The UN IPCC estimated recently that there are about ten years left to avert a major climate catastrophe. That's twice as long as I have now owned my 2014 BMW i3 electric car. With that in mind, here begins the long-term review:
I bought an early i3 in 2014 and wrote a contemporary review. At the time, I thought it was a great 25 thousand dollar car looking for a way to break out of its introductory 50 thousand dollar pricing. I think I was about half right. The price never did fall but BMW steadily increased the range with denser batteries at the same price.
In short, the car works. It does all the things it could be expected to do and it solves the problems it could have been expected to solve. It's an extrapolation of my experience with a 2004 Prius. That car is still running on its original battery with no hybrid-specific maintenance in 200000 miles.
The i3 does not solve the problems that it cannot solve. It is several feet shorter than the car it replaced but not usefully narrower. It is, therefore, never in traffic. It is the traffic. It has cameras and computers that let it parallel park itself but it does not solve the problem that parking is killing cities.
The way to think about the i3 is not as an electric car. It's an interurban car. Its electric motor, battery pack, carbon fiber frame, and thermoplastic body panels just solve a bunch of packaging and noise problems. The interurban car builders at the end of the 19th century came to similar conclusions about electric, though they built for rails.
The plastic interurban family car pod is a retro-futuristic vision. Our pod goes to Annapolis or Baltimore and back, cities served by original electric DC interurban railways, but not Frederick or Richmond without a charge or use of the gas range extending motor.
This is the part where I might say that the electric drive train is low maintenance. That's true, though the on-board charger did melt once under warranty and was replaced with no trouble. One of the little strings that holds up the rear parcel shelf broke. The enormous lightweight windshields crack easily and few shops want to hear about replacing a windshield in a carbon fiber car. Of all the fragile and moving pieces that make up a car, the drivetrain is just a part. The fact that the i3 has no CD player, rear speakers, or operable rear windows will probably color my perceptions of its reliability just as much as its electric drivetrain.
In the long term, a set of four tires for the car costs a cargo bike. Electricity works. What doesn't work is cars. If you are shopping for a replacement car, consider eliminating that car. If you need to buy yourself a couple of years to figure that all out, consider a used BMW i3.
