The electric vehicle from BMW is called the i3. From 2012 to 2022, it was made in the BMW facility in Leipzig.
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Sadly, the BMW i3’s production has now come to an end.
Even if the inventive little BMW i3 has been on life support for some time, it is nevertheless difficult to accept BMW’s news that production has come to a stop.
Yes, the i3 has officially died eight and a half years after its debut. Just a few days ago, according to BMW, the 250,000th copy was produced in Leipzig, and the last ten vehicles received a special HomeRun edition specification.
The HomeRun variants come with 20-inch wheels, new Frozen Dark Grey or Frozen Red II paint finishes, and practically every i3 option imaginable. It sounds like certain component bins needed to be cleaned out. That entails a heated leather instrument panel, wireless charging, a rear-view camera, an electric glass roof, adaptive LED headlights, heated leather seats in “Vernasca Dark Truffle,” a Harman Kardon speaker system, and more.
BMW will discontinue producing the i3 in July.
In July 2022, BMW will stop making the i3 in Leipzig. This is most likely due to the plant’s changeover to the production of upcoming electric vehicles.
According to a manufacturing representative quoted in the British magazine Autocar, production has come to an end. As a result, the information can be regarded as fact and not as conjecture. Oliver Zipse, the CEO of BMW, continued to say that the i3 would be produced in Leipzig through 2024 in December 2019. It was still believed at the time that the i3 would get another model update to make it marketable by 2024. An earlier end is now more plausible because such an update did not occur.
The i3’s now-apparently-early demise coincides with the Leipzig plant’s restructuring in the second half of 2022 in anticipation of the start of production of the new generation Mini Countryman, which, according to reports, will also be produced at the Leipzig BMW plant starting in 2023 with a pure electric drive. The production facilities for the Countryman will need to be rebuilt using BMW’s FAAR front-wheel drive architecture because the i3 is based on a stand-alone platform with an aluminum chassis and carbon fiber passenger cell.
Because the iX1 electric variant of the new X1 will debut later this year, the BMW i3 is also being phased out. Originally, a new production facility in Debrecen, Hungary, was going to be used to construct the iX1. It will now be manufactured at the BMW facility in Regensburg until 2024 as a result of construction delays, according to Autocar. Despite being around 40 centimeters longer than the i3, the interior space of the iX1 is comparable to that of the i3 thanks to its combustion engine base. Because of this, and despite the iX1’s unusual body concept, BMW intends to present it as a sort of successor.
In October 2021, the i3, which was introduced in 2013, has reached 200,000 units produced. BMW anticipates producing 250,000 copies of the i3 by the time it is retired in July 2022. The 2018 battery update to 42.2 kWh gross resulted in a steady rise in the number of i3 registrations. The nine-year-old model still registered 12,178 new vehicles in Germany in 2021, placing it 10th among all electric vehicles, ahead of the Opel Corsa-e, Audi e-tron, and Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The fate of the BMW i3 had already been the subject of numerous rumors. In response to rumors concerning the model’s future at the end of 2019, Zipse has indicated, as previously reported, that production of the i3 would “continue beyond 2024.” Then, in June 2021, it was made public that BMW intended to stop selling the i3 in the US as early as July 2022, which is the current confirmed end-of-production date for the model. In terms of naming, the demise of the i3 is also intriguing: A completely electric BMW 3 Series will be introduced in China, and it may carry the i3 moniker.
Why We Won’t Miss The BMW i3
It is extremely heartbreaking to see BMW discontinue its little electric hatchback after nine years on the market given how great it was.
In 2011, as interest in electric vehicles increased, the BMW i3 was first unveiled as a concept car. The design was later evolved into a working model that was released for purchase in 2013 as a 2014 model. The BMW i3 has enjoyed considerable success since that time. The compact electric hatchback from BMW has sold over 250,000 units and was named the World Car Design and World Green Car of the Year winners at the 2014 World Car Awards.
