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MarkCup's BMW i3S



  Snotter's
Done well to get hold of one! If you get a £150 allowance and on the assumption your a 40% tax payer the numbers look about right if you ordered 6 months ago. Things have gone crazy in the last 6 months.

Not going through a 3rd party you do loose out of profit share and early termination waivers unless your employer will take the hit/re-allocate the car should you leave
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Not going through a 3rd party you do loose out of profit share and early termination waivers unless your employer will take the hit/re-allocate the car should you leave

Yeah that's all covered too thankfully.

Had an early morning run out in it today, met a couple friends, and opened their eyes. Around my two favourite roundabouts neither could keep up 🤣

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It's nuts.
 

Clart

ClioSport Club Member
  E92 M3
The wheels are massive, looks like a roller skate ! Are they an option?

have they got some mad offset ?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
The wheels are massive, looks like a roller skate ! Are they an option?

have they got some mad offset ?

Standard wheels for the S, they're really skinny, 175/55/20 fronts and 195/50/20 at the back.

The non S gets 155/70/19 all round, they're like motorcycle tyres 🤣

Thin wheels for aerodynamics, and large diameter rim to maximise contact patch of thin tyre.
 

Cookie

ClioSport Club Member
Standard wheels for the S, they're really skinny, 175/55/20 fronts and 195/50/20 at the back.

The non S gets 155/70/19 all round, they're like motorcycle tyres 🤣

Thin wheels for aerodynamics, and large diameter rim to maximise contact patch of thin tyre.
Tyre on the back of my Fireblade is wider than the non S :ROFLMAO: (190/50/17)

I like how you've shunned the BMW subforum to strike out on your own
 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
Hideous, hideous things! They just remind me of kids push-along car prams, but made for adults - literally no angle on them is appealing. Also, I still have that grizzled old view that any EV is the spawn of Satan, so it doesn't even redeem itself there either.

BUT...... your review was great and no-one (myself included) can argue against those Man-Maths that you've put up. It has a role amongst your other (MUCH) more desirable cars and for that reason alone, I get it.

Just please don't be a 'convert' and never touch an ICE car again! :p
 

BoatNonce

ClioSport Club Member
I know they’re small because of the regen, but I still can’t get over the teeny tiny brakes behind the massive wheels that show them off with big spoke gaps.

Looks like you’ve scored a winner with this one. Roundabout skidz when?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
One month and just over 1,000 miles into this now and it's a compromised, deceptive, but truly wonderful thing to drive.

This morning though, argh
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Dash warning popped up half way to work, rate of deflation wasn't too rapid so limped in and made it with 15 PSI remaining. Luckily there's an ATS right by our new unit!
 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
Bad luck - is the offending culprit repairable? Or is a new tyre job?

Would be interested to know the cost of these tyres compared to more mainstream sizes?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Bad luck - is the offending culprit repairable? Or is a new tyre job?

Would be interested to know the cost of these tyres compared to more mainstream sizes?

Currently I have no idea, I've just dropped the keys off so will see. They're really unique sizes so if it does need replacing there's only two options I think.

Has your mate's RS4 got carbon ceramics?! Or just white/silver callipers?

Painted calipers by a previous owner I think. He's definitely running steel brakes.
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Turns out whatever caused this flat proceeded to eject itself so we've no idea what it was, and also that it was slap bang in the middle of the tread so easily repairable.

Car collected and now on charge so I can make it home 🤣
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
I'm now almost six weeks into driving this thing, between myself and Sarah we've covered 1,355 miles, and I'm liking electrical propulsion (and this car in particular) more and more with every passing mile. My thought's so far...

Screenshot_20220807-213705.png


Design? It's wonderful. The aloominum chassis, aloominum suspension, aloominum nuts, bolts, and washers holding all the aloominum mechanical bits together. The exposed carbon mat construction of the passenger cell, the naked carbon polymer roof, the way the carbon polymer body panels bend and flex in and out when you close the door. The ridiculously huge 20 inch wheels (more on those in a minute) which allow you to see all the aloominum suspension arms and linkages and chassis behind. The bicycle thin tyres giving reduced drag but with grip recovered by way of the larger rolling circumference. The honeycomb lightweight wiper arms, the lightweight thin-backed front seats, it's so well conceived.

Yet despite being made of plastic, it genuinely feels just like a RWD BMW should feel to drive. It feels solid, it communicates as much as my M140i ever did (not very much), and it feels very well screwed together.

The EV side of it all has been eye opening from a driver's viewpoint. Range is no issue for me as I charge at work so each day I get home with 170 miles remaining, so it's fallen into being a family workhorse, swimming lesson drop-offs, dump trips, the lot.

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And what's really good is, as an EV it never has to warm up, it's out of my cul-de-sac at full pelt, every single time. I drive it like an absolute bell-end everywhere because why the f*** wouldn't you, especially when no one really knows what you're doing because no loud exhaust revs blaring and zero tyre noise! In the morning my jump out onto the A123 is all the more relaxed because I can just spot a gap and pin the throttle whereas in the Cayman I was always considering how quickly I could pull out and get up to speed because the engine had only been running for 3 minutes...

