BMW pulled the plug on the i3 in the United States back in 2021, but here we are, three years later, and the diminutive hatchback still shows up in the sales charts. Q1 2024 results are out, and these reveal someone bought the quirky EV in the first three months of the year. It’s particularly weird because production of the i3 ended in mid-2022, after nine years and 250,000 cars assembled.
Although production of the US-spec i3 ended in July 2021, there was still one unsold car, waiting for a new buyer to drive it home. The EV finally changed hands at one point during the first quarter of this year. It’s worth noting that BMW didn’t sell any in 2023 in the United States and only nine vehicles in 2022, which makes it even more of a surprise that one shows up now in the sales charts.
We can only imagine the buyer got a nice discount considering that the i3 must have been sitting on the dealer’s lot for a long time. Logic tells us the seller was eager to get rid of the car and offered the customer a good deal to take the i3 off their hands. Before being dropped from the US, the base i3 retailed from $45,445 for the 2021 model year, followed by the i3s at $48,645, the i3 with range extender at $49,295, and the i3s with range extender from $52,495.
In 2024, BMW sadly doesn’t have an equivalent entry-level EV in its lineup. A direct replacement for the i3 is unlikely to come out until 2027 or 2028 as the rumored i1 on the Neue Klasse platform. Meanwhile, the company’s cheapest EV is the iX1 but the electric crossover is not sold in the US. The closest thing to an iX1 is the new electric MINI Countryman from $46,195.
Although the i3 hatchback was retired globally in 2022, BMW uses this alphanumeric moniker in China where it builds and sells an electric version of the long-wheelbase 3 Series Sedan.
Source: BMW
