[Noggie]

I guess I was not aware that there was an i3 forum, but that's nice to know.

September last year I placed an order for a Melbourne red i3s and took delivery in November.

I did assess the market quite a lot as there are quite a few EV's in the market, but in the end, several reasons made me go with the i3, while in no way being the "latest and greatest", the one with the cool tech or best range.
I can elaborate on my choice another time.

I did kit this thing out with pretty much all the options, but not all.
I was going to use this car as an office commuter, winter daily driver, a car to go shopping and chores, I have other cars for other proposes.

Not sure if the "Charged Plus" and "Fully Charged" packages are global, or something local.
I went with a Charged Plus, and put on most options from the Fully Charged version and added a few more.
Sounds like a strange thing to do? Well, I did not want any of the Fully Charged interiors, I was not having leather as this would be my winter car, did not care for the Truffle brown color either. White interior was out of the question, and I did not like the brownish one either.
The black/grey/blue standard was the way to go for me.
I saw no point in a sunroof or the wireless phone charger and wi-fi hotspot.
Other than that, every other box was ticked. Comfort access, adaptive headlamps, Apple carplay etc etc.

Got the car on the skinny 155 winter tires, but in a few weeks I guess its time for the 175/195 summer tires, really looking forward to those, think this will be a relatively fun car to drive with that setup. The power to weight ratio of this car is pretty good so should make for some fun drives.

Over all I've been very happy with this car in the last 4 months, no regrets buying this "little" car at all.

[soheil]

Such a bold color wife and I have a 2018 i3 (not s). We live in US and we don't have those package names that you mentioned. But we also got ours maxed out with all possible options except the seats and the sunroof! For seats we didn't like the brown leather either and since our interior color is navy (called imperial blue in US) the standard gray+blue cloth actually goes well with it. We actually wanted to get a sunroof but saw one on the lot and realized that it's 2 separate tiny windows over the driver and passenger and not one overall and didn't like it at all. Wireless charging and WiFi hotspot also weren't offered back then.

With all the options our budget allowed either i3s or i3 REX. In the end we went with the REX since it was our first EV and we had range anxiety (and back then standard battery was 94Ah).

You are absolutely right that it doesn't have the latest and greatest tech nor the range/price is the best out there but after almost 3 years now, we still LOVE this little beast! I know design is subjective and i3 design is so controversial but we really like it! It's absolutely fun to drive as well and it's electric! We will never go back to ICE again!

Our lease is up in a few months and we will be getting another one! But this time we'll swap the REX for s! I just wish they offered a bigger battery and a better range...

[Noggie]

I totally agree.

I like red cars, this is not available on the 2021 models apparently.

The packages might be a European thing, or Norwegian.

I felt the same about the sunroof, and paying $800 for that was not something I felt like.
The wireless phone charger may not work very well with larger phones, so I decided against it having an iPhone Max model, and wifi-hotspot, my phone has that.....

I picked this car after assessing all available cars, and cars being released second half of 2020.
I was looking for an office commute and shopping car.
I wanted a practical one, some of the smaller ones, like the Fiat 500 and Renault Zoe was too small.
Also the Teslas, Audi eTron, MB EQC, Polestar II, Jaguar iPace etc were too big and expensive.
The ID3 was interesting but I decided against it.
Looking at the above mentioned cars that launched in -19 and -20, all saw major issues, software issues, callbacks, quality issues, fires etc etc.
The ID3 was released with a statement that "some features will not be available before a software update in Q1 2021". I had no desire to be a BETA tester on a half finished software.

Looked at the i3 and ended up with:
-Most practical car in it's segment (big boot/trunk and square shape)
-Most power in its segment and only weigh 1200kg
-BMW build quality
-Tried and tested technology
-The superstructure is Carbon fiber, no rust and lightweight
-The body panels is plastic, no rust and no parking dents

Looking at the competitors range, and that BMW intend to produce the i3 for another 2-3 years I would expect a range extension later this year, from the current (120ah) approx. 300km(186mi) to 400km(248mi) or 450km(279mi) to match the likes of the VW ID3/ID4 and Renault Zoe.

BMW has pretty much "dumped" the prices in the i3since mid-2020.
Many of the competitors and new models in the same class has been released with 400-500km range, so BMW may have lowered their prices to be competitive and may increase the range later this year, if not, I think they will struggle to keep this car interesting in the market to the planned 2024 production end.

[soheil]

While I don't believe BMW will do any updates anymore to i3 because they want people buying the new i4 and iX that are coming out in 2021 and 2022, I definitely hope that I'm wrong and they do increase the battery capacity. Unfortunately I'm almost 100% certain i4 and iX will both be luxury and above $60-70K and with not much discounts like i3 so they are out of our budget...

[Noggie]

I think BMW will be forced to extend the battery range if they want to keep selling this car to 2024 as they have stated, of not I think 2022 might be it.

I guess the EV market is different around the world, where I live there are quite a few of them, i typically se 10+ i3's whenever I'm out driving, and many many other EV's.
in 2020, Norway was the first country in the world where over 50% on new cars sold were EV's.

The market is seeing new models all the time, If BMW would like to stay in the game, extending the range is one of the things they need to do.
Like I said, it's dated on many other things, so to keep it interesting it needs to at least be competitive on range.
I guess you are right that the i4 iX3 and iX and new models will be the focal point for BMW going forward after all, the i3 is an old car in its 8th production year.

[soheil]

Originally Posted by Noggie

the i3 is an old car in its 8th production year.

But still a unique car and amazingly fun to drive

[Noggie]

Originally Posted by soheil

But still a unique car and amazingly fun to drive

True, I guess some of the purists will disagree, but looking at the numbers of the i3s:
1200kg, 184hp and a length of 4 meters.
You know what else is very close to those measurements?
The first iconic e30 M3. 1200kg, 194hp and 4,3meters.
No real comparison for sure, but looking at the numbers, the i3s should be a fun car.