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Comment by sgt

1 day ago

Recently bought a second hand BMW i3 - what a cool car! Not planning to 'hack' it but nice to read about ideas.

17 comments

sgt

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nubinetwork  1 day ago

I've seen videos of that car... don't they only have like 40 miles of range, and the range extender only holds like 5 gallons of fuel?

  • mschild  1 day ago

    For the original version released in 2013, range was a bit of a concern.

    Later models, 120ah full electric version, the range is about 250km. In comparison to newer cars, not a lot, but considering you can buy newish used ones for under 15k, its not a bad deal if it fits your needs.

    • sgt  20 hours ago

      Funny how I'm downvoted for even mentioning an i3. I've also heard several comments insinuating that I must be gay for driving such a car. Are we still there in 2026?

      4 replies →

  • smallerize  12 hours ago

    To be eligible for a specific subsidy, the gas engine had to have less range than the better. So they electronically set the amount of gas you were allowed to use from the gas tank even though it held more. Sure the difference was only a half gallon or so but it's stealing your gasoline, and making it staler.

    It was either 1.9 or 2.4 gallons depending on the model year, but they physically had the same gas tank.

  • sgt  1 day ago

    You don't want the range extender - it makes it fiddly and potentially unreliable.

    As for the range, I'm getting about 110 miles of range. It depends how you drive. This is the 94Ah battery, the later models had more range.

    • postalrat  10 hours ago

      I was shopping for a range extender version and bought a battery only i3 when I saw one for the right price. Then I got a i3 rex for parts and it made me really appreciate the bev. So much more room in the engine bay and simpler overall.

    • chipsa  18 hours ago

      Range extender was definitely a requirement when I got mine in ‘19. But that’s because I did not have reliable charging available in the area.

      It also came in handy for a bad road trip (charging stations more than my range apart, so I couldn’t otherwise get there from here, but hold state of charge kept it up at 75% with frequent gas stops)

      1 reply →

    • mmmlinux  12 hours ago

      the thing that makes them unreliable is lack of use. when you leave some gas in there for 6 months because you never travel farther than the grocery store, when you actually use the engine it goes and sucks up a bunch of trash expired gas.

anarticle  20 hours ago

In an interesting turn of events there is a pack upgrade for the i3 that gives it more range than it started with!

https://mtgbattery.com/

This is the kind of hacking / upgrades I’d love to see. All in cost was about $6k when I last checked probably a little more now. You get a pack teardown, and new CATL cells. Range goes to 400km~.