Would, I had been wondering, a dinky little range extender electric, otherwise known as BMW’s new i3 REX, make a family car? Discuss.
The criteria behind most family car purchases includes fitness for purpose (can you shift enough people and stuff?), purchase cost and ability to make the payments, running costs and so on. Our criteria includes ability to swallow mum and dad, and two active young daughters, the usual school day or weekend local trip carry-on, a bit of shopping and, most important, the willingness not to curl up and die when subjected to a 3,000 miles-a-year regime, with most trips little more than two miles return.
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That sort of use is hell on wheels for the average diesel or petrol car and it doesn’t do much for the environment as engines don’t get to warm up enough, catalytic converters don’t reach ideal exhaust-cleansing catalysing temperature and fuel consumption soars. We’ve already found an all-electric – two iterations of Nissan’s Leaf five-door hatchback – to be ideal apart from that lingering ‘range anxiety’ – ‘what if the ‘lecky runs out before I get home because I got stuck in that traffic jam/diverted to the big box store/forgot to plug in after the last trip?’
Range extender then? First one we tried, GM’s Vauxhall Ampera (a UK variant of the Chevy Volt) only did about 35 miles on electric, not quite enough for the regular 40-mile round trip to the office, and there were issues with boot size and access (high load lip), and the centre console barrier between the two rear seats.
PHEV? Mitsubishi’s Outlander, which I’ll review soon, was ideal in many respects, not least because of the spacious interior and high seating position juniors love in SUVs (referred to in my household as ‘jeepy things’) but, again, the electric range is around 35 miles.
I could almost imagine the i3 REX whimpering as it was led off its delivery truck. After initial time on the press fleet no doubt being pedalled around trendy city locations in the hands of trendy ‘lifestyle’ writers, it was now condemned to a week in the sticks with sparsely located recharge points and condemned to be crawled all over, poked and prodded by young children. In the event, they welcomed it as they would a new puppy: “Dad, it’s soooo cute.”
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By GlobalDataThe fact the whole side opens up – rear doors are rear-hinged – was a smash hit, as was the crossover-like high seat position (batteries are under the raised floor), flat floors front and rear (you can order both kids to exit easily on the kerb side when parking on busy roads) and the numerous storage nets and cubbies provided plenty or room for teddies, dinosaurs and loom bands. And a cupholder each between the rear seats was ideal for the fruit shoot bottles.
Like the NAFTA Honda Element, the rear doors won’t open unless the front doors are already ajar, so there are no unauthorised exits, and the wide opening, with both side doors open, makes it easy to load in car seats followed by The Kids and all their stuff. And, with the front backrests also able to tip forward, as if you were entering the back of a two-door car, there’s even more room for a parent to help with rear seat boarding, fastening the seat belt, and so on.
Up front, it’s all very high tech with a small digital screen in front of the driver for speed, fuel tank contents and battery charge with a giant wide screen display in the centre for just about everything else – it takes about as long to set up phone connections, upload phone contacts, load up audio clips, set the trip computers, find and store nav destinations, etc as to set up a new smartphone. There are some additional controls on the dashboard for climate control and audio but you soon get used to where things are in the on-screen menus and which button surrounding the centre control wheel to push to get to the sub-menu for a particular item.
Driving is easy. Keyless entry/start on the test car means you just need the key in a pocket and hit the on/off button, wait for the ready light, twist the gear select knob on the right of the steering wheel to D and press the accelerator – the park brake is electric and automatic. Unlike the Nissan Leaf and Mitsi Outlander which have separate controls to select the degree of regenerative braking, the BMW lets you regulate this with your right foot – ease off lightly and you get minimal regen, lift right off and it’s almost the same as prodding the brake pedal. In fact, in slow urban driving you rarely need to touch the brakes as regen is so powerful and it’s just as well the higher levels of regen activate the brake lights. BMW provides a gauge that shows every stage from full power to full regen but you quickly learn how much to lift off according to situation.
Range? No anxiety at all. The car arrived fully fuelled (the tank holds just two imperial gallons) and charged with the indicators showing about 80 miles of ‘lecky range and 64 on petrol. With the happy knowledge of that get-out-of-jail 64 miles on extender, I never worried about running out of electricity and found myself in that comfort zone BMW reported from trial users of its experimental Mini and 1-series EV models – you get used to the car, confident it will achieve the indicated range and get to the point you may not even recharge after every trip or each night. In the event, I only recharged the car twice but no day’s running was much more than 20 miles.
I had heard the range extender engine – a two cylinder motorcycle unit – was noisy. It will only fire up if you (a) run the battery right down (b) engage ‘hold charge’ (perhaps to preserve battery range for a city no-emissions zone) or (c) if the vehicle computers decide your usage pattern requires a ‘maintenance run’. With the battery sufficiently depleted (below 75%) I manually fired the engine several times and, yes, you can hear it behind you somewhere, but I wouldn’t call it intrusive. It is, however, fully enclosed (the only user-accessible part is the oil level dipstick under a cover in the boot floor) which probably explains the metallic pinging of contracting exhaust systems and heat shields and the whirring fan(s) evident after parking up. You can’t force an engine start, get out and listen, it stops as soon as the car comes to a halt.
Charging takes several hours depending on battery state and BMW’s standard charger – the first I’ve seen to also incorporate a cable roll – worked just fine on a UK domestic plug. I’d be confident of at least 70 miles on the battery and 60 on petrol which would make longer trips – we do one of 180 miles once or twice a year – feasible even if it meant several fuel stops on the return leg if recharging could not be easily accessed at the destination.
Although ride was rather firm on the press demo car’s 19-inch wheels, the family overall voted the i3 pleasant to ride in (the optional glass opening sunroof was liked in the back) and it handles well, helped by a low centre of gravity. Performance is strong – electrics deliver maximum torque from rest and the sprint you can achieve from the lights surprised several other drivers on occasion.
So, family car or no? The i3 is expensive – starting at GBP30,680 for the all-electric and GBP33,860 for the range extender – but there are government grants available for the car purchase and a home recharge point subsidy if you qualify. BMW offers a lot of options, too, the test car carried at least GB2,000’s worth. There are many other ways to spend GBP31,000 in the BMW catalogue on cars well suited to a family but no others suit our particular usage pattern so well. And the running costs – zero annual road tax, minimal fossil fuel use, electric use cheaper than on petrol plus lower maintenance – all look attractive.
The only real shortfall we noted was luggage space – there’s plenty for the usual mum ‘n’ kids day trip out stuff but the full weekly shop requires at least one passenger seat be hijacked. That’s not a problem with a bit of planning.
For holidays, a larger conveyance would definitely be required and that is covered. BMW’s ‘total mobility’ concept is intended to address such short term larger vehicle needs and there’s also a certain Mr Hertz operating in our town. 50 weeks of the year, an i3 REX would do just fine, if only I could afford it….
VEHICLE ANALYSIS: BMW i3 Range Extender
