BMW i3 deceptive advertising

[Yarder]

Excellent news story on a consumer, after signing up for a four year lease, discovers that BMW changes the expected mileage on his car. Originally touted at 200km (124 miles) and then adjusted expected mileage is now advertised at 160km (99 miles). Poor guy.

'Clearly false advertising': Electric car owner charged up after automaker alters ad

 

[McRat]

Euro standards.

If the guy was dumb enough to sign a $970/m lease (Cd$) for 4 years on a 2014 i3, then it's understandable he was too dumb to go to the EPA site and read the EPA range. He probably does not know that km can be converted to miles.

BMW offered him $5000 for being dumb. He claims he is dumber than that and wants more.

 

[woof]

A 2014 i3 ain't gonna get 99 miles either. In Canada. In the winter.

 

[McRat]

A 2014 i3 ain't gonna get 99 miles either. In Canada. In the winter.

Border Collie?

 

[thegruf]

this?

 

[McRat]

I think ours is just a coyote with a paint job.

Very crafty.

 

[SageBrush]

Junk article.

The original 200 km/charge claim in the advert never said "expected,", it said "up to."
And the claim was based on unspecified "internal testing," as noted in the small print of the advert

A bit hard to believe that the car buyer did not x-check EPA and European fuel economy results for a somewhat more realistic idea of range. I say somewhat because his climate is tougher on range than the standardized tests.

 

[RiverBrick]

The buyer should have done more homework, but BMW never should have published the 200 km figure. It was criticized at the time and I am just surprised how long it took for such article to appear. Nissan's 161 km claim in 2010-2011 hit the fan much more quickly.

The $970 4-year lease is baffling. The government rebate is less in B.C. than in Ontario, Quebec or the USA, but still. Perhaps there's a typo in the article.

 

[SageBrush]

The buyer should have done more homework, but BMW never should have published the 200 km figure.

You can bet that the BMW internal testing did in fact reach 200 km/charge.

It is no different than the gorgeous model proclaiming that she lost weight while dieting on chocolate cookies. It happened, but Ymmv

 

[larmor]

Excellent news story on a consumer, after signing up for a four year lease, discovers that BMW changes the expected mileage on his car. Originally touted at 200km (124 miles) and then adjusted expected mileage is now advertised at 160km (99 miles). Poor guy.

'Clearly false advertising': Electric car owner charged up after automaker alters ad

That's ok, VW will have an EV and i heard VW's testing and marketing dept work closely together...

 

[McRat]

The EPA city is 89 mi, but a hypermiler can normally stretch 1/3. So 120mi =193 km. I bet urban drivers can reach it in good weather.

 

[woof]

Border Collie?

Indeed.

 

[woof]

The EPA city is 89 mi, but a hypermiler can normally stretch 1/3. So 120mi =193 km. I bet urban drivers can reach it in good weather.

I've done over 110 in perfect conditions with 6% SOC left:

But I've not heard of anyone in the i3 community go 120 yet.

 

[ChadS]

An i3 owner that has corresponded with the owner in question points out that, in addition to EPA numbers not being legally required in advertising and car stickers in Canada, the EPA numbers weren't available when this i3 owner did his research (it is unclear if they were when he actually made his purchase). At the time, the web site numbers were all the buyer had to go on.

However, retrieving an old copy of the web site, BMW actually said "160km", and depending on the destination, "up to 200km" in Eco Pro+ mode.

200km is possible - at city speeds. Of course, at city speeds, few people are going to go 200km; they generally care about range when driving on the highway.

 

[EV-lutioin]

BMW makes pretty good ICE cars. EV's are still a snub nosed novelty for them. In due time....

 

[mspohr]

BMW caught out again for false advertising. This time in the UK where is misrepresented the i3 as a "clean EV" when it actually has an IC engine to charge the battery.
BMW forced to pull i3 electric car ad with gas-powered range extender advertised as ‘clean’