As of: March 28, 2024, 4:59 a.m
By: Christoph Peters
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Peter Reiz's joy about his new E-Mini doesn't last long. Because the Stromer doesn't go as far as promised, the Altenstadt-based company wants to sue BMW. The manufacturer is calm.
Altenstadt – The blue Mini Cooper SE that’s parked in Peter Reiz’s driveway looks great. The Altenstadt resident still thinks it’s a nice car. If it weren't for the problem with the range of his electric vehicle.
Peter Reiz in front of his E-Mini. Because he doesn't drive as far as promised, the Altenstadt resident wants to sue BMW. © Hans-Helmut Herold
The 74-year-old consciously decided to get an electric car
The 74-year-old decided to buy the Mini two years ago. Before that, he drove a BMW for years, says the Altenstadt native, who used to work for the Munich car manufacturer for a long time. He wanted to remain true to that. “A Mini is also a BMW,” he said with a wink. Reiz only broke new ground when it came to the type of drive – a conscious decision. “I think electric cars are the future.” With a photovoltaic system in his own house, he had the perfect conditions to charge an electric car cheaply with electricity he generated himself.
According to the manufacturer's configurator, the Mini should travel 230 kilometers - a range that the pensioner and his wife could easily live with. The appeal was calculated to be enough for everyday routes in the region and also to sometimes drive to Munich and back. While looking for the car he wanted, he found what he was looking for at a dealer on Lake Chiemsee. Delivery took place in March 2023.
Far less range than promised: electric car driver wants to sue BMW
But the issue of range was something like that from the start, says the 74-year-old. Instead of 230 kilometers, the fully charged car usually only traveled between 160 and 180 kilometers. Things got even worse when winter came and temperatures dropped. The car did not show a range of more than 140 kilometers, and in some cases it was only 120 kilometers.
The result: The journeys home from the state capital regularly turned into a nightmare. Once, in desperation because the battery was almost empty, Reiz drove to a gas station 20 kilometers from his destination. “But they didn’t have a charging station. So I crept home at 20 km/h. That's actually not what I imagine a BMW to be like." Another time in Hohenfurch, the Mini completely ran out of steam, so that the Altenstadter had to be towed away in the last few meters.
Altenstadter turns to the BMW CEO
The fact that electric cars consume more in the cold season than in the summer is of course not an exception, but the rule. Heating for the battery and interior in particular drains the battery and thus the range. “Maybe I was a little naïve,” admits Reiz. But a car that only travels 120 kilometers instead of the promised 230? For the Altenstadt native there is a world of difference between manufacturer information and reality.
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So the 74-year-old contacted the branch where he bought the car and described the problem. “Something was done to the car a few times, but it didn’t help.” The Altenstadt resident then wrote to the BMW chairman. As expected, he didn't answer in person, but the angry customer was given an appointment at a BMW car dealership in Landsberg to test the car. The result: Reiz was told that everything was fine with the battery. He never denied that, “they didn’t say anything about the range.”
But the Altenstadt resident doesn't want to be satisfied with that. He has hired a well-known law firm and wants to sue BMW for reimbursement of the purchase price. It remains to be seen whether he will be successful.
This is what BMW says about the case
“There is no guaranteed range or guaranteed consumption from the manufacturer for the operation of automobiles in real operation for an individual customer. Neither for petrol and diesel models, nor for electrically powered cars. And neither for MINI nor for any other brand on the market”: This is what the BMW press office announced when we described Peter Reiz’s case. Sales partners could also only report experiences to customers, for example from other customers.
As a benchmark for comparing different car models, BMW refers to the information on consumption and range based on the statutory WLTP cycle. “Every customer vehicle must achieve the published WLTP values for the respective model if it goes through exactly the prescribed test program. That also applies to this case.”
However, it is not possible to accurately predict the consumption of an individual customer vehicle based on these results, "since this is massively influenced by the individual circumstances (driving profile, driving style, use of additional consumers, special equipment, outside temperature, inside temperature, ...) for physical reasons."
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