Fans of electric cars worldwide will get sad with this news: the BMW i3 will kick the bucket in July. Greg Kable, from Autocar, talked to the company and confirmed that the pioneer EV would have to give room to the third-generation Mini Countryman in the Leipzig plant. Well, at least this is the official excuse for the hatchback’s demise.
The truth is that the i3 was never as popular as BMW wanted it to be, which also comes as no surprise. Expensive for what it offered in terms of space, the i3 was born as a niche vehicle that wanted to achieve high production volumes. For that to work, BMW would have to count on a transformation in the automotive industry that was not set to happen by 2013, when the EV was first presented.
It was quite a shock to see BMW tackle the B-segment with a carbon fiber vehicle. In fact, the i3 had only part of its body made of that noble material. It was adequately called Life Module, which would sit over the Drive Module. It may seem like a fancy name for an idea as old as body-on-frame, but it was more than that. Sadly, it was also more expensive and smaller than some monocoque competitors. So much so that the electric version of the X1, called iX1, is expected to indirectly replace it – not due to size but pricing.
With that, the i3 sold only about 250,000 units in these almost nine years of production – manufacturing started in September 2013. That is a little more than the Renault Clio and the Volkswagen Golf sold in 2021 alone. If you divide the total by the number of production years, you get around 28,000 units per year, which is what some cars sell in China per month.
As much as any vehicle may be brilliant in its own fashion, what keeps them afloat are people willing to buy them. When that is not the case, automakers only have to find a suitable excuse to put them to sleep for good, as the one Autocar told us BMW found. Fans will either have to rush to buy some of the last units or make do with the used ones. Being made of aluminum and carbon fiber should make the BMW i3 last way more than the competitors made of steel.
It was quite a shock to see BMW tackle the B-segment with a carbon fiber vehicle. In fact, the i3 had only part of its body made of that noble material. It was adequately called Life Module, which would sit over the Drive Module. It may seem like a fancy name for an idea as old as body-on-frame, but it was more than that. Sadly, it was also more expensive and smaller than some monocoque competitors. So much so that the electric version of the X1, called iX1, is expected to indirectly replace it – not due to size but pricing.
With that, the i3 sold only about 250,000 units in these almost nine years of production – manufacturing started in September 2013. That is a little more than the Renault Clio and the Volkswagen Golf sold in 2021 alone. If you divide the total by the number of production years, you get around 28,000 units per year, which is what some cars sell in China per month.
As much as any vehicle may be brilliant in its own fashion, what keeps them afloat are people willing to buy them. When that is not the case, automakers only have to find a suitable excuse to put them to sleep for good, as the one Autocar told us BMW found. Fans will either have to rush to buy some of the last units or make do with the used ones. Being made of aluminum and carbon fiber should make the BMW i3 last way more than the competitors made of steel.