BMW Just Set The Date For i3 Sedan Reservations, And It Came Early
i3
The 463-hp, 440-mile electric 3 Series goes up for reservation a week early. The price is still a secret.
BMW of North America will open US reservations for the new i3 sedan on September 29 at 6:01 PM Eastern. Owners who registered on BMW USA’s site for i3 updates received an email in their inbox today. The email invites readers to mark their calendars so we expect dealers to get the full ordering details very soon. The date is earlier than we expected. Last month, our sources at BMW of North America said the i3 50 xDrive would open for orders in the first half of October. BMW has now moved that forward to the last days of September.
Reservations Are Not Deliveries
To be clear about what opens on September 29: this is a reservation, not a delivery date, and US-spec cars haven’t been built yet. The Munich plant has been making European-spec i3s since August. US production on the same line is set to start in November. The iX3 shows how this is likely to go. BMW USA emailed interested buyers in late April, and iX3 reservations opened on May 6. The next day BMW announced a price of $61,500 plus $1,350 destination and said the SUV would launch in the US on September 25. Buyers reserved through the online configurator with a $1,000 deposit, paid to the retailer they chose. If the i3 follows the same process, and we expect it will, pricing should come right around the reservation opening. With a similar gap between reservation and delivery, the first American i3s would arrive in the first quarter of 2027.
The Neue Klasse i3 (NA0) comes to the US in one version at launch, the i3 50 xDrive. It has two motors making 463 hp, a 108.7-kWh battery, and up to 440 miles of EPA-estimated range. DC fast charging peaks at 400 kW. The car comes with a NACS port so it can use Tesla Superchargers without an aftermarket adapter. A cheaper i3 40 xDrive and a performance-focused i3 M60 xDrive will come later.
Let’s look at the iX3 SUV first. The iX3 50 xDrive has the same output and nearly the same range, and it starts at $61,500 before destination. Sedans usually cost a few thousand dollars less than their crossover versions, so we’d expect the i3 to start under $60,000. In comparison, a Tesla Model 3 Premium RWD costs about $42,500. The Mercedes CLA 250+ with EQ Technology starts at $47,250 with an EPA-rated 374 miles. So BMW has to stay competitive on pricing, even though tech-wise, they seem to be ahead of the competition. We will find out more on September 29.
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