Thanks for the thorough introduction how to drive with I3 in snow. I think your channel makes very good and inspiring videos! In Norway, the BMW I3 is a very popular car. We have 2 units, one produced at the beginning of 2014 and a facelifted version from 2019 with the larger battery. I can confirm that both cars are good in snow!, but the new version has changed the stability control which makes the car more stable when the engine is braked. We often drive in the mountains with the I3 between Oslo and the west Norway and we have never experienced problems in the winter, even in quite difficult conditions! The cars are absolutely brilliant for Norwegian conditions. Easy to drive on narrow Norwegian roads, fantastic city car, construction that does not rust and much more. It seems that there is minimal degradation of the batteries even after long time at use (check Bjørn Nyland test). Solid cars throughout, except for brakes that rust.
But then BMW realized that the complexity of this setup was not worth it, and last generation of i3 (120Ah) was only offered as BEV. It's really funny to see how other vendors like Mazda are trying same ideas that BMW had over 10 years ago and has discarded by now... :(
Try roller mode next time! I sometimes have a frozen gas cap after driving rain and then freezing (or carwash). The vent doesn't work and the REX stops. If I take the cap out and tap it, or let it melt I'm good! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦👍
"... a bit less of a wuss..." 🤣 Brilliant... Ooooo.... I hadn't realised this video is on your own You Tube channel - I've therefore subscribed so looking forward to seeing more i3 content, too. Thanks as always for your amazing information videos, Martin - the i3 community thanks you 😎
Well done. Greetings from scandinavia - Haha 😂 I think the earlier models had the regen flipping the car around. We have had no winter issues but one: Snow slush triggers a driveline high voltage insulation resistance error that we do not get just from driving in rain.
I have driven 2 different i3s with winter tires on snow covered slippery roads and never had any sort of control or traction issue. If all vehicles were this good in snow, we would have a lot fewer collisions on the roads.
I "re-learned" something! That the mirrors can be folded by Touch&hold of the exterior door handles... no need to take gloves off to reach into my pocket to hit the round lock button. Thanks! I was without use of my 2015 i3 BEV for almost a year, while accumulating the funds, buying the parts and finding a shop to replace the drive motor... bearings failed @ 94k miles. I found a "used" 2018 motor with the upgraded bearings, with under 100 miles on it... it was a test vehicle - but no damage. Also replaced the transmission knowing that the input shaft bearing could have been damaged by the slop in the motor rotor... it was also on ebay, but had zero miles... someone purchased the wrong p/n for his Rex... and could not return it. I also converted it to all 2018+ motor mounts and brackets... not cheap. My next concern is the aircon compressor... whether to replace it as preventative maintenance when I have the 94Ah battery installed that I got for it. (if I understand it correctly, this 60Ah to 94Ah upgrade is a simple "retrofit" coding process... ??) Martin, have you seen many aircon compressor failures in the UK? I'm in the US, in Missouri, so our weather isn't terribly hot like they have in Arizona or South Texas... but it's a big risk item.
Haven't really seen frequent AC compressor issues. If you feel like it may give out it's of course good to have the money ready for it, but I personally wouldn't replace it prematurely. (Once / if it fails though, it's important to get it sorted ASAP because it cools the battery as well.)
@@MartinKarel Thanks, Martin. Yes, I'm aware of the aircon being used to cool the battery pack... that's part of reason for my concern. It originally came from a warmer area of the US, where it likely had "Comfort" mode in-use, and the compressor likely ran at full power... therefore more wear & tear. I've had it 5 years, but have always used it in Eco Pro mode (99.9% of the time).
I must say, is hard to drive the I3 in the snow mostly when you are over 70km/h, in Norway in same places the snow stay on the roads for days and the B- Brake don't help at all, it's kind a dangerous.
Thanks Martin. In 40+ years of driving in Britain, I've never used Winter tyres. Driving an EV makes me think about doing it. That said, we've had two days with light snow in this part of England this Winter, and we didn't need to use the car on either of them. So are they worth the expense?
I remember when cars used to be RWD, and when FWD came they were advertised as way safer to drive than RWD. Now we bring a lot high powered EV's with only RWD out on the streets. Does not make sense lol. edit: I pressed send way too fast, I was going to say I always loved the design of the i3. It looks futuristic still.
True! There are some differences obviously, back in the day a typical rwd had the engine up front and less weight sitting on the back wheels, as far as going in a straight line (uphill and such) this combination was less than ideal. A fwd has the engine on top of the driven wheels and therefore has more traction in winter, again in a straight line. Much has changed with the introduction of traction and stability control, these nanny’s come as standard and in some cases cannot be turned off. An EV has a much different weight distribution and an motor sitting on top of the driven axle.. in combination with all the electronics and the ability to manage the power output of an electric motor (much quicker), you don’t get the same issues like 20 years ago. Many EV’s designed from scratch will simply have a rear motor as standard and an optional motor up front. I saw a Harry’s garage video where he drove a Porsche Taycan mildly offroad and it had traction for days like it was a Range Rover, very much due to its ability to control the power output. Not like it used to be, indeed. Cheers!
