BMW i3 driven: The first EV to make petrol feel second best

That's how far BMW claims the new i3 electric saloon will travel before completely emptying its battery. In theory, that's enough to drive from London to Inverness without stopping. 

Even the most hardened EV sceptic would struggle to dismiss a number like that.

But while it looks set to clear the range-anxiety hurdle that has tripped up most electric cars before now, petrolheads aren't likely to be convinced unless the i3 makes financial sense while delivering a driving experience on par with the fossil fuelled cars they're accustomed to.

I've been among the first people to drive the new leccy Beemer on British roads in Sussex.

And despite being far from a green-blooded EV convert, I'm convinced it's bona fide a better option than every rival in its segment, including executive saloons powered by petrol and diesel engines.

Could this be the first electric car without compromise? I've been driving the eagerly-anticipated BMW i3 saloon on UK roads to find out...

It delivers enough range for just about everyone

The fact the BMW i3 is the longest-range EV you can buy in showrooms right now does a lot of the heavy lifting here.

It's the flagship 566-mile version that BMW, unsurprisingly, handed us for testing: the i3 50 xDrive with its enormous 108.7kWh battery starts from £53,500.

For the average Briton covering around 20 miles a day, on paper it offers enough range for you to only need to plug it in once a month.

That's also farther than the new 320 petrol can travel on a full tank, based on its 59-litre fuel tank and claimed 43.5mpg economy.

But, as we all know, official range (and mpg figures) are often a long way from reality, especially in colder conditions.

My drive took place on a particularly chilly late-autumn day, with temperatures refusing to climb above eight degrees. On a mixture of routes, from crawling through narrow town centres to spirited blasts along South Downs B-roads and stretches of motorway, the i3 returned an average of 3.7 miles per kilowatt-hour.

Do the maths and that equates to a real-world range of 402 miles. That means cutting short your journey from London into Scotland at Edinburgh and charging at home only once every three weeks down from four.

Had it been a balmy summer afternoon and I wasn't putting the electric Beemer through its paces, I'm sure I could have nudged above 450 miles. Even so, that's still some way short of BMW's headline claim.

But when was the last time you drove more than 402 miles in one sitting without stopping for a break? And given the Highway Code recommends stopping at least every two hours, meaning roughly every 100 to 150 miles, it's probably not safe to do so anyway.

As such, this is one of a handful of new EVs that genuinely offers the sort of real-world range Britons can comfortably live with, without the crippling fear of running out of charge.

BMW i3 50 xDrive specs at a glance

On sale: now First UK deliveries: end of 2026

Price from: £47,925 (40 xDrive)

Price of car tested: £63,238 50 xDrive M Sport (50 xDrive prices start from £53,425)

Biggest rivals: Mercedes-Benz C-Class Electric & Tesla Model 3

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4,760mm 

Width: 1,865mm

Height: 1,480mm

Wheelbase: 2,897mm

Kerb weight: 2,280kg

Boot capacity: 420l boot + 31l frunk 

CHARGING

Max DC charging speed: 400kW

10-80% charge time: 21 minutes

PERFORMANCE

Battery: 108.7kWh

Power: 463bhp

Torque: 645Nm

Drive: All wheel drive

Transmission: Single speed auto

0-62mph: 4.7 seconds

Top speed: 124mph

Official WLTP range: 566 miles (50 xDrive)

Real world range achieves: 402 miles 

While the 'official' range of the i3 50 xDrive is 566 miles, I managed just 402 miles during my test. That said, I was driving 'spiritedly'. Lighter on the pedals and 450 miles is feasible 

My Sussex test route took me from picturesque narrow town centres in the beautiful South Downs to long motorway stretches via some stunning B-roads, putting the i3 through its paces

While 400 miles should be more than enough for most drivers in Britain, rapid charging en route is incredibly quick and adds three figures to the range count pretty quickly

The speed at which the i3's batteries replenish is every bit as impressive and further boosts its convenience factor.

Find a 400kW ultra-rapid charger at a motorway service station and, BMW says, it'll add 263 miles of range in just ten minutes.

Hang around long enough to eat an overpriced sandwich and brave the typically grim restrooms, and the battery will climb from 10 to 80 per cent charge in just 21 minutes. That translates to around 320 miles of real-world range without kicking your heels for very long at all.

