Recently bought a second hand BMW i3 - what a cool car! Not planning to 'hack' it but nice to read about ideas.

nubinetwork 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I've seen videos of that car... don't they only have like 40 miles of range, and the range extender only holds like 5 gallons of fuel?

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mschild 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For the original version released in 2013, range was a bit of a concern.

Later models, 120ah full electric version, the range is about 250km. In comparison to newer cars, not a lot, but considering you can buy newish used ones for under 15k, its not a bad deal if it fits your needs.

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sgt 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Funny how I'm downvoted for even mentioning an i3. I've also heard several comments insinuating that I must be gay for driving such a car. Are we still there in 2026?

	▲	skrebbel 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		don't read too much into a downvote here or there. as i read this the downvotes are already gone again. some people are just idiots. also some people just misclick.

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sgt 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You don't want the range extender - it makes it fiddly and potentially unreliable.

As for the range, I'm getting about 110 miles of range. It depends how you drive. This is the 94Ah battery, the later models had more range.

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formerly_proven 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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anarticle 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In an interesting turn of events there is a pack upgrade for the i3 that gives it more range than it started with!

https://mtgbattery.com/

This is the kind of hacking / upgrades I’d love to see. All in cost was about $6k when I last checked probably a little more now. You get a pack teardown, and new CATL cells. Range goes to 400km~.

	▲	sgt 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That is very cool! I can see myself keeping this car for a long time. It's just so well built and the interior is also something to behold (compared to a lot of cars). Range is not an issue at the moment (we have a Land Cruiser for longer trips) but once the batteries get really old this would be a great option.