If you can charge it on 240 overnight - you’re good to go with a pretty large buffer.

I’ve driven one, for several days, in SF and hills are NO PROBLEM. None. Nada.

The gas-engine equipped i3 is not a limp-home design. It operates very much like the Volt but design-wise leans towards eV range where as the Volt leans towards gas-engine range.

Our “litigious culture?” Nope! It’s to qualify (essentially) for the car pool lane stickers in California. Instead of changing the tank, BMW just reprogrammed the car to ignore the last half gallon of fuel. Easy to change it back though. And far easier/cheaper than if you had to physically change the gas tanks!

Why is LA rush hour a bad idea? In fact, unlike a pure gas car that burns full sitting still in the super-slow-shitty LA traffic, the eV car (including the i3) isn’t burning any juice to speak of.

See answer above... : )

See above... : )

A couple of companies offer products that are essentially plug-and-play. Easy to look up.

BMW got ‘creative’ in order to make the car conform to the California regulation regarding (I believe) the ratio of range on eV vs. range on gas. This qualifies the car for the car pool lane stickers.

And um, most of the other cars BMW makes are not, for the most part, “runabouts for wealthy people who want to make a fashion statement?” Add Mercedes, Audi and Porsche to that list while you’re at it.

One thing to think about, with regards to the gas engine, is “How many of the miles you have on your car actually engaged the gas engine?” Compared to say a Prius, literally all of the miles on a Prius will have engaged the gas engine. In this i3, it could be very, very low and thus your maintenance very low.

It’s my understanding, BMW does provide loaner cars for long trips. Not every dealer participates, so look into it first. And yes, leasing is the better route in my opinion since these cars are evolving quickly.

Um, no - it isn’t a “limp home gas backup” car. Far from it.

You’d be stranded (or nervously looking for a public charger) with the pure eV model, but not this one.

That BMW rep is wrong. It’s not a backup, it’s part of the car. The i3 comes in two flavors - pure eV and hybrid. This car is the hybrid. Are you afraid of using the gas engine in other hybrids? Of course you aren’t. So don’t be ‘afraid’ of using the gas engine in this one either.

The “Oh golly, it’s only a little city car!” is an overstatement. For one, a simple re-code (quick and easy) will turn your 1.9 tank into a 2.4 gallon tank and it will enable the gas engine to fire up when the batter hits 75% charge vs. 6% charge (if you want it to). Those two small changes make the car much more…

Very cool!