I was at CES and test drove the i3 2x (I lined up to go again). Shoot, I missed meeting TomT and others there. :/
EVDRIVER said:
Boomer23 said:
The BMW is MUCH quicker off the line than the LEAF. The comparison in 0-60 mph times is BMW: 7 seconds, LEAF: about 10 seconds. The BMW is the quickest widely available production EV short of anything Tesla makes (excludes rare exotic EVs such as Mercedes or some highly exotic European supercars).
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As for price comparisons, the base LEAF is around $28k while the base i3 is around $42k, though better equipped. The top of the line LEAF SL is about $36k and the top optioned i3 BEV (without the range extending gas engine) is about $52k, again better equipped than the LEAF SL.
To clarify, the strong regen is a result of innovation and application by AC propulsion that made the drive for the MINI E and that the Telsa emerged from. BMW really does not deserve a pat on the back for EV promotion, NIssan and Tesla do. My guess is they will get attention on this car and act as though they were EV pioneers when they fought it like the worst of them. Of course all the BMW people will soon believe BMW was and is the tech leader. Of course you get to add the $10K of basic options which they are known for. BMW years ago found their cars sold better in the US when they boosted prices to make the car a status symbol. Other than the amazing boxer motors on the motorcycles I can't think of any significant BMW auto tech innovation that stands out. At the high price point this will be another EV not for the masses because of pricing.
I can safely say that the i3 is much faster than the Leaf at the speeds I got it up to. I was expecting that given the acceleration times I'd been seeing (vs. that of the Leaf).
But yeah, the price of the i3 is high.
As for strong regen, yeah, it was weird having no creep and very strong regen (much stronger regen than B mode on the '13 Leaf SV). I didn't know about it going in but they did ask me about 1-pedal driving in a survey (conducted by a person w/an iPad) afterward.
I overheard a woman talking (who likely didn't follow EVs) who basically said they were confused by the lack of creep (they didn't use the word and very likely weren't car enthusiasts judging by the way they talked about it) and said they were surprised by the very sudden leap forward when they used the accelerator. From what I overheard, it seems they were thrown off by putting it into D, via the very unconventional shift lever and motion and having the car do nothing, due to lack of creep.
I sure hope that dealers give a good overview before test drives and delivery about this. I actually never had a chance to put it in reverse to confirm the lack of reverse creep (whoops). But, I wouldn't be surprised if we hear complaints or even accidents due to the lack of creep, since automatics and even hybrids provide directional cueing via creep.
I didn't have a very good chance to test out its handling, but I did try taking some of the turns fast and was pleasantly surprised by its handling, despite its skinny tires.
And, I'd seen comments before (on some Facebook EV groups) about some of the test drive i3s at the LA Auto Show having rattles. Our vehicles were the same set that were at the LA Auto Show. I heard there were 45 vehicles available. Anyhow, both cars I drove (were equipped differently) had no rattles.
Yeah, what you saw by "all"...err many... most (?) BMW people will likely be true :roll:, esp. from their fanboys. I agree about your comment "I can't think of any significant BMW auto tech innovation that stands out". As much as I'm not a fan of GM, GM seems to be more responsible for a lot of auto tech innovation, but much of it from awhile ago (e.g. automatic transmission, their crash test dummies becoming the standard, etc.)
evnow said:
Not sure about build quality - but ActiveEs have had a long history of troubled drivetrains. No idea how well the i3 drive train holds up.
Yep. The ActiveE's drivetrain and some EV specific systems of that car are known to be extremely unreliable.
Another quirk I noticed... one of my test cars had a triangle ! i in the dash. I went thru the menus to see what it was complaining about. One of them was to set the clock. The clock was MANY hours off. I find it a bit comical since that car had GPS. It hearkens back to the design flaw on the '11 and '12 Leafs where there are 2 non-synchronized clocks (eyebrow clock set manually and the other coming presumably from GPS). At least on the '13, the nav clock likely comes from GPS and the eyebrow clock is synced to it.
And yeah, lack of % SoC display is silly. Many Electronauts, including a former Leafer have made it well known they're not happy about this and have lobbied BMW to change their mind, otherwise it'd be not learning from Nissan's mistake.
, etc.