Side note; I've discovered the best way to launch is to engage the parking/handbrake before flooring it in Sport mode. Without the handbrake engaged it smoothly squeezes power on as it gets rolling, but with it engaged it comes in far more abruptly giving me a vital half car length jump away from the lights...

Lastly, back to those 20s...

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In my mind the i3 is a small car, it has the proportions of a small car. The big wheels make the body shrink around it and not having driven one I felt like I was getting something Fiesta sized at best. Parked alongside my Cayman and Lewis' RS4 I thought Google Pixel image manipulation was why it looked so massive.

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Having given it a hand wash recently it went like "f*** me, this roof panel's big. F*** me, these doors are huge. F*** me, there's a lot to these wheels" etc. etc.

BREAKING NEWS; it isn't a small car. At all. Internally it's not far off my C-Max.

Which makes the fact that it weighs in at only 1,265 kgs all the more remarkable. And it drives just as you'd expect a 1,265 kg car with 184 bhp and 200 lbs ft of instant torque with thin tyres would. Bravo BMW. Bravo.
 
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Crybert

ClioSport Club Member
  Cup 172
I love jumping out in my parents electric car. Absolute no brainer for popping to the shops, short trips. So easy and relaxing to drive. I’ve driven an early one of these and it was pretty average to be honest. I assume the newer one is better.
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
I love jumping out in my parents electric car. Absolute no brainer for popping to the shops, short trips. So easy and relaxing to drive. I’ve driven an early one of these and it was pretty average to be honest. I assume the newer one is better.

They barely changed, apart from many of the early ones carrying a 130 kg range extender petrol engine generator whereas all of the run out models are battery only so a good chunk lighter.

The S model I have gains 14 bhp and about 20 lbs ft, 40mm wider track, wider wheels/tyres, 10mm lower, stiffer ARBs...but to most they say the standard one is fine. To me the S feels spot on and I can see how a bit less shove and a bit less body control would take the shine off, although I imagine not many drive them like I do this one :ROFLMAO:
 

Short Norman

ClioSport Club Member
  997 C4S
I drive it like an absolute bell-end everywhere
this appears to be a common theme with EV drivers around here.

They all seem to want to show off the acceleration at every opportunity. I've noticed it mostly in the 20 mph zones around where we live.

"oh look there's someone walking a dog, I'd better show him how quick electric is"


that aside I do like the look of yours, I've dropped a few hints to the Mrs but she's not biting.
 
  pimp mobile Zafira
As a commuter they are brilliant. They are also rapid off the mark. As a long distance vehicle they are a nightmare. I used to deliver them from Thorne near Doncaster down to London a lot. 2 charges to get there and make sure at least 75 % charge left. If the weather was awful and you needed to use either the seats, air con and window demister then you were buggered as the charge would rapidly depleat. Have a look at the polar website. They are owned by BP and you find their charging points in car parks for Holiday in and Toby Carvery. The early incantations had a range extender which defeated the object of EV as it was a small petrol generator on board that you could put on to give you extra range on the batteries.
 

Touring_Rob

ClioSport Club Member
What is cost to charge looking like over the next few months Mark? Wondering if electricity prices continue to rise, and petrol continues to slowly drop if there is a cross over point where ICE is cheaper to run?

Naturally I assume you just charge it at work for free no matter what 😉 but if you didn't....?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
What is cost to charge looking like over the next few months Mark? Wondering if electricity prices continue to rise, and petrol continues to slowly drop if there is a cross over point where ICE is cheaper to run?

Naturally I assume you just charge it at work for free no matter what 😉 but if you didn't....?

Yeah I only charge it at work Rob, Monday morning after battering at the weekend, and Friday morning in preparation for that battering.

So far my app is showing that I've fed it 493kWh of juice and that's allowed me to cover 1,877 miles.

What that works out at cost wise I've not yet calculated but I think that crossover point is very close if not passed already.
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Mad little futuristic Noddy car!
Makes complete sense for the money that’s for sure, I’d give one a go for that much a month

That's the best description of it yet!

And the fact that you say that, when it's now a nine year old design and has been discontinued, shows how absurd what BMW did here is.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to film an update video in it this weekend...to showcase the little thing's propensity to slide everywhere 😁
 

seb

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio trophy
my maths might be a bit off as I man math-ed it.

But converting the elec cost into gallons of diesel and with those miles you would have needed to average about 60mpg to cost the same as the elec car

I based this off 1.80 a litre of diesel.
 

Tom

ClioSport Club Member
  EV (s)
Welcome to the EV world Mark!

i3s are extremely special things it’s rare that a car becomes a future classic at launch. I’d put it up there with a mini.

…a much less accessible mini granted.

I looked at one years ago but with a small baby/child the rear doors were impossible to live with.

and then years later it was impossible to get one at a reasonable cost. So I settled for my e-C4.
 
