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BMW i3

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#981
You are right. The objective is not cross country trips, but not to let you stranded and waiting for a tow on the side of the highway, and get you back home.

And I think that is a very useful objective and gives enormous peace of mind.

But all that makes sense only if it's priced in a meaningful way. $47K OTD costs on the road makes that a bit less useful.
 
#982
Wraith-
Good to see another S/i3 family.
We went the opposite way buying an i3 first while waiting on the S to be built.
Completely understand your wife's strong feelings about color. In my case it was the opposite! My wife ONLY wanted the White.
One person's skunk is another one's Chariot. She was also super picky about everything else too. Had to be the giga interior and the parking upgrade and pretty much everything else other than the gasoline engine. Although I have only spent 10 minutes behind the wheel of a Model S, I too am impressed with the BMW's visibility and Regenerative capabilities.
Can't wait to have the two side by side.
 
#983
Vitaman said:
Wraith-
Good to see another S/i3 family.
We went the opposite way buying an i3 first while waiting on the S to be built.
Completely understand your wife's strong feelings about color. In my case it was the opposite! My wife ONLY wanted the White.
One person's skunk is another one's Chariot. She was also super picky about everything else too. Had to be the giga interior and the parking upgrade and pretty much everything else other than the gasoline engine. Although I have only spent 10 minutes behind the wheel of a Model S, I too am impressed with the BMW's visibility and Regenerative capabilities.
Can't wait to have the two side by side.
Click to expand...

Styling is definitely subjective. My wife joked that the white and black i3's might do well in China because they might think of them as pandas rather than skunks.

I'm not a big fan of two-tone color schemes so that's probably why I had such a strong reaction against the white/black exterior and two-tone giga-world interior. I was also a little shocked that each trim level only came in a single interior color scheme. We would have saved quite a bit of money if the features we wanted weren't coupled with color-schemes we didn't want. But perhaps that is part of BMW's strategy.
 
#984
Guys, I got into Tesla because Tesla's regenerative braking are the closest to the BMW regen that I could find out there.

Up until August, I was on my way to getting an i3 into our garage. But ultimately decided against it. The removal of the sunroof and AM Radio as well as my poor experience with the dealership management were contributing factors for me to ultimately back out of the Electronaut Edition that we built for my spec. It didn't help that the delivered vehicle lacked the parking assist specification that I had originally ordered, but was unavailable on the delivered product as well.

That being said, I always take a look at i3s when I see them. I am jealous of the adaptive cruise control that the i3 has and know that its range is not an issue, having driven 54,321 miles in my Active E for the two years that I had it.
 
#988
The i3 sales figure came in at 1,022 units in the month of September:

bmwi3sept.png
bmwi3mnl.gif

Click to open
 
#989
I'm relatively new to the EV market, so I spent the last weekend driving all the cars that might work for me,
2 kids in car seats, wife who works at a school near our house and my 15 mile commute from South SF to the Presidio.
I started with the Leaf and worked my way up to the Tesla. The surprise car by far was the Spark EV, so fast and fun... And cheap!
leaf, meh. spark, fun but small. focus, nice but battery in trunk ruins cargo space. Fiat 500e, fun, but too small. I3, nice but weird, tall seating made it feel like a skinny minivan, but ultimately the price is too much considering it gets the same range as the 27k Spark.. Model S85, awesome, fast and loved the kids seats! But light years too expensive for us.
I'm still holding off for the VW E-Golf next month, and will also test the Kia Soul, but given their similar price I'll go with the much nicer VW In a heartbeat. Plus I didn't like the overly strong regen on the i3, the golf has 3 levels you can switch between, that I like!
 
#991
No not really, my wife and I priced them out, and we would need the 3rd row seats, and the tech package and the supercharger. So it came out to be like 76K after rebate. I'd have to sell all 3 cars (about 46-48k maybe) and still put down another 15-20k (that I don't really have) and finance the rest, leaving us with 1 car... I don't see how people can afford these things. the most I ever spent on a car is 30k and that was on my 2004 VW R32 (that i still have... and LOVE)
I work in a creative field which unfortunately means that even though I'm the guy that comes up with the amazing ideas, and puts it down on paper for all to grasp, for some reason that job is not deemed valued enough to get paid more than 150k yr (in the bay area)... so a car costing that much with a mortgage (in the bay area) and 2 kids is out of the question. And bonuses aren't flying out of payroll these days...
I can hack the 26k for the e-golf after rebate and still be fine. I'll sell the GTI, keep my R32 and the dreaded minivan and be flush come tax time....
 
#993
jk. of course. I'm in the creative industry too. I know what you mean about being the idea and problem solving people. Some months I'm building out a p85+ and a making Model-X plans, some months, a Spark.