If you can merely find a 150kW charger, you'll still gain around 100 miles of charge after a quarter of an hour. However, a home charge using a 7kW wallbox will take 15 and a half hours due to the sheer size of the battery pack.

Even the lower-range i3 40 xDrive, officially capable of 436 miles between charges, should be more than sufficient for most buyers. Using my 3.7mi/kWh figure as a guide, its 82.8kWh battery would still deliver 306 miles of range. But smoother driving will easily deliver 340 miles.

And that means you'd need to plug in, on average, just once a fortnight, with a full charge taking around 12 hours and 15 minutes at home.

The range-topping i3 I drove, the 50 xDrive, starts from £53,425. It delivers broadly similar power, torque and acceleration to the petrol M350 xDrive but costs around £13k less

It's barely more expensive than a 3 Series petrol

The i3 is being launched alongside the eighth-generation combustion-engined 3 Series, though the two are built on very different platforms.

Yet when it comes to entry-level pricing, there's surprisingly little between them.

The 320 petrol starts from £45,000. For that, buyers get a rear-wheel-drive family saloon with 211bhp, an eight-speed automatic gearbox, a 0-62mph time of 7.4 seconds and CO2 emissions as high as 153g/km. The latter lands you with a first-year VED bill of £1,410.

The i3 40 xDrive in the same trim costs just £3,000 more. Yet it's almost twice as powerful at 374bhp, reaches 62mph two seconds quicker and incurs only a £10 first-year tax charge, reducing the real-world price gap to little more than £1,500.

With the financial benefit of charging over refuelling for a year stretching beyond £1,000, the i3 could effectively recoup its premium price tag within the first year of ownership.

Compare the larger-battery i3 50 xDrive (£53,425) with the range-topping petrol M350 xDrive (£66,785), which offer broadly similar outputs for power, torque and acceleration, and the EV comes with a saving of £13,000.

The entry i3 (pictured left in the range topping 50 xDrive) costs just £3,000 more than the 3 Series 320 petrol (right). And the EV is predicted to depreciate at a similar rate 

But the cost of EV ownership has always been more about what the car is worth months down the line rather than what you initially paid in the showroom. And usually, it's not very much at all.

Yet valuations experts tell me the i3 won't depreciate anywhere near as sharply as most electric cars, primarily thanks to its extended range.

Solera cap hpi predicts an i3 50 xDrive will lose around 30 per cent of its retail value after one year, and around 48 per cent by the time it's three years old.

That compares with the average EV shedding 44 per cent of its value after 12 months and nearly 60 per cent by its third birthday.

In fact, the i3 50 xDrive is expected to hold onto the same amount of its list price after three years as the 320 petrol. That's unprecedented in today's market.

It drives – and corners – like a proper 3 Series

Like almost every electric car, the i3 feels fast, especially from a standstill.

But with its 463bhp and 645Nm of torque, it takes almost a second longer to dispatch a sprint to 62mph (7.4 seconds) than an all-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3 Long Range. It's also slower than the top-spec Mercedes C-Class Electric, without question its biggest rival, and by over half a second.

What sets the i3 apart, though, is the way it tackles corners.

Given BMW has been the benchmark for handling among junior executive saloons for decades, the highest praise I can give the i3 is that it feels every bit like a 3 Series.

The steering is wonderfully fluid, consistent throughout the wheel rotation, and beautifully weighted. You immediately feel confident attacking a series of fast bends, which is more than can be said for its two biggest rivals from Mercedes and Tesla.

It also feels remarkably agile, which is even more impressive when you consider it tips the scale at 2.2 tons. Despite being anchored by its hefty battery pack, its body control is immaculate. And the lower centre of gravity delivers a sensation of it clawing into corners with a relentless grip.

The biggest compliment I could pay the i3 is that it feels every bit like a 3 Series in the bends. It's a remarkable feat given it weighs  of 2.2 tons and a chassis laden by a huge battery pack

But it also does the job of an effortless long-distance motorway cruiser when it has to. 

Lock the cruise control at 70mph and the cabin remains hushed and refined with the cockpit cocooned from any road rumble. And there's always a healthy reserve of power on tap should you need to dart into an outside lane to pass a lumbering HGV.

But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. 

