BMW i3 Key Fob Fail

Returning to your car to find the windows wide open isn't pleasant - but it's much worse if it had been raining.
Photo credit: Chuck Vossler 

Long gone are the days of a simple key to open your car's door and turn on the ignition. Keys today aren't even really keys in the traditional sense. With many cars, you only need to have the key on you and as you grab the handle of the vehicle the door will unlock. Then, you get into the vehicle and instead of inserting the key into an ignition, you simply push a button and the car will turn on. This is, in fact how the BMW i3 works, as long as you ordered the car with the optional Comfort Access feature.

BMW i3 key fob

Regardless of the other i3 features that you select, all i3 key fobs are the same. With a push of a button, they can lock or unlock the doors, or unlock the rear hatch (for MY 2015 on, the 2014 model key fob unlocked the front trunk).  Like most other key fobs, there is a panic button that sounds the car's alarm, but there is also one more function: If you long press the door unlock button, both front windows will open. This feature is used to cool down a hot cabin that may have been parked for awhile in direct sunlight. While the owner is walking up to the vehicle, they can open the windows to get some fresh air into the cabin before they hop into a sweltering hot environment. While this option certainly has a practical use, it also comes with a potential downside, that being the possibility of the owner inadvertently opening the windows by accidentally depressing the door unlock button.

No one wants to find this when they return to their car. Photo credit: Chuck Vossler

I've read about this being an occasional issue on cars of various makes. Someone with a pocket full of keys, coins or other objects can have the button depress without knowing it and have their doors unlock and windows open without their knowledge. Luckily, you need to be close enough to the vehicle for the key fob's signal to reach the vehicle, and that surely reduces the likelihood of it happening. However it does happen, and the problem can be amplified by a poorly designed key fob.

Unlocking your car door unknowingly is definitely not something you want to do, but the odds are nobody is going to notice unless there is someone actively trying to break into cars where the vehicle is parked. Having the windows wide open is much worse, as it invites passersby who may have nefarious intentions to steal items from the cabin, or even attempt to steal the car.

The edge of the button which sticks out above the key fob is protected by the key cover

This issue of unknowingly opening the windows of the vehicle because of the long press of the unlock button on the key fob seems to happen much more frequently with i3 owners than it does with other cars that have that feature on the key fob. Looking at the key fob closely, I think I know why that is. The door unlock button is located on the center and at the very top  of the fob. It also has a lip along the top edge of the button that sticks up above and beyond the black plastic trim that surrounds the fob. This lip protrudes roughly 2 millimeters beyond the leading edge of the fob, making it very easy to be depressed by accident while in a pocket or handbag that contains other items that can press against the fob.

Soaking wet Tera World interior

Over in the i3 Facebook group, and on a few other online forums, many owners have asked if anyone else has returned to their vehicle only to find the windows wide open. They are certain they didn't leave it that way and many are convinced it is the result of some malfunction on their car. Having the possibility of items being stolen from the vehicle isn't the only concern, though. Some have returned to there vehicle to find the interior soaking wet because this problem occurred during a rainstorm - or even worse, a snowstorm.

A friend of mine, journalist and i3 owner Chuck Vossler was one of the unlucky owners who had the accidental long button press and window open happen to him at a very inopportune time; during a driving rainstorm. Needless to say, he wasn't to happy about it. Here's Chuck's take on it:

"We typically park in a covered parking lot, but on a summer day last year had to park out in the open during a torrential down pour. Grabbed all of our stuff and booked out the car headed for the door at work 100 feet away trying not to get too wet. About an hour later, I had to go back to the car for something and as I was walking up to the car, my heart sank. The windows of our 2014 Solar Orange i3 with the Tera World package were all the way down on both sides. As I surveyed the soaking, was blown away by the amount of water in the car. There was so much, it was literally pooled in the seats and on our floor mats. Fortunately the eucalyptus wood wasn’t too wet.

Soaked! Photo credit; Chuck Vossler

I excused myself from work and took the i3 home. Using large bath towels, sopped up as much as I could and then was surprised to see that the WeatherTech mats caught a bunch and kept the carpets from getting too wet. Then I took a shop vac and vacuumed everything, and set all the mats out to dry and left the doors open for a few days while parked inside our garage at home. I think having leather seats instead of cloth helped it not be worse. The interior dried completely and we never smelled mold or mildew after. I write for a couple other outfits and offered to write the experience up but was told, it was user error and they weren’t interested. I buy that. But the same thing has happened to more than just us, as others have posted the same experience in the i3 Facebook Group.