Unfortunately, all wonderful things must eventually come to an end. BMW terminated the i3 in all markets in July 2022 after ceasing manufacturing for the US market in July 2021. The company cited consumer demand for larger-than-the-i3 electric automobiles as justification for the withdrawal. Another reason is that the manufacturer wants to move away from the i3’s distinctive appearance and produce electric vehicles with more traditional styling. The BMW i4 and BMW iX models are taking the place of the i3 as a result. We are sad to see the i3 depart, but there are other reasons as well.
Why did BMW discontinue the i3?
The BMW i3 is approaching a well-deserved retirement after nine years on the market and more than 200,000 units produced. Even though the news wasn’t unexpected, it’s nevertheless disappointing to learn that the oddball EV won’t be around after July. Due to its early years’ dismal sales, the little hatch was introduced prior to the electric boom. Well, the absence of government subsidies for electric vehicles also contributed.
While the first half of a vehicle’s life cycle is typically when sales are at their peak, this wasn’t the case for the i3. In order to keep up with the high demand, BMW decided to extend the model’s production life. Although all good things must come to an end, you might say that it aged like a wonderful wine. Why is the business cutting the power right now?
Customers’ preferences have changed, and they are now searching for different features while buying EVs. Particularly, the usual consumer prefers a larger, more useful vehicle than the i3. That is the justification offered by a BMW representative in an interview with the sister website of Automotive News in Germany, Automobilwoche. However, it’s not the only one.
The firm official continued by stating that electric automobiles should appear “natural” in the sense that they should resemble models powered by combustion engines. That’s definitely not the case with the i3, though. The little hatchback maintains the impression of having come back from the future even though any other 2013 vehicle would appear to be more or less antiquated.
According to Automobilwoche, “quite a few BMW personnel” have considered the external design to be divisive, mostly because of the unusual shape. The styling has reportedly “deterred many customers.” Whether i3 has generated any money with the EV and its range-extending equivalent is still an open question.
Since BMW shaped them like conventional automobiles, the other EVs don’t have the same “issue” with their designs as the i3. The same will apply to the 7 Series/i7 and 5 Series/i5 couples. Design-wise, the i3’s indirect replacements, the iX1 and MINI Countryman EV, won’t upset the apple cart. Additionally, the BMW representative thinks that because the two are significantly larger and hence more spacious than the i3, they might potentially generate substantially higher sales than the i3.
With what does BMW plan to replace the i3?
After nine years of production, BMW has declared that the i3 is no longer being made, putting an end to the inventive and long-lasting little electric car.
Just a few weeks after the model reached a production run of more than a quarter of a million, the final i3 came off the production line in Leipzig, Germany. Ten units of the i3 HomeRun Edition, an ultra-exclusive special edition model with the company’s “Frozen paint finish,” have been ordered to commemorate the event.
The i3 was originally seen by the public in concept form at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, and when the production vehicle was introduced in 2013, it substantially resembled the show-car design.
The upright proportions, glass tailgate, two-tone paint job, and dipping shoulder line all deviated from the typical BMW design cues that customers had grown accustomed to. It launched BMW’s new “i” sub-brand, which was one of the factors contributing to the bizarre appearance.
Rear-hinged doors are always interesting, and they undoubtedly contributed to the i3’s personality, along with the interior. The technology was updated over the course of its existence to keep it feeling modern. The interior itself featured a low dash and window line for a light and airy atmosphere.
A custom platform made of a combination of aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber is positioned below the i3 to keep weight at just over a tonne. Due to the lack of weight, the vehicle’s ultimate fully-electric design had a maximum range of 190 miles.
The UK’s police, fire, and ambulance services all adopted the i3 due to its popularity with emergency services.
There won’t be a direct replacement for the i3, and a completely electric version of the 3 Series saloon is anticipated to receive the i3 badge. The iX1, an electric variant of the new X1 SUV, will be the company’s entry-level EV model.