Author: Klaus
1. Preparation and Selection Process
I started paying attention to the car market last year. For economic and license reasons, I decided to select an electric car. After experiencing it myself, my wife also felt that a car without exhaust and engine noise would be better. So we started test driving various mainstream brands. As a seasoned car enthusiast, I immediately ruled out the BYD Han and Volkswagen ID series. After looking at four cars, including the XPeng P7, Ford Mustang-Mach E, Tesla Model 3/Y, we both agreed that Tesla was the most satisfying. However, I personally felt that the 320,000 RMB Model 3 rear-wheel drive version, which lacked the futuristic features of the all-wheel drive, was not enough to support Tesla’s brand reputation. So we had to give up and continue to observe from the sidelines.
Figure 1~4: Ford Mustang Mach-E; XPeng P7; Tesla Model 3; Tesla Model Y (source: Dongchedi)# My Experience of Owning a BMW i3
In early 2022, I saw the news about the release and localization of the BMW i3. As a BMW fan, I immediately made a test drive reservation. In Guangzhou, the real car was not available until mid-May, and the test drive was not possible until early June. I waited for more than two months from booking a test drive to seeing the real car in mid-May. During this period, my friend and I also experienced the 325Li to confirm the difference between the electric and gasoline BMW 3 Series. After all, the i3’s background is well-known. The moment I sat in the i3, I could clearly feel that it was a BMW 3 Series. Whether it was the grip of the steering wheel or the center of the rear seat, it seemed to proudly showcase its glory as a member of the Blue Sky and White Cloud Alliance. After a test drive at the dealership and a deep test drive at an official event, I ordered the car without hesitation. Initially, the order was for the optional Harman Kardon sound system and wireless charging board, but later my friend and I wanted to get the car earlier, so we changed it to the bare configuration.
Picture 1: Domestic X5 & i3 release conference
Why did I choose i3?
Based on my test driving experience, the comparison between i3, Tesla, and ET5 is shown in the following table:
Table 1: Comparison of the Three Cars
The advantages of the i3 are outstanding handling, comfort, and brand power. Its disadvantages are also obvious: based on the foundation of CLAR, its rear seat space and luggage space are average, and its intelligence level is only average. It is even often criticized as being “oil to electricity.” But what I need is brand power, handling, and driving comfort in the front row. As for the rear row, it’s good enough. So, I never regretted buying it after getting it.
Delivery and First Experience
…It was another three months of waiting, and my car was finally delivered a while ago. From the time I ordered it to the delivery, it took exactly five months. When I picked it up, the salesperson told me that of all the i3s that arrived at the dealership, only two were ready for delivery. So lucky me, I guess? After all, it’s pretty good that BMW was able to restore normal delivery at this time, considering my previous experience with the battery problem in the test drive car. As a delivery gift, the salesperson also gave me a thermos, a phone number plate, and an umbrella.
Figure 6: Delivery of my sweet ride
Driving: In “B” mode, the car is in single-pedal mode. It’s very useful when driving in congested traffic. “D” mode, combined with Comfort mode, accelerates elegantly without sacrificing explosiveness, and the brakes are confident enough. Even my mother-in-law, who often gets carsick, said it was good. The only gripe is that when Autohold is activated and the car is braking from medium to high speeds to a full stop, there is some shaking. If you want to release all the power, turn on Sport mode on a safe road. The instrument panel will display the speed and power output percentage of Sport mode in a small central area, and the UI color will change from light blue to bright red. The driving experience is 100 points. One small surprise is that the official claim is that the rear-drive motor only has 210 kW. In reality, the maximum nominal power of this beast is 250 kW. This power will be reflected in the i3 eDrive40L that will be released later. Although I feel like I bought the low-power version of the B48, the old saying “you get what you pay for” applies here, so there’s no need to fuss.
Figure 7-8: ECO PRO Mode UI; SPORT Mode UI
In terms of ride comfort, the seat’s wrapping and support are good. Sitting in the front passenger seat, you can open the thigh rest and recline the seat, directly falling asleep. If the front row sits properly, two adults in the rear can also sit comfortably. One drawback that needs to be pointed out is that the storage space is exceptionally small.