We must have pressed the edge of the key somehow when running in to work during the massive rain. The i3 key we used that day did not have any covering on it. So since then, using the BMW i blue bumper’d key cover on one key and being vigilant has helped us from a second occurrence. Of note is that in owning and driving BMW’s for over 20 years, this has not ever happened to me before."

The BMW i Key Cover is available at BMW dealers or at many sites online

Luckily there is a very low cost solution which in most cases, eliminates the problem. It does however, cost the owner about fifteen dollars. I'm referring to BMW i Key Cover, accessory number 82 29 2 348 069. I've been using these covers as long as I've had my i3, which is nearly two years now and I've never had a problem. I even know some other i3 owners that have purchased the cover and put their key in it upside down, so all the buttons are covered by the hard plastic of the back of the cover. They cannot press the buttons, but if they have Comfort Access, they really don't need to. As I said above, with Comfort Access you unlock the door and rear hatch simply by touching the handle. The key fob will fit perfectly in the cover either way.

The Key Cover still works, but after a year or so it's no longer BMW i Frozen Blue

One thing to note about the Key Cover is, like most products from the BMW line, it is made with sustainability in mind. The cardboard box is made from recycled sources, and the actual cover is, "Made from sustainable, organic-based plastic & glows in the dark." That's great, and something many BMW i customers are interested in. However, the organic-based plastic also has a downside. The bright BMW i Frozen Blue color doesn't last too long. After about eight months I noticed it was turning a greenish tint, and after about a year and a half is was fully green, and no longer matches the Frozen Blue accents of my car. It grew increasing bothersome to me so I recently broke down and bought a new one. As you can see, the color variation is pretty striking. I can assure you the older greenish colored one did indeed start out looking just as the new one does now. While the plastic itself may be sustainable, the color certainly isn't!

BMW & Tesla Taking Different Approaches But Will Ultimately Face Off

Horatiu Boeriu of BMWBLOG recently did a piece titled "BMW vs. Tesla - Which Company Is A Bigger Innovator?" in which he mentions that while both companies are competing in the premium automobile segment and are committed to electric mobility, they are taking different paths to achieve success.

I'm not going to try to analyze who has it right or who is a bigger innovator, but it's clear that both companies have chosen to focus on different aspects of their respective vehicles. With Tesla, it's all about the batteries. Unlike every other automobile manufacturer, BMW included, Tesla's approach isn't for their electric cars to complement their lineup of gasoline and diesel offerings since they don't have any. Instead, it is to render gasoline vehicles from their competitors obsolete. In order to do so, their cars have to be at least as good or better than most features of competing gas cars; and that includes range, performance and utility. BMW on the other hand doesn't need to necessarily worry about making everything better. They can focus on specific needs of certain customers and make a vehicle that is better than any other at a specific set of tasks, without cannibalizing sales of other vehicles in their lineup. If you accept that premise, it's not difficult to understand why we have the Model S and the BMW i3.

Tesla knew they had to knock it out of the park with their first high volume vehicle offering. They knew they had to offer a car that could stand its ground against all of the top luxury sedans while offering a range long enough to allow for road trips enabled by the Supercharger network. Even though that was an enormous task, and one that few automotive analysts really believed they would pull off, they did just that and the Model S is a smashing success. No disrespect to the sexy styling or the fabulous performance of Model S, but the heart and soul of what the car is can be attributed to the enormous battery pack it uses, filled with industry leading, high energy-density batteries. Tesla is all about the batteries. Even though the Model S uses batteries that have a higher energy density than any other EV manufacturer, they still aren't satisfied. They aren't waiting for the market to bring them better, cheaper cells for their future cars. Instead they are in the process of building what will be the first of many Gigafactories, which will be the largest lithium ion battery manufacturing plants in the world. This will drive down costs, guarantee that they have the supply that they need, and allow them to constantly upgrade to better cells without needing to wait for battery manufacturers to retool production facilities to produce them. The key to Tesla's success is having the best batteries available, and to manufacture them for less than what their competitors are paying for comparable cells. It's the only way to offer large battery, long range electric vehicles and be able to price them competitively.  It's Tesla's edge, and perhaps their only hope to compete and actually beat the large, established automakers.

