BMW i3

gn3dr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122491611#Comment_122491611

Have been watching Donedeal for a while alright. There have been big price drops in last 6 months but some people still over optimistic e.g.guys with the same car for sale since late last year when I first started watching and only dropping price by €500. If it hasn't sold in 8 months then reality check needs to happen....

unkel

Indeed you have been watching DD!

Out of interest, why are you only looking for one with the range extender and why only the 94Ah? What is your budget?

gn3dr

I know you are not a fan of the REX but I think it is the ideal solution , it's there if you need extra range, don't have to use it if you don't need it. I'm in Kerry also so not as many charge points as the cities.

Looking for 94ah because if buying one then might as well get the extra 50% capacity one rather than the first gen. Going for the later 120ah not an option due to price.

Having looked at Merlin's snapshot they sold some earlier in the year (Feb / March) for 8k so I'd like to stay below that level. There is a 60ah rex on DD for a while now at 7950 and it still hasn't sold. There was some discussion on here about it when it was last for sale (some talk of it having been damaged maybe?). I might actually go look at it though just to see what's what.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122493112#Comment_122493112

You're very well informed and you know your own requirements. Not going to argue with that 😀

Not sure if your Merlin one sold for €8k was a 94Ah though. Anything is possible at auction for sure, but that seems insanely cheap. That 60Ah one might suit you. Sure it doesn't matter much if it is 60Ah, 94Ah or 120Ah if you are going to rely on the petrol engine occasionally?

ELM327

The 94AH rex works a lot better than the 60ah rex, apparently. Less risk of not being able to get up hills when on low EV power

gn3dr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122493524#Comment_122493524

Good to know - thanks for that. I was wondering how they work out when the REX is running - i.e. at 100km/h will the REX maintain battery level or is it using more than the REX is generating?

On prices - I'm not sure @unkel why you think the €8K region is insanely cheap - it is after all a lowish range car and time is moving on, yes they were advanced at the time but everything depreciates. Here is the Merlin snapshot for i3's from their latest 12 month data it was actually €8.6K the 94aH sold for in March '24 with a previous one selling for 10K last Aug '23 (pre the EV crash it could be argued)

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122493571#Comment_122493571

That was really cheap, if you can get something like that again, you'd be laughing! Auction prices are very hit and miss though and a huge risk for the buyer. The car might not even turn on, there is no way of knowing, and there is zero come back. Also big fees on top of the hammer price. It could work out for you, but it is nearly always a mug's game with private buyers overbidding. Unless it is strictly a trade only auction house.

ELM327

8.6k for a 94ah rex is a great deal

Regarding the rex, when it kicks in etc, it kicks in at 6% but the issue is especially on the 60ah, the engine - at only 600cc - doesnt have enough power to keep the battery at 6% when on a long ascent. The power demand is higher than the kW output of the engine after losses (there's no link between the engine and the wheels, all the engine does is charge the battery, so it's a simple sum, if the power draw out is greater than the power draw in, you're going to run the battery to zero, rex or no rex)

handpref

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122493112#Comment_122493112

You control when the Rex comes on - so on a 60ah / 90ah you can bring on the Rex anytime under 72% SOC-

The 60ah will hold the SOC at 100kmph- if you hit big hills like the ones coming into cork from Dublin it may dip a couple of precent and then pull it back. Bringing it on at 11% always allowed enough of a buffer, 15% in winter.

ELM327

The rex is actually a great idea. I'd love to see a black mirror esque alternate history where cars exist with 50-70kWh of battery and a tiny 2 cylinder range extender is an option on all cars. Completely removes the "I need 1000km of range in my EV" argument and then once people have the EVrex they would see they don't need the rex at all

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122497339#Comment_122497339

Seems like a total waste of REx engines for people to buy them that don't need them 😂

Simply educating people would be a cleaner solution, but this seems hard, as we can see even from many discussions in this forum. I guess it is just a matter of time before everyone has a fully electric car. Not that much time either. Tony Seba recently said that in 2030, all mainstream cars sold worldwide will be BEV. He has been proven right, with his time lines spot on, many times before.

ELM327

If there's a 600cc engine in a BEV that displaces one full size engined car, and switches the owner to buying full BEVs going forward I thimnk it is worth it

Buddy Bubs

How far did the rex extend the range by?

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122499957#Comment_122499957

9l in the tank, so roughly 100km or a bit more, depending of course on how you drive

Buddy Bubs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122500089#Comment_122500089

I had a loan of one from a BMW dealer back around 2014, it was a rex. First ev I ever drove, got me interested in them. Didn't buy one for another 8 years but the i3 was the one that got me interested

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122500113#Comment_122500113

Same story with my best mate, he had his 120i in for a service and got a BEV i3 as a loaner. As soon as he drove it away, he knew he would own an EV soon enough. Took 4 years and then he bought a Tesla Model 3 as soon as they came out

Flinty997

I still think the charging infrastructure is poor enough in certain areas where a rex can be useful. But most people will be happier with a bigger battery as most of their driving will be in range of the battery.

Cool car.

gn3dr

Looking for some objective input please from i3 people I test drove my first i3 this evening, a 60 ah car with REX. First time driving one and wow these things have some great acceleration!

The REX kicked in when test driving as the charge was low. All fairly seamless and quiet. Hardly knew it was running until I came to a stop at junctions.

It looks like the rear left motor mount rubber is a bit wet and possibly cracked so that needs doing. Everything else seems pretty OK.

The price is good compared to the general market.

My two main questions though - firstly it doesn't have fast charging- only has the single 7 pin connector.

