Another EV

[X5Sport]

Having been told that the almost 3 year old i4 M50 is pretty much worthless, or at least worth less then expected, I’m chopping it in almost a year early. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fantastic car and its performance is just incredible. I’ll definitely miss it. The stated 300 mile range of course only exists in the summer, with the current range on a full charge being nearer 230-240. Of course you don’t run at full charge because that’s supposed to be bad for the battery, so you run between 10% & 80%. Kinda drops the range somewhat.

Any, we’re both convinced about staying electric, and now BMW have introduced the Neue Klass with greater efficiency motors and a completely new battery deign, I’ve gone ahead and ordered the launch model, the iX3 MSport Pro. It doesn’t gave the brutal acceleration of the M50, but then I’ve never used all 544bhp, as running the 475bhp ‘standard’ power is just fine.

The iX3 is still a dual motor, 467bhp set up, and now offers 500 miles of range. That makes it much more interesting. It does bring my outlaws into range with a single charge (good, or bad!). It also offered Vehicle 2 Grid and Vehicle 2 Load. In theory this anllows exporting power back into the grid as with solar/battery power, or running 230V powered items straight off the car, it could also act as a home battery. My Powerwall 3 is 13.5kWh and runs the house for 12-15 hours. The iX3 battery is 108kWh. The iX3 NK is also £12k cheaper than the current 2WD, 240-mile ranged iX3.

Not even seen or sat in, let alone driven one yet (there aren’t any test cars in the UK yet. Have agreed with the Dealer that if we don’t like it then we hang into the M50 for another year and go on looking. It’s about the size of the original E53 if you need a reference. I’ll see the real thing in a couple of days, so for now images from the BMW Configurator is all that’s available.

Current spec looks like this (and the look is a little different than of late):

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Rumour is that there will be an M Performance version launched later this year, but it will likely be a LOT more expensive and has mad amounts of power (could be 700bhp or more).

If you’re wondering why the values have dropped, it’s because cars like the new BMW NK family have much greater range, cheap Chinese cars are here and used EVs are still an unknown, even if the batteries will last longer than the car itself]. Almost all EVs still need main dealer support (although my local Indy will now service & repair BMW EVs). If you bottom out an EV and dent the battery pack, that may write the car off. Repairing traction batteries is a specialist (and expensive) undertaking. Costs similar to replacing a broken engine.

[Leslie]

Its the tied to the dealer forever cost secondhand buyers are afraid of , it makes running one of these out of warranty a very risky affair and batteries seem to be the least of potential buyers worries . Isn't it mad how in three years this generation car is now obsolete ! that's progress for you .
They could make the batteries up of repairable chunks to allow repair at a reasonable cost if they wanted but they don't what that , they want them gone so they can shift the next lot of new metal
The supercar performance at a more reasonable cost and being far more practical though are major plus points

[X5Sport]

Frustratingly, BMWs current (as in not the NK) cars all use modular batteries that allow a single cell failure within a module (my i4 has 8 modules) to be replaced. You simply (if only!) drop the battery, replace the module with a remanufactured one from BMW, run the software to equalise the charge level between modules and job done.

The NK batteries use cylindrical cell packs and it’s not so simple. At least BMW are not filling their pack with what appears to be PU foam as used by other manufacturers (thus rendering their packs non-serviceable outside the specialist OEM repair facility) so repair is at least possible.

I’m sure that given time, non-OEM repair will become more of a reality, but the specialist tooling, procedures and software mean that for now there remain very few who have taken that chance. My own Indy has spent a small fortune on the right kit, but will only work on BMW/Mini.

In three years my M50 has lost almost 2/3rds of its original cost - according to the Dealer anyway - hence being advised to hand it back and walk away. I will keep an eye in it though when it appears in the dealer network. It might go to auction though it has less than 33k miles (will hit around 37k at hand back).