BMW's not in the battery business and is unlikely to follow Tesla's path as such. As mentioned above, since they didn't need the i3 to do everything better than any other gas offering as the Model S had to, BMW could focus on a specific set of goals with their first electric vehicle. The i3's code name was the Megacity Vehicle and the goal was to develop a car that would be the perfect electric vehicle for the increasing populations within the megacities of the world. They also wanted this car to represent a departure from traditional manufacturing processes with an emphasis on sustainability.  They set out to make the most efficient production car available today and they achieved that goal. The extensive use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and aluminum allowed BMW to shave 400 to 500 lbs off the car which played a primary role in its efficiency.

Will BMW leave Tesla in their rear view camera? That doesn't look very likely at present.

I believe the i3 is as much of a learning experience for BMW as it is their first electric vehicle. Every step of the manufacturing process was rethought and redesigned for the i3. In fact, the i3 uses 70% less water and 50% less electricity to manufacture than a comparable-sized conventional BMW would. In addition, the Leipzig manufacturing plant where the i3 is made is now completely powered by wind-generated energy. So as much as the i3 is an important vehicle to BMW today, the lessons learned bringing it to market today will pay dividends when future i cars are made. The i3 indeed paved the way for the rumored i5 and other models from the i brand. You can expect larger battery, longer range electric cars from BMW i in the not-so-distant future. I suspect by the time Tesla releases the Model III, BMW will have an electric offering which is comparable size, range and price, and that will be good news for the consumer.

My i3 had a visit by its big brother. I'm one of the few lucky people outside of some select journalists who have driven an i8 on public roads. The future is definitely looking electric!

BMW knows that by focusing on a specific set of needs (efficiency, performance, sustainability) rather than long range, the i3 isn't as well suited for road trips as the Model S. They knew that every kWh of battery that they added would sacrifice efficiency and increase the cost of the car. I still maintain that if BMW had indeed used a slightly larger battery and delivered a true 100-mile EV, it would have been much better received, but that's a pointless argument now. While it does have a shorter range, the i3 does have features that are not even available in the Model S, such as adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance with automatic braking and self parking. As you would expect from BMW, the i3 is an extremely fun car to drive, and a great addition to the current lineup of EV offerings. I think it fits in well situated directly between the Model S and the LEAF in price.

My i3 at home

BMW did realize some customers would want a longer range so they offered the range extender as an option. It's really a great option to have and while I personally like how well it works, it isn't for everybody. Many have argued that the REx ruins the purity of an EV, and while I can agree with that, I can't agree that it shouldn't be an option. If such a feature allows more people to buy a plug in car, then I think that's great. I see the range extender as a temporary fix until batteries get better, lighter and cheaper, but a necessary evil at present. Obviously BMW agrees with that and unlike Tesla, they will wait for the market to bring them improved battery tech while Tesla has decided to bring improved battery tech to the market. Different approaches, different cars and I don't think either is right or wrong. They are both working on bringing cutting edge technology to market today with the promise of even better things to come. BMW and Tesla aren't going head to head in the EV space right now, but they certainly will. Competition is good because it forces innovation. Maybe Horatiu was onto something after all.

One last point: If Nissan does deliver on the rumors that the next generation, 2016 LEAF will have a 150+ mile range, and they can deliver it for a reasonable price, then both Tesla and BMW should be concerned, very concerned...

BMW and Tesla going nose to nose in the premium electric vehicle market is inevitable.

Touchy "Door Ajar" Warning Light an Issue With Early i3 Builds

If you already drive an i3, you've probably seen this warning pop up on the dash.

The rear coach doors have been one of the more talked about features of the i3. Most people seem to favor conventionally opening rear doors, especially when they are considering hauling the kiddies around in the back as it can be difficult to open the doors in tight parking spaces.

Surprisingly, the feedback I've gotten from many early i3 owners has been generally positive in regards to coach doors, (or at least there haven't been any complaints!) so perhaps in practice they aren't as cumbersome as many predicted they might be. However there does seem to be a problem that has popped up with regards to them. As soon as the first i3's hit the roads I heard from a few of the first owners that the rear door ajar warning light would come on often during cornering. I didn't report on it since it was only a couple people and there are always minor build issues with new models. I figured BMW would get it sorted out quickly and I wouldn't hear anything more on it.

Close me first!

That doesn't seem to be the case. We are about seven months into production and I've now had more than a dozen i3 owners tell me they experience this regularly if they don't close the rear coach doors very hard - in other words slam it shut. Some of these people have only taken delivery very recently, so they aren't driving some of the first cars off the assembly line. They don't believe it's a safety concern, and the door is not in any danger of opening as it is securely locked. There doesn't appear to be a physical switch in the door jamb, so it would seem the sensor is some kind of magnetic switch inside the door that needs to make contact and is extremely sensitive. So much so that it loses contact when the car is in a tight turn or goes over a bad bump in the road.

