Its rare we drive a legacy automakers Chinese only offering - but that's what we have today - the BMW I3 eDrive 35L and find out that Chinese automakers can also learn a lot from legacy auto. Follow me on Twitter @ElliotChina
I believe BMW considered this to be a sprint-to-market compromise in a place where it might be accepted as good enough. Where the i4 G26 (beaver) was redesigned for max aero efficiency, this i3 was an afterthought. Still a cool car and I'd say was a mistake to not offer it globally at the time. Instead they vowed to NOT globally electrify their bread and butter 3 series until the Neue Klasse ground up redesign.
@electricelliotrichards the BMW dealer in Lao sells it, there's tons of grey imports here too. Other countries I can't comment on if available officially or not though.
I find myself using the driving aids on long highway journeys a lot... you should include lane centering & adaptive cruise control in your checkliist of things tot try.
Just got the i4 and regret not getting the professional driving in US and I go on hwy journey all the time. Going to give myself end of the year to get used to the reg cruise control if I’d like it
Hey Richard, love the channel. I think you meant the BMW is in the Top 10% in driving. If it's in the Top 90%... then it could be as low as the 90th out of a hundred cars.
seen quite a few of these in China. it's selling fairly well compared to other foreign EVs that don't have a Tesla badge - but that's a very very low bar. BMW has the right idea with this BMW i3 eDrive and the iX3, but the prices are still too high.
as a taiwanese in china here, i currently own a bmw i3 and also an ix3, i've driven lots of bmw (both intl. ones and china-only long wheelbase)since F chassis days, and this car just doesn't deliver as much fun as the old bmw, and espacially this i3 which is created with the petrol version in mind, the chassis is extremely low and is a big oof for the roads in china imo. The car does support carplay tho, but no android auto. also the actual acceleration speed from 0-100kph is actually faster than what they say officially, i've done several testing and it was around 5.9s for my i3 35L as shown in vid, and the 40L which is the higher spec model can do 5.4s approx fyr
Good to hear from a proper owner of one of these - what made you buy it in the first place against the other Chinese NEVs? Would be interested in this.
@@electricelliotrichards First its of course i'm already used to driving a bimmer so i like the way it looks and feels. one of the big reason for me to buy an extra i3 over the ix3 is also kinda mentioned above - although low chassis is bad, but thanks to this disadvantage, driver's seat can be adjusted very low which i find very comfortable for long drive. (here fyr one of the worst of i3's competitor would be the NIO ET5, the seat postion is trash, lots of EV sedans fails to do this) Secondly, i don't really care about intelligence driving and i found BMW L2 ACC (aka 5AU) good enough. And i rather have apple carplay than some other self-made UI. Thirdly, i can actually trust the estimated range as shown in the gauge, BMW has one of the best range estimation in EVs. Last but not least , Lots of Chinese vehicle does not have "easy-to-understand English interface" which i find very annoying. BMW system at least was designed first(originally) with English in mind, so say i dont need to worry after changing language and still find my voice assistant in chinese. So overall for me its basically details that matters, lower tier Bimmer EVs may be master of none but it is certainly jacks of all trade!
Meanwhile i4 sold in europe: near 600 km real world range. 81 kWh battery, 210 kW charging, 1 charge port flap instead of 2, newer Infotainment, nicer interior. This i3 seems worse than even smaller EVs of BMW sold here. Like the iX1.
Yes, placing a motor and soft close means it will eventually fail and leave you with an unforced error. Same with all those useless Chinese (and Tesla Model X) electric doors. Definitely not thinking about the efficiency and longevity of a car when you load them up with unneeded garbage that bloat weight/cost/unreliability.
My 2020 Model 3 long range has a manual boot close but that always bugged me, yet I had never had anything other than manual close boot lids. Now just swapping to a 2021 Polestar 2 and the boot close is so good. Funny how it now seems annoying to have a manual close
We can tell that living/reviewing in the Chinese market makes you very sensitive to the BS tech that Chinese consumers value. But it's fair to say that China is a young automotive market with collective naivete about long term reliability and support for the second most expensive purchase you'll make after housing. To lavish extremely fragile motorized actuation of things unnecessarily makes cars far more disposable, as opposed to holding their value for longer time. This is because cars meet the scrap yard when they cost more to fix than to buy comparable used (or new). Or worse yet, when the manufacturer was one of the 50% that go under after the initial car boom has ended. Globally, manufacturers have been failing at this lesson, and to be fair, manufacturers enjoy a possible short term gain of creating planned obsolescence to a loyal consumer. But the brand (or subbrand or high end model) is eventually deemed stupid to own if the depreciation is far too rapid. BMW 7 series and high end Mercedes 12 cyl. suffered from this problem in the 90s and early 2000s. They were hideously complex and caused great stress to their owners as they demanded constant repair attention and at great expense. On a related note, as a person who studies Sustainable Transportation carefully, and understands that full sized cars/SUVs/pickups (EV or ICE) are completely UNSUSTAINBLE, it makes me sad to see the rapid transformation of China from the land of the bicycle, to the the land of the e-bike, to the land that ripped out their bike infrastructure and temporarily sprinted to become car dependent. This will last less than 10 more years, and the Chinese will have already peaked as US and European markets have done. I'd say enjoy it while it lasts, but it's shameful that China went this route, just as it's shameful that it's taking the USA and Europe soo long to understand that we cannot possibly use single occupancy full sized EVs in a zero carbon scenario.
I am in agreement with you - micro mobility is the solution and China is one of the world leaders in this space - cities still have dedicated bike lanes, battery swapping for e-bike etc - but there has been too much city development based around cars. I would like us to reach peak car at some point in the future.
