Electric Car Owner Has Been Fighting BMW For A Decade Because His i3 Doesn’t Hit The Advertised Range. Who Is In The Wrong Here?

A Canadian man bought a BMW i3 after having seen on the automaker’s website that the car is capable of driving 124 miles per charge. Upon taking ownership, that man was unable to get the car to reach 120 miles of range, leading him to sue BMW. Now, 10 years have elapsed and though he won some money, in the end, he lost. Allow me to explain.

Do I think it’s possible to hit 124 miles of range in a 2014 BMW i3? Well, I happen to own a BMW i3 with a brand new replacement battery, and I actually put the car through a range test. What did I discover?

I managed to travel just under 100 miles on a single charge in almost optimal conditions — mild weather, no air conditioning, low vehicle speeds:

Of course, I had two extra passengers, and I did the test over two days, so it’s possible the battery needed to condition a bit to be most efficient on day two, which it wouldn’t have had to do had I done the test all in a single day. Still, getting 120 miles would have been insanely challenging, even if I hadn’t had passengers, even if I hadn’t had that heavy range extender in the back, and even if I had a heat pump (that doesn’t make much of a difference anyway, according to what I’ve seen online).

I say this because if you look at ~2014 forum posts from then-new BMW i3 owners, very, very few folks were getting anything close to 124 miles of range even when they really went for it. But there are a couple of examples of folks who’ve pulled it off, like user “marfuh” on the German Going Electric forum. Here’s what he wrote back in 2014 (translated via Google Translate):

I’ve already complained a lot today but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I thought I’d drive through the greater FMM area and just see what I can do with economical driving… and lo and behold, 212 km… 6 km to go…

Well, it works… the weather just has to stay like this

[…]

It was almost worth it…I just wanted to know

When asked if he drove slowly, marfuh said yes, replying:

Yes, like a grandma…but I just wanted to know….

You can’t drive like that…it doesn’t make a good impression on other road users about the i3.

Back in July of 2014, a BMW i3 Forum user named “daoasis” posted: “Range Not As Advertised – Only 129km on full charge” That post read:

The marketed specifications on the i3 are 160/180/200km on a full charge depending on the driving mode based on the Canadian site: http://www.bmw.ca/ca/en/newvehicles/i/i3/2013/showroom/technical_data.html

And on the US site it shows as 190km with a 160km* mean custoemr value with no explanation of the astrisks: http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicles/i/i3/2013/showroom/technical_data.html

However, everytime my i3 is fully charged it only shows up to 129km range.

Does anyone else have this issue and is it doing this just to be safe and fool you to not test the actual range?

Thanks,

Replies to that thread made it clear that 200 km is a bit of a stretch. Here’s what forum member ASUN wrote:

200km seems far-fetched even in perfect scenarios.

The advertised range on the Canadian and US sites does seem out of line with the UK figures. Here they claim 80-100 miles and I get around 90 with our Rex. Some, such as Frank who must be a very smooth driver, get considerably more, some less.

Your 129km seems just about right to me. Though, as Frank says, the real range is almost always more than predicted. Unlike the Leaf we had previously where the guessometer was always optimistic, sometimes ridiculousl

If one drives slowly in warm temperatures on level, dry roads without much wind and with the climate control system off, 200 km is certainly possible. In real-world driving conditions in warm, dry Hawaiian weather in our 2014 BEV, I have driven 160 km with 10 km of estimated remaining range. This included a 300 m ascent and descent and speeds ranging as high as 100 kph but mostly at 70 kph.

I’m guessing that BMW’s initial range estimates were based on the unrealistic NEDC standard used in Europe

Two and a half years later, and daoasis provided an update on that thread (I added the bold):

So 2.5 years in and now I need the car to make it at minimum 114km in an Ontario Canada winter. That’s the distance from the last charging station to my cottage. Unfortunately, at 4.5 celsius, the car will only make it 100km in eco pro + mode.

I’ve contact both BMW Toronto and BMW Canada and let them know that they falsely advertised the range on the 2014 i3. When I purchase the vehicle, the website said the following:

When I purchased the vehicle, it was advertised with the following ranges in the different driving modes:
Comfort: 160km
Eco Pro: 180km
Eco Pro +: 200km

Somewhere between Nov 8, 2014 and Dec 10, 2014 BMW updated their marketing material on the same web pages to the following:
Comfort: 130km
Eco Pro: 160km
Eco Pro +: 156km (20% above Comfort Mode)

They acknowledged that their previous material was bogus and that 160km is the top limit in Eco Pro +, which has been my experience. Now with the cold weather, I’m getting less than half of the marketed 200km range when I purchased the car.

It there are any other Canadian 2014 i3 owners that purchased their vehicles prior to Dec 3, 2014 (approximately when their web site was updated) please let me know as I a likely to file a suit against them. I have given them every opportunity to make this right for me but they have both decided to not take any responsibility for their false claims.

So after a decade of fighting — and seven years of fighting in the courts — Kleiman got at least…something. But it sounds like he lost out financially.

As a BMW i3 owner and engineer, my view on this is fairly simple: I think both parties are at least somewhat at fault, and I think BMW should probably shoulder a bit more of the blame than Kleiman. On Kleiman’s part, it’s up to the owner to understand the classic acronym: YMMV — your mileage my vary. The expectation that a car will get a certain range independent of a driving condition is unrealistic. If a car says it can do 124 miles of range in EcoPro+ mode, your next thought should be: But under what conditions (weather, speed, driving style, etc.)? But I’m sympathetic to the realization that a brand new EV owner — especially in 2014 — wouldn’t necessarily know just how large range fluctuations can be.

On BMW’s part, listing a range that’s clearly a stretch is probably not the move. In fact, I’d argue it’s foolish to list anything that isn’t the federally-listed range of your vehicle. Why open yourself up to potential litigation? State simply “This vehicle scores X miles of range on the EPA cycle.” And be done with it. To say “You can actually get up to 124 miles under certain circumstances” is just going to lead people to think they can get that range on their normal commute. Stick with the EPA/WLTP figures, label the ranges as such, and if you want to say “You can exceed these ranges if you drive carefully,” then fine. But definitely don’t throw out a range figure that isn’t based on — and clearly labeled as — a government certification. That’s I think where BMW went wrong here.

I understand why the company fought this — it would have set a bad precedent that could have led to lawsuits from any EV driver who didn’t achieve the advertised range. But man, just give the guy a 2017 i3 for goodness sake or just put in a newer battery. You replaced my battery free of charge!