This really isn't anything alarming and not completely unexpected. The i3 is a brand new model and BMW is using materials and manufacturing processes they have never employed before. There will likely be some minor issues like this, however it does need to be corrected. As I'm sure many of you can attest it's quite annoying to have one of these warning lights turn on and off all the time, especially at night when the display is brightly illuminated. I'd hate to have to resort to the decades old "black tape over the annoying warning light" solution on my brand new $56,000 urban mobility pod!

BMW i3 Production Delays Reported

Virtually every facet of the i3's manufacturing process is different and BMW is evidently struggling to manage setbacks

According to Jay Cole over at insideevs.com i3 production is currently 50% lower than expected at this point in time. Cole's source is Manager Magazine Online, a German Publication, which states the high rejection rate of the carbon fiber parts made for the car. The article goes on to say that BMW's recent announcement that the company will be investing another 100 million euros to increase the production of carbon fiber is tied to this issue.

Manager also says BMW is only churning out 70 i3's per day which is about half of what they were hoping to be making by now. BMW began i3 production in October so they are four months in and now have over 11,000 i3's on backorder. Plus, US sales are only just beginning so it would appear that even if BMW gets the current problems solved in short order (and that's a big "if"), it will still probably take them nearly a year to catch up with demand since the orders will continue to pile up. It has long been speculated that BMW will have the capacity to make between 30,000 and 40,000 i3's per year once they are running at full production.

It seems we now have some answers to two things which were puzzling US customers recently. A couple months ago BMW announced that US i3's will not have a moonroof available. This comes long after it was announced that the i3's with Giga World and Tera World interiors get the moonroof included with the packages. To make matters worse, most of the i3's here in the US are pre-production European spec cars and they all have sunroofs. So everyone that had the opportunity to test drive an i3 got teased with seeing the moonroof that they were later told they won't be able to have. Then, a few weeks ago BMW announced the first three months of i3 US production would be limited to a "Launch Edition" version. The Launch Edition is fully loaded with every option available on the car and the most expensive Tera World interior. The only thing the customer can choose is the color (and only the metallic colors are available) and if they want the optional 20" sport wheels.

Many people speculated that is was simply a money grab and BMW knew the car would be in high demand so they could get away with making anyone that wanted one of the first i3's in the US buy one that was loaded. Now, with the recent news about production difficulty, I think it's obvious the reasons the moonroof isn't available at launch, and custom ordering isn't available for another three months, is solely because BMW is struggling to refine the manufacturing process and eliminate the problems they are currently having.

I've had the opportunity to talk with many BMW program managers over the past few years. One of the things that has always stood out to me was how on one hand they were really excited about the i3 because of how special and different everything about it is, while on the other hand they would always acknowledge how big a challenge it was going to be. Everything about the i3 is different. BMW has never made a car that required special manufacturing processes for virtually every stage of assembly. Besides the electric powertrain, most of the materials used in the car are even different. While the biggest challenge is likely working with carbon fiber on such a large scale, they are also using more aluminum on a car than they ever have and are using interior materials that they have never worked with before. Then there is the outer thermoplastic body panels which BMW has never used before which has even led to the painting process presenting challenges.

So personally I'm really not surprised by all this. The i3 is a revolutionary new car for BMW, and nobody else is making anything quite like it. Yes, there are some that will look at it and say "It's just another 80 mile electric car, big deal", or "It's nothing more than a Nissan LEAF that costs $50,000". I respect everyone's opinions, and for some people it doesn't represent any more value than a $30,000 Nissan LEAF and that's fine. However when I see the i3 I see the future of the automotive industry and I applaud BMW for taking the enormous risk of building such a radically different car, something that nobody else is attempting to build. Yes, I wish it had more range and I think BMW would have been better served if it could really deliver 100 miles of consistent real world range for most drivers, and it's clear it will not. But that's the biggest knock I can offer and it's far from a deal breaker for me. BMW will get past these initial manufacturing snafu's. The top concern at this point should be quality, which I'm sure it is. The production numbers will increase and by the end of the year I'm sure they will have everything running as smoothly as planned. The question is will the customers wait many months for their i3 to be made? I suppose the people that don't put as much weight on how special it is may not, but those that appreciate how unique the car really is will. After all, there is nothing else out there they can get that is quite like the i3.