B-Class might be something that could work? Its bigger than the i3, leaf et all. Its built on Tesla Drivetrain, has full five seats and decent storage space. Small MiniVan/Hatchback. You get the 7500 tax credit on the lease too. Which you could get into in the higher 30's to lower 40's. Save a ton of gas and would work going to the Presidio. (My commute is NorthBay to NorthBeach BTW.)

PM me if you want more info. I have hyper-over-researched the i3 and B-Class. I like both, but for different reasons.

- - - Updated - - -

oh, and not to dis the spark. I drove it and was shockingly surprised how much torque it had! Too much that I felt it in the steering.

That would be a fun car. Especially for the price and a commuter through the city.
 
#994
Grendal said:
Sorry to disagree. Oil companies are not threatened by Tesla at all. They have an entire world market demanding their product. And just like any massive conglomerate, oil companies aren't looking twenty years down the line. Tesla is selling 25K cars a year. There are more gas cars being bought around the world than that in a day. So rest assured that they do not see Tesla as even a minor threat at this point.
Click to expand...

I hear this argument from many people and I refute it exactly the same way you do. Tesla poses no threat to the oil industry, it's all just hogwash conspiracy types who think this way.

Dealership associations are the biggest threat to Tesla. They will continue to harass and attempt to legislate against Tesla for many years to come. And oddly enough it's not because they hate Tesla. It's because they are afraid their own manufacturers will cut them out of the loop following Tesla's example of direct sales. And even more strange is the fact that the legislation in place would prevent their manufacturers from doing that anyway. So it is an irrational fear that they are fighting against.
Click to expand...

They would be a threat if the laws were actually enforceable given the way Tesla is doing business however it's the *misinterpretation* of the franchise laws that confuse me. The franchise laws prevent EXISTING car manufacturers from selling direct to customer so as to no undercut franchise owners. Tesla doesn't have any franchises so there's nothing to undercut. I think Tesla's recent victory where the judge pretty much spelled it out in plain English will perhaps make these jokers back off. Also, it's worth noting that only the USA has such franchise laws. In Canada any auto maker is free to sell direct. However only Tesla and Mercedes (to a lesser extent) do it. Most prefer the old franchise model.
 
#995
Trev Page said:
I hear this argument from many people and I refute it exactly the same way you do. Tesla poses no threat to the oil industry, it's all just hogwash conspiracy types who think this way.
Click to expand...

I disagree completely. The oil industry and the existing auto industry sees Tesla as a big threat.
Without Tesla there would be no Chevy Volt, no Nissan Leaf, no BMW i3, no BMW i8.
Tesla isn't going to sell everyone an EV, they aren't even going to sell the majority of EVs sold.
They are going to prove that you don't have to settle for a gas burner or a fool cell.
Long before EVs are the majority of vehicles sold ( which will happen much sooner than all the "analysts" think ) - the proof that EVs are viable will help us stop giving massive subsidies to the oil companies, stop fighting wars to protect their profits, and take a huge bite out of their sales.


Trev Page said:
Most prefer the old franchise model.
Click to expand...
I don't think manufacturers prefer the old franchise model. They are stuck with it.
The law may allow them to challenge it in many places, but they would face a huge fight from their existing dealers any place they tried it.
That fight would have a huge cost, and would take many years to recover from. Even if they could win the fight in one market, the dealers everywhere else would dig in.
The dealers make way too much money to give up.
 
#996
Trev Page said:
They would be a threat if the laws were actually enforceable given the way Tesla is doing business however it's the *misinterpretation* of the franchise laws that confuse me. The franchise laws prevent EXISTING car manufacturers from selling direct to customer so as to no undercut franchise owners. Tesla doesn't have any franchises so there's nothing to undercut. I think Tesla's recent victory where the judge pretty much spelled it out in plain English will perhaps make these jokers back off. Also, it's worth noting that only the USA has such franchise laws. In Canada any auto maker is free to sell direct. However only Tesla and Mercedes (to a lesser extent) do it. Most prefer the old franchise model.
Click to expand...

This is not strictly true. Take a look at the dealership laws in Michigan. It quite explicitly states that a manufacturer must sell through a franchisee. Period. It even specifies that the vehicle can not be serviced by the manufacturer.
 
#997
#999
We picked up an i3 BEV to accompany our Model 3d. ;) 335d that is.

So far we love it. Its as much "fun" to drive; as the Tesla is "amazing" to drive. A Model S and an i3 are completely two different cars.
The i3 is small, nimble and quite high up. I was surprised to be at eye level with small to mid-sized suvs on the road.

The i3 is an great complement to a Tesla Stable. Model S/ModelX and i3.

Its really a fun car to drive around town. Especially in urban cities like San Francisco.

Range could be better, but that is what the Model S is for right?

Couldn't be happier with the i3 for what it is intended for. An urban commuter. And quick too!
 
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