BMW Sued for i3 Electric Car's Unexpected Performance Drop Off
A new lawsuit alleges that BMW i3 electric cars can suddenly slow down when their battery power is low, potentially putting passengers in dangerous situations.
Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the class-action suit alleges that the i3’s “range extender feature ... doesn’t produce enough power to prevent a dramatic decrease in the vehicle’s performance. As alleged, if the car is under any kind of significant load (such as going up a hill, or loaded with passengers), the speed of the car will dramatically decrease as the battery charge diminishes,” according to a press release from plaintiff attorney Jonathan Michaels of Newport Beach, Calif.
A BMW spokesman said the automaker does not comment on active litigation.
The optional two-cylinder range-extender gasoline engine produces 34 horsepower, and switches on when the battery charge depletes to 6 percent – giving the vehicle another 70 miles of range.
However, the lawsuit alleges that, when low on battery power, the i3’s gasoline engine forces the car to slow to speeds of 45 miles per hour, without warning. If driving on the freeway, or passing another vehicle on a two-lane road, that sudden deceleration could prove dangerous, the suit alleges.
Consumer Reports found this problem on our 2014 BMW i3 test car. One of our drivers was passing a truck on a hilly road and acceleration fell off dramatically, increasing the exposure to oncoming traffic.
In low-battery state we also measured a 0-60 mph acceleration time that ranged from 27 to 40 seconds—as opposed to 9 seconds in normal range-extending mode. When the car is running purely on fully-charged electric power, it sprints to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds.
When contacted by Consumer Reports in 2014, a BMW spokesman said that an enhancement would come in spring 2015 that would include a battery state-of-charge indicator, an early alert prior to potentially experiencing a temporary loss of power, and a proactive boosting of the battery level based on the car’s navigation prior to encountering hilly terrain. This enhancement was also retrofit for existing i3 owners.
After the software update on our i3, we found the change still didn’t address the possibility of a sudden power reduction, as BMW claimed it would.
The lawsuit seeks to have the vehicles redesigned and repaired at BMW’s expense, and to halt the sale of all i3 vehicles until repairs can be made. The claim also seeks compensation for all the owners of the vehicles, who were not told of the potentially serious safety issue.
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