Pour one out for the i3 and the i3s as the dynamic duo is no more in the United States. It was only late January when BMW announced to end production in July and now it’s already exiting the US. In an interview with InsideEVs, a company spokesperson confirmed the electric city car has been discontinued. The writing was on the wall since a dealer bulletin emerged last year to signal the EV’s demise in the Land of the Free.
It has been removed from the BMW USA website and it’s no longer available to order. However, you should be able to find out at a dealer if you’re dead set on getting an i3 before it heads to retirement. Nearly 250,000 cars will have been built by mid-2022 when production ends. It arrived in the US in 2014 before the i3s came along several years later.
With the i3 / i3s bidding adieu, BMW USA is down to just two EVs – i4 Gran Coupe and iX. The iX3 crossover launched globally in 2020 before getting a facelift a year later won’t be arriving stateside. That should change with the next-generation model set to ride on the Neue Klasse platform. The combustion-engined X3 is rumored to stick to the CLAR architecture, thus making the iX3 a significantly different product.
Some PHEVs Are Now Cheaper, But The X3 xDrive30e Is No More
Speaking of the X3, BMW has also removed the xDrive30e plug-in hybrid from its US offerings for the 2022 model year. On the flip side, existing PHEVs are now cheaper than before by $1,600 to $1,700. We’re talking about the 330e / 330e xDrive, 530e / 530e xDrive, and X5 xDrive45e.
Although the i3 and i3s will be discontinued in the coming months, the former moniker will be introduced in China. While BMW never offered the pint-sized hatch in the People’s Republic, it’s going to sell an i3 Sedan from later in 2021. Essentially, it’ll be a long-wheelbase 3 Series Sedan with an electric heart.
[Source: InsideEVs]
