Global Crisis

A photo from the BMW i3 Sales Start in November 2013. Pictured are the first group of people to take delivery of an i3

According to InsideEVs, worldwide i3 sales have passed the 10,000 unit mark, just shy of one year from the i3's European launch.

It wasn't until May of this year that the i3 became available in the US, and after a couple months of relatively  slow sales, the i3 has had two consecutive months with sales greater then 1,000 units and October is expected to continue that trend. Inside EVs also states that BMW claims they are now selling about 3,000 i3s per month and if that is correct, and the trend continues, then the second year sales will see over 30,000 i3s hit the streets. That figure is pretty much what has been said to be BMW's target for annual i3 sales, and if they indeed hit it in the second year of production then that has to be considered a success.

Me and my client adviser, Manny Antunes of JMK BMW. I took delivery of the first i3 REx in the US back in May

The initial year sales has been production constrained, with many European customers waiting 5 to 6 months to take delivery. I have had people comment here that they are in the UK for instance and have been waiting many months for their i3 to be delivered. Yet here in the states there is definitely excess inventory on some dealer lots so BMW has obviously given the US market priority with i3 allotment.

I recently attended an i3 meet in California which had over 20 i3s show up. It would be difficult to get that many together here on the East coast. California is the epicenter of the electric vehicle revolution.

There was a lot of speculation that BMW was having difficulty with production in the initial months and I do believe that was correct to an extent. Everything about the i3 is a new frontier for BMW. The materials and the production processes are different than anything they have dealt with on any of their conventional offerings. I believe it would be foolish to think they would just hit the ground running and not encounter some initial production snafu's and delays. Now that BMW seems to have the initial production issues worked out, they claim to be making and selling about 100 copies per day, which I'm sure is making the i3 product managers very happy. Hopefully, the level of interest in this groundbreaking car continues. 

If you already drive an i3, you've probably seen this warning pop up on the dash.

The rear coach doors have been one of the more talked about features of the i3. Most people seem to favor conventionally opening rear doors, especially when they are considering hauling the kiddies around in the back as it can be difficult to open the doors in tight parking spaces.

Surprisingly, the feedback I've gotten from many early i3 owners has been generally positive in regards to coach doors, (or at least there haven't been any complaints!) so perhaps in practice they aren't as cumbersome as many predicted they might be. However there does seem to be a problem that has popped up with regards to them. As soon as the first i3's hit the roads I heard from a few of the first owners that the rear door ajar warning light would come on often during cornering. I didn't report on it since it was only a couple people and there are always minor build issues with new models. I figured BMW would get it sorted out quickly and I wouldn't hear anything more on it.

Close me first!

That doesn't seem to be the case. We are about seven months into production and I've now had more than a dozen i3 owners tell me they experience this regularly if they don't close the rear coach doors very hard - in other words slam it shut. Some of these people have only taken delivery very recently, so they aren't driving some of the first cars off the assembly line. They don't believe it's a safety concern, and the door is not in any danger of opening as it is securely locked. There doesn't appear to be a physical switch in the door jamb, so it would seem the sensor is some kind of magnetic switch inside the door that needs to make contact and is extremely sensitive. So much so that it loses contact when the car is in a tight turn or goes over a bad bump in the road.

This really isn't anything alarming and not completely unexpected. The i3 is a brand new model and BMW is using materials and manufacturing processes they have never employed before. There will likely be some minor issues like this, however it does need to be corrected. As I'm sure many of you can attest it's quite annoying to have one of these warning lights turn on and off all the time, especially at night when the display is brightly illuminated. I'd hate to have to resort to the decades old "black tape over the annoying warning light" solution on my brand new $56,000 urban mobility pod!