In terms of energy consumption, based on the driving conditions of less than 30km/h on average with 25% congestion, and using the D mode and ECO power output mode, the commuting energy consumption is around 17.2kWh/100km. From 100% to 0%, it can run for about 400km. Based on driving conditions without congestion and with an average speed of 50km/h throughout the journey, the lowest energy consumption can go down to 13.4kWh/100km. The displayed remaining battery percentage is a few points lower than the actual percentage, and the displayed remaining range is also dozens of kilometers shorter than the actual range. This is the characteristic of BMW electric vehicles. Compared to other brands’ “happy meters,” I prefer to see such honest feedback.
In terms of charging, slow charging supports 7kW single-phase AC charging and 11kW three-phase AC charging piles. It takes less than 10 hours to charge from zero to full with a home charging pile. For fast charging, at a little orange/TeDa DC charging pile, 40% to 90% takes 40 minutes to charge 36kWh. The average available power at the pile end is about 50kW. After all, this is a 400V battery platform, and the performance is mediocre.# My experience of driving BMW’s new energy vehicle in two weeks
1. Introduction
As a professional and a consumer in the new energy vehicle industry, I would like to share my experience of driving BMW’s new energy vehicle in the past two weeks. In this article, I will give my honest opinions and evaluations from several aspects.
2. Exterior and Interior Design
The overall design of BMW’s new energy vehicle is quite fashionable and elegant. The technology elements and aerodynamic lines are perfectly integrated. The interior is spacious and comfortable and the seats are designed with good support. However, the use of some low-grade materials and the lack of ambient lighting are potential drawbacks.
3. Power and Driving Experience
The power output of BMW’s new energy vehicle is impressive, and it is equipped with a four-wheel drive system, which gives it a great performance on highway and off-road driving. The driving experience is smooth and stable, and the noise control is also satisfactory. However, the energy recovery is not as efficient as some of its competitors.
4. Intelligence
BMW’s new energy vehicle supports wireless Carplay, which makes it have an acceptable level of intelligence. The voice assistant can achieve basic car control functions, such as air conditioning and multimedia control, under the premise of standard Mandarin. If equipped with electric tailgate opening and closing, keyless entry and exit, HUD and smart parking systems, I believe that this set of BMW’s intelligent system can at least get a B+ evaluation.
Conclusion
As a practitioner and a consumer in the new energy vehicle industry, I can objectively and fairly say that there are many good products in China’s new energy vehicle industry, especially domestic brands. Each of these excellent products has its own advantages and selling points. Every consumer can choose and purchase according to their own needs and preferences. From the market side, this is a blessing for Chinese consumers. In the past, due to the low product strength of domestic cars, some joint venture and imported models had rampant price increases in the sales end and endless reductions in the R&D end, which has now begun to be punished by the market. The price increase incident of a joint venture MPV last year is enough to prove that only excellent product strength and sincere price can exchange for consumers’ long-term support. This year, the Ideal L9’s sales volume exceeded 10,000 in its first month, which is a perfect example.According to a professional perspective, the pure-electric-specific platform indeed has higher upper and lower limits. What does it mean? A vehicle developed based on a pure-electric-specific platform, with the same development resources and costs, can perform better than non-pure-electric platform models in various performance dimensions. However, this “excellence” is not inherent in pure-electric platform models, but requires the R&D personnel to work day and night and work together to achieve it. Why? Because pure-electric models also have their development difficulties. For example, the control of vehicle weight, the trade-off between handling and comfort, the balance between configuration richness and model cost, and so on. These were not a problem during the development of fuel vehicles, but became major problems in the development of pure-electric vehicles. Even the excellent pure-electric architectures/platforms such as Volkswagen MEB, Hyundai E-GMP, and Geely-Volvo SEA still have many areas that need to be improved and optimized due to their short application time. In other words, even for vehicles developed on pure-electric exclusive platforms, without the meticulous perseverance of R&D personnel, without clear product positioning, and without understanding the needs of the people, they will ultimately only be an average product. Such products cannot even compare with mixed-power products that are called “technologically backward” or even with “oil-to-electric conversions” in the eyes of automotive reviewers. YES I SAID IT.
I sincerely hope that Chinese new energy vehicles can continue to do better and go to the world. Over time, they could allow users around the world to have Chinese new energy vehicles that are suitable for their own.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.