BMW i3 (2013 - 2022) Range Extender - Loft Interior World 5d Auto Owner Review

2 years ago, I purchased a 5 year old BMW i3 REx. It had covered 36k miles and was the perfect car for town commuting. As a product and package for that purpose, the i3 is a tremendous vehicle; it’s spacious, intelligent, well equipped, quick, etc. It also boasts impressive green credentials. It won Green Car of the Year in 2015, with zero g/km CO2 emissions and at launch, BMW claimed that it will be the most sustainable car on sale. On the face of it, the i3 makes a fantastic second car or primary short distance commuting car for people who support and care for climate change and environmental impact. I have had no issues with my i3 in the subsequent 2 years. It has seen all necessary servicing and had the 1 identified recall in 2020, both carried out by Stratstone BMW Derby (all other recalls performed by BMW under its previous owner). In its now 7 years, it has covered 43,211 miles (some 7800 miles below the average for its age). It is not a sports car; it makes no suggestions that it is and it has not been driven that way. It is a lovely car and I looked forward to keeping it for many more years ahead. Last week (specifically, 12 June 2021), the car suddenly developed a “drivetrain” fault. At the time, I was near home but on a minor, quiet road. The inconvenience of a breakdown is somewhat part of motoring, albeit worrying and problematic when the car is immobile; the gearbox reverted to Park so rolling to a safe position was not possible. The police assisted and recovery was eventually made by the AA. The car headed straight to Stratstone BMW in Derby. Fault diagnosis strongly pointed to the Electrical Machine Electronics (EME) unit and it needing to be replaced. The cost of said repair (although not guaranteed to be the solution) is approximately £7800. At this level, the decision to proceed with repair or write-off the i3 is very difficult to make. Why has an electronic module (a power inverter) with no moving or wearing parts, catastrophically failed after only 43k miles? The main battery carries a warranty for 8 years/100k miles, so why not the other, similar components? I am disappointed that BMW have designed such a product that does not deliver on its "green" credentials. The diagnosis itself took several hours; how can a vehicle that knows enough of a fault with itself, not be able to communicate the exact fault conditions under BMW interrogation? I can control the climate with my smartphone and send destinations to the satnav, but BMW technicians need 4 hours of trial and error to form an opinion on what could be wrong. Don’t BMW maintain knowledge management and metrics on failures, breakdowns, safety recalls so that worldwide learning from their products inform product improvement and development? How can the product interface be so badly designed? With governments across the world believing this age to be the beginning of a “Green Revolution”, and the world awakening to the benefits of electric vehicles, manufacturers are responding by pushing technology barriers in pursuit of better range, less pollution, less CO2 in manufacture, through life and disposal. How can a car be simply written-off by an electrical module? How can the unit cost per module be justified given the large volume in circulation and still currently in manufacture? Why does the system architecture involve the locking of the VIN and EME to each other, thereby monopolising all aftercare to Dealership only? How is it environmentally friendly to manufacture a vehicle, specifically aimed at the conscientious caring environmentalist, that can so easily be put out of use by cost of parts and labour? Generally, age-related degradation mechanisms are predictable and it is accepted and expected that the probability of failure increases with age. Therefore, it shall be more common for older, second-hand cars to develop and present faults. Since the launch in 2014, the number of i3 produced is more than 200,000. More and more will be filtering into the second-hand car market. And herein lies the problem; an impending wave of untreatable component failures that render the resale value worthless. With the (relatively) high volume of i3 sold, part interchangability and donor parts could be made possibly to allow for upkeep and preservation, rather than reducing a perfectly good vehicle to reclamation. If you are thinking of purchasing a user i3, be prepared for unhelpful dealerships and large repair bills.