Secondly I did the battery kappa max check in the service menu and it is only showing 13.5 kwh max capacity - which I work out to be 71% of original capacity. I was hoping it wouldn’t be as low as this and was open to dealing with something starting at about 80% for a few years and maybe upgrade the battery eventually when that becomes more common (hopefully)

The guy selling mentioned 83km range showing when he had charged it to 100%.

My use case is an 18km each way commute, plus driving in and out of town about once a day at least - 20 ish km round trip.

Have free charging at work which is a big attraction for going EV obviously.

What are your thoughts?

Is there too much degradation on this battery? Is the slow charging too much of an inconvenience nowadays or does the REX just cancel that out if I aim to only ever charge at work or home.

Should I just keep looking for a 94ah car which was my original plan - better capacity and second gen so some of the bugs ironed out from the first few years production??

unkel

A few thoughts. It's cheap already, just use the battery degradation as a negotiation tool to squeeze every last cent out of the seller. It doesn't matter to you anyway as you have plenty of range for your day to day driving. Your car will be full every day leaving work. And you will have the REx for longer trips. How much do you think you can get the car for? The cheaper you can get an i3, any i3, the lower your total cost of ownership

Lack of CCS charging shouldn't be any bother to you either. You have the REx and there isn't much in it between cost of petrol and cost of fast chargers

And you think the i3 you test drove was quick? The one without the REx is considerably quicker 😁

vicM

We Have a 2014 60Ah rex.

I wouldn't trust the kappa readings as a true indicator of the SOH. It fluctuates quite a bit. I'm willing to bet if you went checking it today it would have shifted. By all means use it to bargain for a better deal.

Maybe that battery needs cell balancing so needs to be charged to 100% and left on charge for an hour or so but that degradation seems high for an i3. The Battery temp controls were a bit over engineered even by today's standards with BMW opting to use a refrigerant as the heat exchange medium rather than your usual liquids. Bjorn Hyland has some battery degradation videos and the i3 scores well. not refuting that the battery is that degraded by the way, just thinking highly unlikely esp with no fast charging capabilities. However, if it was constantly left at low SoC regularly, that seems to affect the i3 battery more so than high SoC . The car will charge the battery to 12%(If lower) immediately you plug it in regardless of charge timers.

vicM

Im pretty sure the Rex in the 94 Ah is 600cc as well. Obviously it may be tuned slightly differently to peovide a bit more power, but then again its charging a bigger pack. The 94 Ah would be heavier as well as the pack is denser to allow for same physical footprint.

The Rex responds to power demands as well. if you floor it you can hear the rex rev up, if you are cruising it can be inaudible, so on long ascents just drop the speed and the battery will be held at 6%.

I did read somewhere though that the drivetrain in general is more efficient in the 94 Ah iteration so probably revised motors etc

gn3dr

Thanks for those replies. The guy who was selling it drove it from Dublin down to Cork a few weeks ago with no charge from the start - on the Rex all the way and had been driving it around like that a few times it seems. So leaving it in the low SOC was a concern I had. I mentioned that to him and he wasn’t aware it was an issue. Reading all the stuff online and watching Bjorn's videos I was a bit surprised with the figure, especially as you say when it doesn't have fast charging. I have also read that resetting the BMS can increase the battery capacity that the car thinks it has but not sure if that is BS from American forums or what? With no bargaining he was willing to sell for 6.7K. So it is cheap as they go, but not if the battery falls off a cliff soon. I know I said the auctions are potential source of cheaper ones, but waiting for them to turn up is a pain. The cheapest 94aH with REX I can find currently is 12k.

One thing I have decided though is I definitely want to get one now after driving one.

unkel

You might get it for €6k, which is a total steal! Battery wouldn't worry me, they have an excellent reputation and it is very unlikely the range would become progressively worse in a short period of time. I have also seen from several sources that the capacity in the hidden menu is quite volatile, like @vicM posted. Mine came out as 15.9kWh (out of the original 18.8kWh), so I guess about par for the course for a 10 year old low mileage car but I take it with a grain of salt.

Also to give you an idea of range, with a very light foot and non-motorway driving I could get up to about 100km in winter and 150km in summer. City driving range is particularly good, I guess because of the strong regen

gn3dr

Thanks for that. A few things to mull over and a decision to make. I'll sleep on it.

serfboard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521291#Comment_122521291

Someone driving a Rex like that would be better off driving a hybrid. I'd share your concern alright about the state of the battery given that style of driving.

I've a 60Ah Rex. Summer range is up to 300km (130 battery and 170 Rex) and Winter is probably just over 200 (80 and 120). Those are non-motorway figures, or maybe including some motorway but at 100 km/h max.

It's an absolutely great car to drive.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122522024#Comment_122522024

This is the later Rex. But might be worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfQDK1SiZ38

gn3dr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122524334#Comment_122524334

Thanks. Watched that one alright a few days ago. The Wisely videos are very good

gn3dr

Well after sleeping on it for 2 days I decided to take a chance on this car. I offered 6k but we eventually agreed a deal at €6.3k. Just collected this evening and drove back from Cork to Killarney. When I collected it, it was showing 91 km predicted range. Once I started driving I reset mileage. Started out with 89% battery charge and I travelled 63.5 km before the battery hit 6% and the rex kicked in. At that point I was at the county bounds so a lot of downhill afterwards and traffic was slow so charge actually started going up.

So far only problem I have found issue the the 'push to select' action on the I drive controller isn't working so will have to sort that straight away. Also no compressor in the frunk. These are things I didn't check when I first view the car because I didn't think I was going to buy it.

Drives well though.

Must get myself a type 2 charge cable now as all that came with it was the granny cable.

Flinty997

I think you'll enjoy the adventure.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122533097#Comment_122533097

You got a bargain, well worth spending a few hundred quid on it to get it right. Well wear 😎