Topic: Test Drive: 2016 BMW i3 w/ REx

[KD]

This car reminds me more of the Honda Element more than anything else.  Then again the Element was kinda cool, and this one not so much.  I didn't read the article though.   

[Rupert]

   If you extended the rear a bit and cut the top off behind the front seats...making a little hard body truck...you would be able to have more battery and maybe 300 km. less the weight of two passengers. With stake sides and fabric cover or fibreglass cap. Heck most vehicles are carrying a single person most of the time. This little package has possibilities beyond what is seen here...but this is a good start for local utility.

[slalom]

We love ours! Have had it for 1yr now... only spent $130 on gas (used the Rex for approx 1,800 out of 11,000kms), the Rex was the only way we could be a 1-car family and still want to go electric, in a few years we'll go full-electric once the Ontario charging infrastructure fills out.

[carcrazed]

This is just as unique, IMO:

but thats got a big, bad ICE motor in it...

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

Definitely not big.

Here's an interesting one on the Aztek, comparing what the concept was and then production.  Proportions got all screwed up among other things.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/thread-of-the-day-what-if-the-pontiac-aztek-concept-had-gone-to-production-unchanged-192105/

The front looks just as bad as the production model.  The proportion looks slightly better with the concept, though.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Definitely not big.

Here's an interesting one on the Aztek, comparing what the concept was and then production.  Proportions got all screwed up among other things.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/thread-of-the-day-what-if-the-pontiac-aztek-concept-had-gone-to-production-unchanged-192105/

Neither looks very good.

Basing it on their Montana minivan, making it ugly, reducing the amount of room inside, then charging a premium for it was a bad idea. Having it be very unreliable was even worse.

Pretty poorly executed program right from the get-go.

[Serniter]

Here's a thief appreciating an i3

http://jalopnik.com/watch-this-bmw-i3-get-a-glowing-review-from-a-car-thief-1777244114

[Noto]

Wow, Brendan, just wow.  How you manage to make such a weird car sounds so appealing.  Kudos.

[me_2]

Nobody mentioned that the 2017 i3 is getting a 33 KWh battery (vs the 22 KWh of the car tested in the article) and will get close to 200 km range on electricity?

I did:

... The incoming 2017 would have increased EV range http://bmwi3.blogspot.ca/

The 2 choices of battery capacity (60 and 94 Ah) for the MY2017 are shows page http://www.bmw.ca/en/all-models/bmw-i/i3/2016/range-charging.html
Online configurator should be updated shortly after, I guess...

[Neromanceres]

The i3 is more of a technological show piece for BMW.

It only gets a little more EV range than my 2017 Volt.  The REX is more of an emergency solution vs. my Volt which is a well thought out hybrid that you can go cross country once the battery is low.   And the cost is very high.  Not to mention that the i3 reliability has not been good.  Those skinny tires look very special and expensive to replace as well. 

BMW is increasing the battery size which is good.  As a base EV the improved i3 is not bad.  But BMW needs to do better to stay competitive with a host of new longer range lower cost EV's coming on the market in the next couple of years.

What sort of reliability issues?

The i3 has not been fairing well for BMW.  I've heard some personal horror stories on the reliability front.

http://www.truedelta.com/BMW-i3/reliability-1218

The REX gas motor is not doing well and it appears to have a lot of electronic and software gremlins.