BMW pulls the plug on the i3: production stops after ten years

Created: 2022-01-28Updated: 2022-01-28, 2:45 p.m

By: Simon Mones

In 2013, BMW started i3 production in Leipzig.

After ten years, however, it's over.

Munich – The year is 2011: With the i8, BMW is presenting a plug-in hybrid sports car.

Two years later, in September 2013, the first fully electric BMW i3 rolled off the assembly line in Leipzig.

But the demand for the compact electric car was limited in the early years.

In the media, the electronic pioneer is already being dubbed a slow seller.

We now know that BMW was simply way ahead of its time with the i3 and thus shared a fate similar to that of Audi with the A2.

However, BMW did not stop production, so you had to wait a long time for more electric cars from the former pioneer.

In the meantime, the people of Munich are also fully committed to electrification, but also with hybrid models and conventional cars such as the 4 series and its Stromer version i4.

(Pope Francis is now driving a BMW i3: publicity stunt or divine providence?)

BMW pulls the plug on the i3: production stops after ten years

Nevertheless, BMW pulled the plug on the i8 in 2020 and stopped production after 20,500 units.

Meanwhile, the i3 developed from a slow seller to a blockbuster.

In the meantime, BMW has sold almost a quarter of a million copies of the Stromer, as reported by 24auto.de.

BMW stops production of the i3 in June.

©BMW

"The BMW i3, as the world's only all-electric premium vehicle in the compact segment, was able to grow even in its ninth year: With 28,216 vehicles sold, 5.4 percent more BMW i3s were sold than in the previous year," emphasized the Bavarian manufacturer recently.

Nevertheless, BMW is now also pulling the plug on the i3, as reported by Automobilwoche.

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BMW pulls the plug on the i3: iX1 and electric Mini as successors

After ten years, production of the electric car in Leipzig will end in June.

However, there will be no direct successor for the i3.

This is because BMW has new offers with great potential in this segment with the electric Mini and the iX1, as a spokeswoman explained.

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The electric Mini from Oxford is already on the market, and the BMW iX1 built in Regensburg will follow at the end of the year.

And in Leipzig, too, electric cars should continue to roll off the assembly line.

In the future, the Mini Countryman will be produced there, which will also have a fully electric version.

(With material from the dpa) *24auto.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA