BMW is calling time on its i3 and celebrating the model’s nine-year run with a handful of special Home Run Editions. Just 10 units have been built, each based on an all-electric i3S finished in Frozen Dark Gray or Frozen Red II paint from BMW’s Individual personalization program. Home Run cars also get 20-in double-spoke wheels, an electric glass sunroof with solar control glazing and adaptive headlights.
Interior details include Vernasca Dark
Truffle upholstery, a leather instrument panel, Carum Grey headliner and
ambient lighting, plus heated seats, Park Distance Control, BMW Professional
navigation and a Harmon Kardon Hi-Fi. The 10-unit run has already been produced
and sold, with BMW commenting that Home Run buyers were able to watch their
cars being constructed in the assembly hall at BMW Plant Leipzig.
The i3 was one of the pioneers of the
modern electric age and only earlier this week the 250,000th example rolled off
the Leipzig, Germany, plant where production began in 2013. BMW says that makes
it the world’s most successful EV in the premium compact segment, although
let’s face it, there hasn’t been an awful lot of competition.
Though small in stature, the i3 wasn’t
particularly small in price, and not only due to the cost of its electric
hardware. The 4 m EV consisted of an aluminum chassis and drive module
and the kind of carbon-fiber passenger cell normally only found on high-end
supercars. Some cars also featured an innovative interior built using recycled
materials, and BMW offered a choice of pure EV and range-extender hybrid
powertrains.
U.S. sales of the i3 ended in 2021, but
the close of i3 production for the rest of the world doesn’t mean the end of
the Leipzig plant. The factory had already begun making high-voltage battery
modules for other BMW vehicles starting in May 2021, and from 2023 it will be
the production base for the next-generation Mini Countryman, including that
car’s EV variant.