On the standard suspension fitted to my test car, potholes and broken road surfaces occasionally sent shudders through the cabin, certainly more so than in the C-Class Electric. If it were my money, I'd consider the £775 adaptive suspension a worthwhile investment.

From the end of this year, buyers will be able to use BMW's optional Motorway Assistant on UK roads. The system allows hands-free driving on motorways and you'll be able to change lanes by glancing in the direction of the door mirrors. 

However, having tested it (with my hands on the wheel), I found it somewhat dim-witted and far from human-like in its response time, taking too long to identify slower-moving vehicles ahead and reducing the car's speed rather than scuttling across into the next lane to overtake.

My test car was fitted with standard suspension, which doesn't do a great job of ironing out potholes. If you're spending this much on an exec saloon, pay extra for the adaptive setup

Styling and interior shines 

In terms of styling, I think the new i3 – and the almost identical G50-generation 3 Series – look fantastic.

BMW's Neue Klasse design language, which debuted on the iX3, brings a boxier, sharper-edged appearance than before.

It certainly outshines the gaudy electric Mercedes C-Class by resisting the temptation to plaster the exterior with illuminated gimmicks, instead simply framing the newly shaped kidney grilles up front.

BMW's Neue Klasse EVs not only have a sharper new exterior look, they have a completely redesigned cabin. This includes a new Panoramic Vision display at the base of the windscreen

The panoramic display houses the driver's instrument cluster and has six customisable widgets that allow you to display different icons and information, including weather reports

Inside, BMW's redesigned cockpit is a triumph.

The slim Panoramic Vision display spanning the base of the windscreen houses the instrument readout, while six configurable widgets sit above the main infotainment screen. 

Although the myriad digital surfaces appear overwhelming at first, everything quickly becomes intuitive to use, even on the move.

I'm still not entirely convinced by the slanted screen shape, however. Some of the shortcuts for adjusting ADAS settings, including disabling the speed-limit warning chime, are positioned along the right-hand side and can be partially obscured by the steering wheel rim.

Too many controls are buried in the system, too. Even adjusting the direction of the air vents requires a dive into the touchscreen, which personifies over-engineering at its most frustrating.

What I don't like

My biggest gripe is the elevated seating position.

At a modest 5ft7, I almost never feel uncomfortable in any car with the driver's seat set in its lowest position. Yet in the i3, even I found it doesn't drop far enough.

There's an ever-present sensation that you're sitting on top of the chassis, rather than being properly bedded into it. I expect this from an SUV, not a sporty saloon.

The issue becomes even more problematic in the back. The raised floor will leave taller rear passengers feeling like their knees are rubbing against their ears. The lack of foot space, especially if the driver has knocked their seat down to its lowest position, doesn't help matters.

My biggest gripe with the i3 is the driving position. Because the batteries are buried under the floor, the seating position is high, even with the chair adjusted to the lowest possible setting

The problem is even greater in the back, where taller occupants are restricted by foot space and will have their knees up somewhere around their ears

The luggage capacity of the i3 is down on both the 3 Series petrol and its biggest rivals, the Mercedes C-Class Electric and Tesla Model 3

The cabin, while perfectly functional and thoughtfully laid out, also doesn't feel in the same league for luxury as the electric Mercedes C-Class.

Nor is it as practical. The 420-litre boot has 30 litres less luggage space than the combustion-engined 3 Series and can't match its two biggest EV rivals. The frunk is tiny too, with only enough room to store the charging cables.

And despite witnessing an influx of Chinese rivals steal away some of its customers by offering cars with an abundance of standard equipment, BMW continues to cling to an expensive options list.

Some of the extras are particularly cheeky. Take Motorway Assistant, for example. Not only does it cost an additional £925, but the subscription lasts for just four years before requiring renewal

The BMW i3 is a turning point for EVs. It's the first battery model without compromise and signals a turning point where petrol might be the second best option...

The Cars & Motoring verdict 

The BMW i3 isn't just the best electric car money can buy right now, I'd go as far as saying it's the first EV that’s genuinely without compromise.

You won't need to change your driving habits to live with one and it banishes long journey anxieties. It's cheaper to run and might hold its value just as well as its combustion-engined brethren. And it drives every bit as well too.

It might just prove to be the tipping point when EVs start to make petrol feel second best.