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The BMW i3 Year One Celebration in underway across America with various dealerships hosting events, and local owners getting together to celebrate the one year anniversary of the launch of the i3 in the US. JMK BMW in Springfield, NJ had a good showing The idea for the Anniversary Event began with a conversation back in February between a few i3 owners in the BMW i3 Facebook group. Roman Vazquez actually was the one who first thought of having an official nationwide i3 anniversary celebration. At first the thought was that we'd pick a day and coordinate local meets for i3 owners to get together. We've done similar meets like this before, where we get together in a parking lot somewhere, but Roman thought meeting at a dealership might be interesting. The idea quickly expanded to, "How about we try to get dealerships across the country to host an event?" Crevier BMW in Southern California had the largest turnout with over 200 people in attendance! Photo credit to Harr...

One of the things many of us EV drivers are guilty of, is plugging in whenever we have the opportunity to. We may not even need the extra range, but if there is an available 240V EVSE, or even a simple 120V outlet, and we're going to be at that location for a while, it's just too tempting not to plug in and grab some electrons while we're there. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I wonder how many i3 owners know their car records everywhere you've plugged in and stores the exact location? I've known this for a while now because a few months ago one of the readers here sent me an email pointing it out because it almost got him in trouble but I'll get back to that later in the post. I'm bringing this up now because I had to bring my car in for service for BMW to inspect something. I'm beta testing new i3 software which will be released to the public in a few months so if I see anything out of the ordinary they want to check it out. So I droppe...

Manny and me when I took delivery of my i3 back in May. Some of you may recognize the name because Manny Antunes was my client advisor for my ActiveE and my i3. He works at JMK BMW in Springfield and has established himself as the go-to guy for BMW i cars in the New Jersey area and has sold more i3s than anybody on the East Coast. Well he just delivered another one, but this time he was not only the client advisor, but also the client! While Manny has always been a strong supporter of BMW i and the i3, he never let on to me that he would be interested in getting his own i3. He's an ///M specialist (his Twitter name is m5manny) and I don't think even he thought he would get his own i3 until recently. The first hint that he may be interested was the day my i3 was delivered to JMK. It was the first time he saw an i3 in Laurel Grey in person and I could see how he was staring at it. It was a lustful type of a stare and he even made a remark (I can't remember exactly what he sai...

My i3 REx in front of my house with my 8.775 kW solar array in view  In a surprising turn of events, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) reversed a previous decision to exclude the i3 REx from the States Tax exemption for zero emission vehicles. This hopefully ends the nearly six month saga from the time it was originally thought the range extended version would indeed qualify, to the announcement shortly after the launch that it would not. I actually found out a few days after I bought my car that it would not qualify, and I would have to pay $3,921.00 in sales tax. This was totally unexpected and would have actually made the range extender nearly an $8,000 option for me! As much as I love having it, I wouldn't have agreed to pay that much for it had I known the effective cost would be so high. For $3,875 I think it's fairly priced. But $7,800? No way! I even dedicated a blog post to this issue back in May when the surprising (bad) news was announced...

My i3 REx. Will it now cost me $3,900 more than my contract calls for? It what can only be categorized as a major misstep, BMW of North America has announced that the i3 with range extender is not tax exempt in the state of New Jersey as what was previously reported. Back on January 27th, BMW of North America manager of Electric Vehicle sales and strategy Jacob Harb told his client advisers on a conference call that the i3 REx would be treated as a zero emission vehicle in New Jersey, and qualify for the state's Zero Emission tax exemption . That was big news at the time for New Jersey residents including myself, and was one of the final deciding factors for me to actually choose the REx version over the BEV i3. "The sales tax exemption in NJ only applies to zero-emission vehicles--and as such, does not apply to the i3 with range-extender as it does not apply currently to any vehicle with an internal combustion engine."... "Any assumption that the i3 with range-e...

My client adviser, Manny Antunes and I with my i3 This afternoon I took delivery of the first i3 REx in the US. BMW of North America was kind enough to arrange it so I'd have the very first one delivered in North America, and I would like to thank them for that. It's been a long, fantastic journey for me. Five years in BMW's e-mobility trial lease program and over 140,000 electric miles driven on my MINI-E and ActiveE has led up to me finally getting the first real production EV from BMW. This has been a long time coming and I'm very anxious to see how the i3 performs and report on it here and on other websites. I'm sure there will be things I feel need improvement, but I do expect to thoroughly enjoy the car for what it is. BMW NA CEO Ludwig Willisch handing me the keys to the first all electric BMW in company history.             January 13th, 2011 Manny Antunes, my client adviser at JMK BMW delivered the first i3 BEV in the ...

It's -2 degrees F here in Canada and I'm talking BMW i3 at Budd's BMW in Oakville! I've written a few posts on my blogs about how poorly many dealerships have done when it comes to selling their electric car offerings. I blasted Nissan and GM pretty good a while back and had hoped that BMW would learn from the mistakes the other OEM's made when they rolled their EV's into their dealers' showrooms. However I'm starting to wonder if that will be the case. Electric cars are different in so many ways. If the sales team isn't prepared for the onslaught of questions that they are going to get hit with as soon as the i3 becomes available to order, then it will not only hurt sales of the i3 but it will certainly tarnish the BMW brand image. BMW dealers will have an even tougher time than the other brands had in my opinion because the i3 isn't just an electric car, it really is a revolutionary vehicle. Besides the typical EV questions about the car's...

One of the i3's at JMK before they needed to take it off the showroom floor to use for test drives. I'd guess at least 50 test drives were given during the day. Manny Antunes, JMK BMW client adviser and BMW i3 specialist admitted he was overwhelmed with the amount of people that came to check out and drive the i3's the dealership had for the day last Thursday. BMW gave JMK two i3's for the day and the original plan was to leave one on the showroom floor and use the other one for test drives. However as soon as the day began it became clear they needed both cars for test drives because there were so many people there that signed up to drive an i3. Manny did a great job and was at it all day. He didn't even stop for lunch as there was a line of people waiting all day for test drives. Manny Antunes & I after a long day The problem was, once they took the car off the showroom floor there was nothing there for the people waiting for their turn to test drive one to lo...

  On Thursday, January 16th, (tomorrow) JMK BMW in Springfield NJ is hosting a "Get to know the BMW i3" event from 10:00am to 7:00pm. For most, it will be the very first time they have the opportunity to actually see the i3 in person and test drive it. JMK client adviser and i3 product specialist Manny Antunes will be there to answer questions and take reservations on the spot if you decide to order an i3 while you are there. I have been working with JMK to help prepare them for the coming i brand cars and have already ordered my i3 through JMK. I appreciate that JMK recognizes that these cars are different, and will elicit different questions and concerns from their potential buyers so I have personally tried to help prepare them for these potential issues. It's encouraging that they understand this and have reached out to make sure they can offer the best possible customer experience and service.  That is why I recommend considering JMK if you are from the area and cons...