![]() |
It may not be the color I'd choose, but I can say I'm the first person outside of BMW to drive an i3! |
It had to be somebody. There can only be one person who gets to be the first person to do something. BMW's first production electric vehicle, the highly anticipated 2014 i3 has had a couple of journalist "ride alongs" where they were passengers in test mule cars, but nobody outside of BMW had been given the keys to a pre-production i3 and been allowed to drive it. Until yesterday.
![]() |
BMW's North American Headquarters |
My security badge |
I arrived at the campus at 7:45am and followed the directions to the technical center where the car was to be. When I arrived there was a familiar face waiting for me. It was Dave Mustac, the technical coordinator for the ActiveE and Electric Vehicle Aftersales Specialist. I kind of felt bad that he had to come here for this on Easter Sunday, but he said he lived close and really didn't mind. I hope that was the case. The car was inside so we had to go in and get it. When we got to the room where it was, I was stunned to see six i3's all gathered together in there. Three of them had the blue swirly camouflage that we've been seeing and three others were painted bright yellow. Not exactly the color I would choose, but for this I didn't care what color it was. I assumed I would be regulated to one of the camouflaged ones, but the first car in line was a yellow one and Dave walked over to it as I followed. The bright yellow color kind of reminded me of a crash test car, but these obviously aren't being used for that.
It was a BEV i3 although there were three with the range extender option also. He handed me the keys and smiled saying, "I know you've waited for this for a while now," and he was right. I pulled out and the first thing I did was drive on the main road that circles the campus. There were long straight-aways and I could really see how much punch it had. It didn't disappoint! It's definitely much faster than the ActiveE, obviously the result of it having the same power while being nearly 1,300lbs lighter. After circling the campus I pulled off into one of the large parking lots which was completely empty and I did some autocross-like maneuvers. It has remarkable poise even with the thin tires on 20" non-production wheels. They held tight on even the tightest turns and barely even squealed as I pushed the car to the limit.
After about 40 minutes Dave reminded me we did have to wrap things up. I noticed I used 30% of the charge but didn't look at the mileage when I started (I was too excited) so that's not much help with the expected range. The instruments - which I can't really talk about were very impressive and I think will be well received. Please ask questions below and I'll answer whatever I can but remember there are a lot of things I can't comment about. Special thanks to Dave for taking time out of his Easter Sunday to come and make sure I didn't leave the campus with it! I can't wait till I get the next opportunity to take one for a longer (and maybe unsupervised) drive!
UPDATE: For those that haven't figured it yet, this was an April Fools joke. Unfortunately I haven't had the privilege to test drive an i3...yet. Hopefully I'll get to be one of the first that does, but we'll have to wait to see... Special thanks to follower Chris Llana who did the photoshop work for the picture above. I know he spent a while on it and it definitely tricked a good amount of people. I even got emails from some people asking if I could tell them info on the car!
Great news Tom! You deserve it!
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteI am jealous! Hopefully the guys let you upgrade from ActiveE to i3 so that the rest of us have a chance to catch up to your ActiveE mileage!
--Dennis
As Ed said, you deserve it. BWM couldn't wish for a better ambassador!
ReplyDeleteDid you get to try the back seat as well? Knee and head room?
Awesome news… congratulations! Thanks to BMW iTeam for allowing you to drive & post the news. Great post. :)
ReplyDeleteAny word if i3 will actually be sold, or will it be lease-only like the Mini & ActiveE?
PS: Is very hard to write/post commits from an iPad (something strange with your theme that eats keystrokes).
--Brian
Excellent, Tom, quite a coup. I'm not surprised that you were the first customer to wangle a test drive, but the first person outside of BMW, that's impressive.
ReplyDeleteMy question is about regen. How does it compare with MiniE and ActiveE, and is regen strength adjustable with some kind of settings?
Ha! you are too funny!
ReplyDelete(;-P)
DeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteThe i3 is a full production vehicle and will be available all around the world. It will go on sale in select European countries in November and here in the US in late December/early January. You'll be able to lease or buy it. This is not a limited production test car like the MINI-E and ActiveE.
Phil,
ReplyDeleteThe regen is set but there are three drive settings which have different levels of regen : Comfort, Eco Pro and Eco Pro Plus.
Good job Tom! Can't wait to see it on NJ roads!
ReplyDeleteTom -- way to go!! Did the back doors open? Did the car feel very spacious inside? How about rear storage space? Based on your test drive, is there anything you think you we are going to miss when we turn in ours Active E's?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone deserves to have the first test drive, it's you Tom, as a reward for all your dedicated, tireless work promoting BMW electrics. But by giving you that privilege, they've no doubt put a lot of prima donna automotive journalists in a snit, so I guess we'll be hearing their indignant complaints for another five months while they wait for their test drives. So be it!
ReplyDeleteThe flamboyant yellow paint job can only mean that BMW's marketing strategists are going for a monster early buzz. So I wonder what they're going to call that irreverent yellow, and whether it will be offered when the i3 goes on sale. I think the new i3 color should be dubbed Banana Yellow.
Terrific report, Tom, and congratulations! Hoping we'll hear more soon.
Excellent Tom, you did it again!
ReplyDeleteLove it! Can't wait to see the real car.
ReplyDeleteNote to BMW: Let Tom have the first one a month before they launch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree!! and I then will visit him every day until I get mine :)
DeleteHey Tom,
ReplyDeleteThe Easter Bunny really did arrive for you, eh? ;-)
Congrats!
Strange that the image of the yellow i3 is labelled AprilFoolsFinal?! :D
ReplyDeleteYou had me going!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteToo cool Tom!!!! Good reporting as usual. Thanks!. I'm really interested in knowing how BMW will transition ActiveE-rs into I3-ers? Will they let us move directly into a I3 or will we have to finish out our lease?
ReplyDeleteI hated to give back my MiniE, but Im really happy to move quickly to an I3.
Too cool Tom!!!! Good reporting as usual. Thanks!. I'm really interested in knowing how BMW will transition ActiveE-rs into I3-ers? Will they let us move directly into a I3 or will we have to finish out our lease?
ReplyDeleteI hated to give back my MiniE, but Im really happy to move quickly to an I3.
Reply
Hey Robert,
DeleteWhat month did your ActiveE lease originate? The i3 isn't probably going to be available in the US till January so you probably will be close to your lease expiring anyway. It will likely go on sale in Europe on November and then here a couple months later.
I don't have any official news on this, but I really believe BMW is going to make the transition from the ActiveE to the i3 very easy for those that want to buy or lease an i3. It would be foolish if they didn't.
There, thats better! Hate being anonymous!
ReplyDeleteis this real or an April Fools' joke?I genuinely cannot tell.
ReplyDeleteYes, unfortunately it was an April Fools post. I do hope to be one of the first to test drive the i3 someday, we'll see...
DeleteYou always do a great job on these Tom, hat's off to you! I remember your e-mini post a few years back about it burning up and you barely escaped with your life. You had everyone fooled with that one and I think I remember it was even picked up by other websites! Great crack
ReplyDeleteYou really should remove this post now ... it's just going to piss people off
ReplyDeleteI've been doing April Fools posts on my blogs for the past three years now and on April 2nd I add an 'update' at the bottom of the post that explains it's not true. I never remove posts though. If anyone reads the post they will see it's not true. If they don't want to take the time to read it and only look at the title then it's on them. :)
Delete