BMW i3S 2020 long-term review

[PranKk.]

We say goodbye to the more potent version of BMW's electric hatchback. Was it any fun to drive outside commuter hours?

Life with a BMW i3S: Month 6
Time to say goodbye to BMW’s nippy hatchback. Was a decent spell of EV ownership an electrifying experience? - 24th December 2019

Long before it was time to hand the keys back to BMW, the i3s had sparked more interest from Autocar readers than anything else I’ve had the opportunity to report on. I’m grateful for all the messages, tips and positive words from owners, who clearly all love theirs and are fully converted to the EV way of life – but as much as a stretch behind the wheel opened my eyes, I’d still hesitate before making the switch.

Little of that can be blamed on the car, which proved capable and entertaining. I’d argue the i3s is the first electric hot hatch, with rapid off-the-line pace and instant response that made it feel surprisingly at home on twisty B-roads. It has the rear-driven character you’d expect of a BMW but not quite the ability to fully exploit it, on account of the restrictive traction control system and tall bodystyle. A lower, more focused car with the same underpinnings would be a very fun thing indeed. Is there room in the Toyota-BMW partnership plan for a reborn MR2?

It’s a practical car, too. Tall yet small, with a good view of the road ahead and the turning circle to fit into just about any parking space. The boot isn’t the biggest but more than sufficient for a weekly supermarket shop or a pair of weekend bags, and the folding rear bench meant I even managed to fit a small dining table (plus chairs) inside although the person I collected them from said it was much easier fitting them in the back of a three-door Mini. Blame a floor full of batteries.

As for the i3’s backwards-opening rear doors, they give great access should you need to fit a child seat, but I imagine they’d have quickly become frustrating if I’d used them more. You can’t let rear passengers out without jumping out yourself, and getting in did prove a struggle with other cars parked either side of you.

My biggest issue with the i3s was its ride, which could be comically harsh at times. A back-to-back drive in a regular i3 on smaller wheels proved to me that 20in alloys and run-flat tyres don’t make much sense on a car that’s likely to spend most of its time in town, however good they look, filling those widened wheel arches. Still, I was happy to put up with it in return for grin-inducing performance.

That alone wouldn’t be enough to make me pause before making the i3 my only means of transport, but I feel it could have done a better job at helping me overcome my range anxiety. ‘How many miles you have left’ didn’t ever seem to be how many miles I had left, with the car reporting wildly varied amounts after completing a charge, even if my driving style had barely changed between top-ups. I’m also aware that my time with the car was spent in part over the summer. My next longterm test car will also be an EV, but this time I’ll be running it through the depths of winter, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on temperatures and how they affect battery drain.

I didn’t feel I was missing out by not having a charging point at home, as I had one at the other end of my commute, but the need to rely on the UK’s still-maturing charging network meant this wasn’t a car I’d ever have taken on a long drive just for the sake of it. My experience with public charging points was more negative than not, with charging bays sometimes taken by internal combustion engined cars, broken fast chargers and a confusing number of accounts to register for all conspiring to spoil my transition from fossil fuel.

The speed at which regular motorway driving could sap the battery didn’t inspire confidence, either. I would tackle 100-mile trips in Eco mode, even though the car is more than capable of doing that kind of distance without needing to recharge, because the thought of running out of power and being stranded was worse than engaging cruise control and slipstreaming an HGV at 56mph.

I think undertaking some true long-distance drives would have helped get me over this apprehension and I was in the planning stages of one towards the end of my i3 tenure, but poor timing meant it didn’t pan out unfortunately.

EV ownership was a journey I was taking alongside more people than ever, with hybrid and pure-electric car sales accounting for one in 10 registrations in October. Whether the i3 will account for many of those in the future is tough to predict.

It’s currently one of the quickest compact EVs on sale, but if size isn’t everything, the £43,000 asking price of our test car, including options, puts it more than £5000 more expensive than a base Tesla Model 3 – which also promises more range and access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.

It’s more fun to drive than any of its direct rivals today, but as the number of affordable electric hatchbacks increases, I’m not sure the BMW’s quirky doors and expensive carbonfibre construction will tempt customers away from more conventional alternatives.

I really like the i3s, but not quite all of it. I love the looks, proportions, performance and interior choices. Its compactness is great and the agility is close to full-on hot hatch. I also admire BMW’s ambition in committing itself so early and wholeheartedly to a new-era design. Sadly, however, other cars have caught up in five years. They’re now more practical, more ordinary and go a lot further. They ride better, too. So although my heart says our household needs one of these, my head tells me to shop elsewhere. 

Range worrier to range warrior? On this evidence, that might be the case following an invitation from Tom Morgan to borrow ‘his’ BMW i3s. Life with an all-electric car wasn’t something I’d considered much – not through blind loyalty to the good old internal combustion engine; rather because I had doubts my nerves would survive the anxiety of keeping the thing charged.

Turns out, for my specific needs, range worry was a waste of time. It also turns out that by avoiding such cars, I’ve been missing out. A week spent in the company of the i3s was something of a revelation.

But wait, don’t yawn. This is not a standard tale of Road to Damascus EV conversion. Instead, without range worries, I’ve been able to focus on the merits of the car, as a car. Never mind the power source, could it survive and even thrive as a member of my family?

The Saturday proved a useful gauge. The morning was taken up by a 70-mile return journey to Crowborough, East Sussex, to visit the south-east’s finest purveyor of saxophones, in company with my budding John Coltrane of a teenage son. Upon our return, the little ones and Mrs Smith piled in for a 40-mile family outing to visit friends within the M25 ring. So 110 miles in a car with a 42kWh battery and a range comfortably accurate to the official WLTP figure of 177 miles? There you have it: charge anxiety dismissed.