Nearly new buying guide: BMW i3

I've owned a 120Ah i3S for the last few months, so will just weigh in with some of my own experience.

• The standard i3 has a tendency to lurch the cabin alarmingly over rough tarmac. It's the main reason I went for the i3S instead: its wider tyres and sports suspension make it vastly more stable. That probably applies to wet-weather roadholding too: I've heard bad things about the standard model (didn't experience them during my summer test drive) but have never had a single problem in the S. So it's definitely the variant I'd recommend, unless you're mainly driving in city environments.
• In my experience, range can be as high as 200 miles driving gently in warm weather, or as low as 125 miles when driven on motorways in freezing weather. Average is more like 165 right now (as stated in the article), 135 in winter.
• Charges 100 miles in ~40 minutes on public rapids. I've never actually waited for it to charge: the rapids I've used have been next to supermarkets, and by the time I'm finished shopping, it's ready to go. That said, I haven't used the public infrastructure in 4 months - EVs are bloody useful to have in a pandemic.
• 500 miles costs around £16 on my current tariff (12.19p/kWh). You can get even cheaper by charging at night with a time-varying tariff.
• Check your car for random rattles. My <1yr-old car has several. So much for German build quality eh? That said, zero reliability problems so far. Apparently it's just the <2015 cars that are regularly problematic for reliability, and even then, mainly the range-extender ones.
• Range-extender engine... personally, I wouldn't, unless I had to go for the low-ranged 60Ah model. (And even then, don't go older than 2015! i3 repair costs are expensive!) When you hear about an i3 having a problem, it's usually the range-extender. The car does automatically perform a maintenence cycle on the engine if you don't use it for a while, but seemingly that's not enough. Also, it's more expensive to service, potentially ineligible for some EV benefits, and adds over 10% to the car's weight.
• It's not silent. For pedestrians, most of the latest models now have an external noise emitter: it's very subtle, like a mid-pitch rumble, so I have a hard time picking it out from inside the car. What I do hear is the motor when pushing the pedal or releasing it, which sounds like a quieter version of a Formula E car. And other noises too - air and vibration booming around the chassis. Sometimes the overall experience sounds like Aliens' atmosphere processor, and it adds to the car's weird sci-fi charisma. But if you want Rolls-Royce silence, this isn't your car.
• How is it for passengers? Well, on the plus side, near-peerless view of your surroundings, especially with the sunroof. Huge windows, tall height. Gorgeous sci-fi interior (don't cheap out on the basic spec - all the optional trims are stunning but the standard one not so much). Surprisingly comfy seats. Lots of tech to browse around in the infotainment. Incredibly spacious in the front: I'm not sure the front-seat occupants get any more room than this in a 7-series. It's a really nice place to be. But not perfect: the driver needs to learn how to smoothly accelerate/decelerate to avoid jerking passengers around; ride quality is near-sports-car bumpy; seat position is manual so has no memory function; no touchscreen for the infotainment. It's poor for rear passengers, partly because they have no nearby air vents, but mostly because the concept car doors require the front set to be opened before the rear can be (like the old Clubman).
• How is it for drivers? Great. It's the lightest car currently made with a BMW badge, on par with the Mini Cooper S 5-door. So it handles well, albeit not as well as similarly light cars because it's so tall and narrow. (Don't spec the sunroof if that's something you care about, it adds a lot of weight at the top of the vehicle.) Steering is better than any electrified car I've driven to date - not quite Mini-good, but closer to it than a Jaguar or Lexus. And of course it's a quick car. Not rollercoaster-brutal like a Tesla, but enough to give you a nice stomach-lurch, and to outgun most other traffic. The i3S is slightly more accelerative than the standard model at higher speeds, but generally you barely notice the difference, the stability is the main reason to go for an S. Regenerative braking is just strong enough to bring the car to a halt, but not on a downward slope, and it takes some practice to learn how to do it smoothly. Visibility is great, and because the car has such short overhangs and a narrow turning circle, it's very easy to park.
• Other stuff: Boot and rear passenger space depends on what you're doing with the seats. If you have the front seats all the way back, there's almost no space for rear passengers... but I'm 6ft 3 and don't need that much room in the front, so it's possible to set the seats for both sets of passengers to have enough legroom. With the boot, it's Mini-small normally, but if you have the rear seats folded down and the front seats moved as far forward as you're comfortable with, it's surprisingly voluminous. There's no space under the boot floor, but there's a 'frunk' in the nose of the car that's big enough to hold both your 'granny' cable for charging from mains sockets, and your AC cable for charging at destination chargers. In older models it wasn't properly waterproofed, but it is in mine. Original model's halogen headlights apparently weren't much good at night, but the facelift's LEDs are fine.