Owners of electric BMWs are shocked by the cost of replacing the battery (3 photos)

Introduced in 2013, the BMW i3 compact hatch, which existed in both hybrid and all-electric versions, was removed from the assembly line three years ago. A total of 45,100 of these cars were sold overseas, the vast majority are still running and are slowly beginning to require new high-voltage batteries. Many people are sure that owning an electric car is cheap, but there is one big problem.





As evidenced by the indignant reviews of elderly i3 owners on social networks, installing a fresh battery with work costs 33–38 thousand US dollars, and the dealer counted as much as 71 thousand dollars for one client! This is despite the fact that at the end of his career, the manufacturer’s recommended cost of a new BMW i3 varied between 45–52 thousand dollars, depending on the version.



It is not surprising that many BMW i3 owners prefer to solve the issue in other ways. It is believed that the i3 battery, consisting of eight modular cells, does not fail immediately, but gradually, which makes it possible to replace not the entire battery, but only the exhausted module, the price of which is about 3.5 thousand dollars. BMW does not do this, but there are workshops and specialists who are ready to work with the battery block by block.