Winter is a nightmare for electric cars? BMW i3 leaks a lot, and converting oil to electricity is unreliable

When winter comes, it seems to be the time when electric cars are "crying for help". No matter what brand or price range of the electric cars, they will be criticized to a greater or lesser extent in terms of battery life and thermal air conditioning. However, these problems do not have a big impact on consumers' use. They just require frequent charging. However, BMW's electric cars have a concentrated outbreak of the problem of "leakage".

Recently, some BMW i3 owners reported online that their cars had large-scale antifreeze leakage problems after the arrival of winter, and the proportion of this problem was very high. Basically, 5 or 6 out of 10 BMW i3 cars in the group had antifreeze leakage. The proportion was even higher among car owners in the north, with 7 or 8 out of 10 cars leaking.

And this kind of leakage does not only happen when the temperature is below zero. We randomly selected one of the consumers as an example. This consumer had only driven 3,000 kilometers in the three months after he got the car, which just met the standard of the first maintenance. Moreover, according to the owner's description, the environment he was in was not as bad as the freezing temperature in the north, but it was always 2-4 degrees, but the antifreeze leaked, which made many BMW i3 owners feel insecure.

You should know that the sales of BMW i3 have soared this year, especially in the second half of the year. This is mainly because a large number of price cuts before have resulted in a discount of up to 120,000 yuan for the i3, which means that the overall price of the car has fallen to less than 250,000 yuan, which is much lower than the fuel version of the 3 Series. With the Blue Sky Baoyun logo and the tuning of the 3 Series, the i3 of more than 200,000 yuan is indeed very cost-effective.

Data shows that the BMW i3 sold 6,160 units in November, and the cumulative sales in 2023 are close to 50,000 units. Except for some popular models of first-tier new forces, there are only a handful of single models of the entire new car-making forces that can catch up with the BMW i3 in sales. This year, BMW's new energy sales are almost entirely dependent on the BMW ix3 and BMW i3.

Precisely because the sales of BMW i3 have been so high this year, the problem actually involved a large number of consumers. Many people had never thought that BMW, which is known for its quality and luxury, would fail so badly in the electric car market.

In fact, this situation also happened to the gasoline 3 Series, and the new 3 Series even made it to the "complaint list" because of the large number of complaints. According to the owner's feedback, during the driving process, the screen suddenly displayed a warning prompting a lack of coolant, and the coolant pipe broke, causing the antifreeze to quickly drain. After inspection by the 4S shop, it was determined that there was a problem with the thermal management module.

However, the situation of the BMW i3 is completely different from that of the new 3 Series. According to feedback from car owners, the 4S shop confirmed after inspection that the entire coolant conversion valve was leaking and needed to be replaced. Of course, because the BMW i3 owners are all within the warranty period, they can get repairs and replacements free of charge, but this accessory needs to be imported from Germany by the 4S shop, and the final repair time cannot be determined, and it will take at least 20 days to wait.

More importantly, consumers cannot judge whether the problem will occur again next winter or even every winter thereafter after replacing parts, because in the official repair quotation of BMW i3, the coolant conversion valve costs 4,640 yuan each, and this does not include labor costs. The overall cost is definitely more than 5,000 yuan. If the repair cost is 5,000 yuan every winter in the future, I believe no car owner can accept it.

Because of this, some car owners hope that BMW will extend the national warranty for the entire vehicle for one year, and the national warranty for the parts for three years, and at the same time compensate with a BMW electric car Changyue maintenance package and a 10,000 yuan voucher in the store. Unfortunately, BMW currently has no official remedy for the leakage problem of the BMW i3 model, and only allows consumers to have it repaired or replaced at the 4S store.

In fact, it is reasonable for the BMW i3 to have such problems, because it is a completely oil-to-electric product. In fact, many people do not have a strong perception of oil-to-electric conversions. It seems that for consumers, there is not much difference between oil-to-electric models and pure electric platform models. It is nothing more than a little uglier opening the hood and a higher sitting position, but in essence, there is a big difference.

As we all know, the conversion from oil to electricity is to hollow out the engine compartment and directly insert the three-electric system into the vehicle. This involves many design issues, such as the antifreeze leakage of the BMW i3 this time.

For gasoline vehicles, antifreeze is actually mainly used to maintain the temperature of the engine and ensure that it runs in a high-efficiency range. But for electric vehicles, the entire battery, motor, wiring pipes, and cockpit air conditioning all require the addition of antifreeze. This means that gasoline-to-electric models can only expand the number of coolant interfaces (most gasoline-to-electric coolant interfaces exceed 5). The increase in circulation pipelines increases the risk of coolant leakage, and the requirements for quality control and assembly quality are also higher. However, the coolant components of the BMW i3 do not meet such high standards, resulting in leakage naturally occurring when the temperature drops.

In fact, the same thing also occurred on a large scale on the 2021 Mercedes-Benz EQC model. It has to be said that in terms of the level of oil-to-electric conversion, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are indeed good brothers who have loved and hated each other for many years. Domestic manufacturers also had many oil-to-electric models in the early years, but leakage problems rarely occurred (perhaps due to their experience).

However, BMW's pure electric platform is ready to go next year. I hope that BMW can introduce some remedial measures to reassure these BMW i3 owners based on protecting its own brand's reputation in new energy.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.