3 months, 2,500 miles, here's some thoughts and some bad attempts at getting the back end moving.


I've just watched this and I am enjoying i3 content more than Cayman stuff! (sorry). I like the i3 for it's looks and from your description how it drives, but it couldn't take the place of my 5 pot turbo Volvo as I'd never make it from my East Sussex home to Norwich where my kids live and back with out having to stop and charge up.
Also I'm interested to know if the brake lights come on when you lift off the gas (volts?) I did ask this on the Questions you want to know thread, but didn't get an answer.
Lastly I was linked to this video by Citroen on another forum which kind of shows they are thinking along the same lines as the i3...

 

Darren S

ClioSport Club Member
Still hate and detest the things, but I do like reading your updates on it!

I think as a work's car - I'd be treating it like you do - why not? And if given the (cheap) opportunity to have one through work, I'd probably say yes and treat it like an appliance on four wheels that it is/was. We have no charging at work or home, so that could be an issue in the short term.

Will be interesting to hear if during the winter months, you spot a noticeable drop in range from the batteries? It sounds like range isn't an issue for you anyway, but just if you see it decrease somewhat.

Do you occasionally find that traffic pulls out on you with little warning as they simply didn't know you were there?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
I've just watched this and I am enjoying i3 content more than Cayman stuff! (sorry). I like the i3 for it's looks and from your description how it drives, but it couldn't take the place of my 5 pot turbo Volvo as I'd never make it from my East Sussex home to Norwich where my kids live and back with out having to stop and charge up.
Also I'm interested to know if the brake lights come on when you lift off the gas (volts?) I did ask this on the Questions you want to know thread, but didn't get an answer.
Lastly I was linked to this video by Citroen on another forum which kind of shows they are thinking along the same lines as the i3...



Re. the brake lights, yes they do...but I'm not sure at what level of braking regen (and therefore retardation) they're triggered. I think it may also vary in each of the driving modes as the pedal position translation to the motor is way softer.

A video on this will follow...I'll have one on the dash display gauges showing the level of kWh per mile regenerated with a camera on the tailgate showing the lights as they illuminate.

The community speculates a lot about this, and there's been some half arsed attempts to capture it...so I aim to get a definitive guide out there.

Still hate and detest the things, but I do like reading your updates on it!

I think as a work's car - I'd be treating it like you do - why not? And if given the (cheap) opportunity to have one through work, I'd probably say yes and treat it like an appliance on four wheels that it is/was. We have no charging at work or home, so that could be an issue in the short term.

Will be interesting to hear if during the winter months, you spot a noticeable drop in range from the batteries? It sounds like range isn't an issue for you anyway, but just if you see it decrease somewhat.

Do you occasionally find that traffic pulls out on you with little warning as they simply didn't know you were there?

Nailed it. It's a tool, a cheap one, and quite a fun one. I know what they'll tolerate condition wise when I hand it back so it will go back in that condition. I didn't mention in the video but the one time I did clean it was with a broom (well, sort of...a Karcher vehicle brush) 😁

As for people pulling out, nope, not through lack of noise as the synthetic robot sounds/pedestrian warning it pipes out front and rear at any speed below 20mph is quite loud.

But, I get it all the time because it gets going so damn quick. Roundabouts mostly, I give it a squirt to join and invariably get someone who pulled out fully expecting me to be nowhere near them.

From 0-40mph it's quicker than the M3 of its time...when they launched the i3 they had the journos drag racing it alongside M3s to prove that point.

And from 50-75mph (80-120kmh) it's only half a second slower than my friends M4 CS... 4.6s versus 4.1s. It's no slouch!
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
First problem surfaced with this thing today...

Went to connect it to the charger at lunchtime and the cable wouldn't seat properly. I eventually got charging with a colleague's cable bit couldn't fathom why mine wasn't going fully in.

Just took some pictures and spotted this...
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The tip of the neutral pin has become detached and me ramming the cable in with force has then got it wedged firm in the bottom of the socket.

Over to the engineers at work tomorrow to extract it and then a trip to BMW I think.
 
  2014 Clio 200t edc
Drove one of these the other day, like yours it was the s model. Really impressed with the way it got going! Be nice for pottering about, but didn’t think the seats felt very comfortable?
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Drove one of these the other day, like yours it was the s model. Really impressed with the way it got going! Be nice for pottering about, but didn’t think the seats felt very comfortable?

They work fine for me...the longest time I've spent in the driving seat has been an hour though...they lack lumbar adjustment but I've never felt a need for or missed that in any of my cars.
 

MarkCup

ClioSport Club Member
Update on the charge socket pin thing; this little f***er has been extracted this morning...

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However, it was wedged in so firmly that upon extraction it launched itself into the wider unknown, so that pin now has no tip. It still connects to our chargers OK though so normal service has been resumed.

Point worth noting, these pin-tips are screw-in and upon checking the others, all but one of them were loose and freely rotating...so they've been tightened up again.

If you have an EV, check your cable!
 


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