BMW i3 — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 674 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Steering102 (15.1%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)84 (12.5%)
• Body & structure80 (11.9%)
• Electrical system74 (11.0%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2014–2019.
• Air bags (restraint system)58 (8.6%)Official recall records for this system: 6, covering model years 2014–2018.
• Engine50 (7.4%)

Other / uncategorized: 40 classifications (5.9%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (468 records, model years 2014–2019) are most frequently classified under: steering, powertrain (transmission & drivetrain) and body & structure.
• Manufacturer communications (1,651 records, model years 2014–2021) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 256reports included a mileage
• 24,003average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2014 401 records for 2014 401
2. 2015 348 records for 2015 348
3. 2016 294 records for 2016 294
4. 2017 259 records for 2017 259
5. 2018 163 records for 2018 163
6. 2019 59 records for 2019 59
7. 2020 42 records for 2020 42
8. 2021 23 records for 2021 23

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 22mention a crash
• 6mention a fire
• 16mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 24
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 1,651
• Investigations NHTSA 9
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 23
• Owner complaints NHTSA 468

Explore the underlying evidence records