Business Car Manager car review Verdict
The BMW i3 is a whole new world, but does it stack up in the here and now, and for business users especially? More importantly still, will you actually want one, as opposed to merely looking at the financials?
The answer to that second question is resoundingly a yes – it’s been built from scratch from exotic materials that are not really reflected in the price. It is like the £100,000 BMW i8 but packaged for the school run and the commute.
The minute you grip the steering wheel it feels rock solid, very premium, very ‘must have’.
On the move there are two striking discoveries about the BMW i3 Range Extender: electricity means the shove of diesel but there’s a refinement that even large capacity petrol engines can’t match; and it handles brilliantly.
On the cost front, the BMW i3 Range Extender requires careful arithmetic because it’s not a like-for-like equation.
First off, if you deduct the government plug-in hybrid subsidy of £5000, and VAT, you’re down to a monthly lease cost of £339, with a £6000 deposit, a 35 month lease, 10k miles a year.
The company car tax rate of zero on the pure i3 becomes 5% on the BMW i3 Range Extender, but hey – compute those costs against the fossil fuel competition and then deduct your monthly fuel bill and it suddenly looks very credible, especially with group 21e insurance (equates a 118d).
There are a few ‘stingers’ but not many: factor in £315 for the wall box charger that BMW installs for you at home or work, and you may want one of several ‘electric packages’ that BMW is selling you for £40-80 per month extra, which provide access to a national charging infrastructure (currently 4,000 outlets via partner Chargemaster plc), for access to a fleet of BMWs for long journeys, and for maintenance.
By BMW’s calculation, the total three year cost of running a ‘pure’ electric-only BMW i3 for a corporate user is £1033, versus £6260 for an Audi A3 1.6TDI SE. With the range extender version tested here, the figure is £2780.
From an employer perspective, NI contributions fall from £1276 for the Audi to £699 for the BMW i3 Range Extender and £211 for the i3. If you are lucky enough to be offered a BMW i3 by your employer, this will be one reason why…
The cautious (private) motorist might say bah humbug to all of it and stick to a used Yaris. Some business users will be of the same cast of mind.
And there are some uncertainties: the government will reduce these rich incentives once i3s start flying out of the door, and the 20 minute ‘rapid charge’ out there on the M-Way network will be charged as a premium service far above the actual cost of the juice, to reflect the infrastructure costs, plus a M-Way rip-off factor that we all know too well.
But if anything these considerations increase the appeal of the silent-in-use range extender, because although it’s not in keeping with the spirit of the thing, you can theoretically refill that 9 litre petrol tank again and again, to go as far as you like without plugging in.
That will swing it for a lot of sensible folks, including us.
And don’t miss the video of the BMW i3 v’s M3 drag race.
