In this TFLcar review Nathan and Emme spend a day living and testing BMW’s electric car, the i3.
Owning an electric vehicle is a totally different experience and the day-to-day life of an electronaut could be different than those conventional drivers. The i3, without the REx, needs electricity so finding, or at least knowing where electric charging stations are around you becomes very important.
BMW makes two variants of the i3 and the two cars look nearly identical from the outside and takes a trained eye to spot the differences. Just as the total ranges of the two models vary, the technical differences of the REx and the i3 BEV are rather dramatic.
The i3 BEV can about 80 miles on a single charge, where as the i3 REx can travel about 150 miles on a full charge and full tank of premium gas. Price wise, the i3 Range Extender base MSRP is $47,200 vs $42,400 for the i3 BEV base price.
Related: BMW i3 Rex Long Trip
As one would assume for toting a generator around permanently, the i3 REx weighs more at 3064 lbs compared to just 2799 lbs for the i3 BEV. 0-60 time for the i3 Rex is slower at 7.9 seconds vs 7.2 for the i3 BEV, purely because cause of the extra weight.
The MPGe goes from 124 miles for the i3 BEV to 117 miles for the i3 REx, but both are still way above Tesla’s S model and its 89 miles. Even the weight distribution changes from a BMW 48/52 front/rear for the i3 BEV to 45/55 for REx.
The video review does a great job showing that this is a daily driver, a car that you could easily replace for all the tasks accomplished by a conventional vehicle. Our experience mirrors the one highlighted in the video: electric cars are the future and they can easily accomplish any task thrown at them. We even used our i3 to haul furniture and other large volume items.
