Global Crisis

During the LA Auto Show BMW held a private event for the people in the ActiveE field trial. The purpose of the event was to introduce us to the i3, let us take one for a drive and to answer any questions we had about the i3 or the ActiveE program we are in. All of the ActiveE lessees were invited but since this was held in LA, the East Coast ActiveE drivers (except for me) did not get the opportunity to attend. I was there covering the LA auto show for PlugInCars.com so I was able to attend. BMW has arraigned a similar event for the East Coast ActiveE drivers next week, which will be held at BMW headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

My passengers

Everyone was able to take an i3 for a test drive through the streets of LA, but because of the volume of people, they were limited to just one drive. I had already driven the i3 a couple times the day before and I wasn't going to use my slot that day but since I heard some of the others saying they wish they could go for another drive I told them to come with me as passengers and we'll use my turn. So I headed out to one of the waiting i3's with three of the other Electronauts (that's what BMW calls the ActiveE drivers) - which I won't name since I didn't ask them if I could mention them by name here.

Getting the camera set up for the drive

As we approached the car we were met by a BMW i marketing manager who explained we got one of the "lucky cars". BMW set up six i3's with iPhone's attached to the rear window that would snap pictures every couple seconds and they would them put them together and make a short video of the test drive. I'm not sure if it will actually be used for anything, but they gave the six of us that had the special cars a link and a password to the video as it wouldn't be posted publicly at this time. The video isn't all that exciting -all it shows is us driving around downtown LA but it's definitely a cool idea. It would have been better if I could have broke away from the LA traffic for a while and zipped around some winding roads.

What do you want to know?

Before I went out to LA a couple weeks ago I asked people to post questions or requests for specific pictures in the comment section. I think I got just about every question and picture requested. With the East Coast ActiveE private meet next Wednesday, I'll make the same offer. Post anything you want to know about the car in the comments section. However we will not have the opportunity to drive a REx i3 while the battery is depleted and in range extender mode, so unfortunately I won't be able to answer questions about the REx performance, noise, etc. Anything else is fair game though. I'll try to get every question answered and every requested picture taken.