Worldwide i3 Sales Exceed 10,000

A photo from the BMW i3 Sales Start in November 2013. Pictured are the first group of people to take delivery of an i3

According to InsideEVs, worldwide i3 sales have passed the 10,000 unit mark, just shy of one year from the i3's European launch.

It wasn't until May of this year that the i3 became available in the US, and after a couple months of relatively  slow sales, the i3 has had two consecutive months with sales greater then 1,000 units and October is expected to continue that trend. Inside EVs also states that BMW claims they are now selling about 3,000 i3s per month and if that is correct, and the trend continues, then the second year sales will see over 30,000 i3s hit the streets. That figure is pretty much what has been said to be BMW's target for annual i3 sales, and if they indeed hit it in the second year of production then that has to be considered a success.

Me and my client adviser, Manny Antunes of JMK BMW. I took delivery of the first i3 REx in the US back in May

The initial year sales has been production constrained, with many European customers waiting 5 to 6 months to take delivery. I have had people comment here that they are in the UK for instance and have been waiting many months for their i3 to be delivered. Yet here in the states there is definitely excess inventory on some dealer lots so BMW has obviously given the US market priority with i3 allotment.

I recently attended an i3 meet in California which had over 20 i3s show up. It would be difficult to get that many together here on the East coast. California is the epicenter of the electric vehicle revolution.

There was a lot of speculation that BMW was having difficulty with production in the initial months and I do believe that was correct to an extent. Everything about the i3 is a new frontier for BMW. The materials and the production processes are different than anything they have dealt with on any of their conventional offerings. I believe it would be foolish to think they would just hit the ground running and not encounter some initial production snafu's and delays. Now that BMW seems to have the initial production issues worked out, they claim to be making and selling about 100 copies per day, which I'm sure is making the i3 product managers very happy. Hopefully, the level of interest in this groundbreaking car continues. 

The First US i3 REx Delivery Goes To Me

My client adviser, Manny Antunes and I with my i3

This afternoon I took delivery of the first i3 REx in the US. BMW of North America was kind enough to arrange it so I'd have the very first one delivered in North America, and I would like to thank them for that. It's been a long, fantastic journey for me. Five years in BMW's e-mobility trial lease program and over 140,000 electric miles driven on my MINI-E and ActiveE has led up to me finally getting the first real production EV from BMW. This has been a long time coming and I'm very anxious to see how the i3 performs and report on it here and on other websites. I'm sure there will be things I feel need improvement, but I do expect to thoroughly enjoy the car for what it is.

BMW NA CEO Ludwig Willisch handing me the keys to the first all electric BMW in company history.             January 13th, 2011

Manny Antunes, my client adviser at JMK BMW delivered the first i3 BEV in the state of New Jersey a couple of weeks ago and now he can add the first i3 REx customer delivery in the US to his resume. Manny was also my ActiveE client adviser when I took delivery of the very first ActiveE, back in January 2011. That was a historic event because I was the very first customer in BMW history to take delivery of a 100% electric BMW, something I am very proud of. As BMW slowly transitions to more and more electric vehicles in their lineup, I'll always know I was the person who got the very first one, and that's pretty cool.

I'm sure the frequency of my posts here will increase now, and I'll also be writing about my i3 experiences for a number of EV websites including InsideEVs, Green Car Reports, Plug in Cars and of course BMWBLOG where I'll have a regular column there reporting on my experiences and all other i3 news.

I just wanted to do a quick post now to make the announcement. I'll be putting up another post soon about my initial impressions. Stay tuned!