights (better than the xenons imo)
- Plastic body panels that didn't get door dings
- Nothing to maintain (other than brake fluid flush every 2 years; I didn't change tires in 38k miles)
- Nothing to warm up, just get in and go
- The crazy subsidized lease by BMW (I was at $257/mo including taxes, $0 down, 15k miles/yr, for 30 months (I extended 2 additional months)), and then I received rebates from CA and then from my electric company... I think it basically dropped my out of pocket to about 180 or so. Really good for a car that had a $48k MSRP.
- At that time BMW had a program with EVGo for free charging. I was utilizing this for 20-30 min top offs. Charging at work was free. I spent <$250 in charging fees away from home, and probably $5-10 additional on the monthly electric bill, for the duration of the lease. Previously, I was spending $250-400 / month just on gas for the m3 for commuting (~55 miles each way to UCLA, or ~30 miles each way to Long Beach).
What I didn't like:
- the 64ah (or whatever it was) battery that limited my range to about 75 miles. This has since been improved.
- I didn't have a 240v outlet at my house - I was too cheap and didn't know if I'd still have BEV after the i3.
- The snootiness and holier-than-thou attitude of some BEV drivers, reminds me of when the Prius first came out. Although they prob comprise of a small minority of the owners they are insufferable imo.
If I didn't have the i3 as my DD, my m3 would have had 38K more miles along with the associated maintenance, tires, and fuel costs.
It's too bad they look to be discontinuing the i3 BEV, I'd get another to use as a DD and keep my 6mt m3 (or similar) as the occasional fun car. It's a great combo.
Edit: BEV as my only car, I'd learn to live with it and I'd probably be fairly happy. Let's say 95%, but that last 5% is significant.