BMW i3 Mods – Changing Your German EV for Better

If you have a BMW car, you will probably be satisfied with how it goes and what level of comfort it offers. But the sky is the limit, right? We always want something better and more comfortable, we quickly get used to what we already have and start finding some disadvantages and problems in this.

EV upgrades highlights

• Commonreasons:range extension, battery modification, more comfort
• Average prices:$500 - $4,500
• Average waiting time:1 - 4 days
• Common problems:unknown battery life, low-quality aftermarket parts
• DIY mods:impossible
• Level of satisfaction:high

The BMW i3 accessories you can easily buy

Modifying your vehicle is not always hard and it's not always going to be some custom-made part that will cost you a fortune. Sometimes, you will just need to look at the original accessories to see if you can find something cool that you've always wanted to install in your BMW i3.

And you should know that BMW is the company that offers a lot of accessories with one common problem - they cost so much that it seems these Germans make them of gold or platinum. So, of course, you will find hundreds of aftermarket accessories that are more available and much worse in terms of quality and design.

Here are some ideas:

1. Side lighting. You can find electric blue side lighting which will make your BMW i3 stand out. It's not hard to install and connect the accessory.
2. Rear sunshades. This thing is applied to the rear window of your EV and it prevents sunbeams from warming up the interior of your car. This will save you some energy on the work of AC.
3. Colorful extras for the exterior. The BMW i3's exterior may look much fresher if you get a special grille with colorful plastic elements, special brightly-colored inserts for the side of the vehicle, etc.
4. Trunk accessories. Well, these are very simple, but given the trunk in your i3 is very small, they are probably necessary for good driving and practical use of your German electric vehicle.
5. Floor mats. Unfortunately, the original floor mats that came with your i3 when it was new are not very durable. So, you can buy all-weather floor mats that will also be stylish and will have the color of the exterior inserts.
6. Turbo chargers and cable managers. If you want to charge your electric vehicle with more comfort, you should look at the original charging accessories for your BMW.

But all these original BMW products are surprisingly expensive. For example, you can get a TurboCord Charger for about $500 and the Onboard Bag will cost you $110. Of course, you can go to AliExpress and order something there, but don't expect your Chinese purchase will be of very high quality.

So, what we offer is to research and find some US-made products that are not as expensive as the original German accessories and offer a better range of things you can buy. Unfortunately, this is not the most popular vehicle in the US, so the range will still be a little short.

Technical modifications - can you change something?

Careful! We don't recommend reprogramming your BMW i3 by yourself even if you know what you are doing. This is a very computer-dependent vehicle and you can break everything after making one careless move.

But if you know some guys in a BMW repair shop or in a club of BMW owners who have successfully reprogrammed their i3s, you can try. First of all, we would recommend going to professionals only.

So, you can change the following:

• all pre-set parameters that decide how your vehicle reacts to any action on your side;
• all automatic features like climate control, locks, lighting patterns, etc.;
• all safety features that are sometimes so annoying in European vehicles;
• any restrictions that are made artificially by the vehicle manufacturer;
• any other important options that may be closed or disabled in your vehicle.

Unfortunately, changing the power, torque, and all other important features is impossible. You can still change the acceleration pattern if you are a skilled automobile programmer. Because in your i3, the acceleration and the top speed are limited by a special program and they can be changed.

Also, by reprogramming your BMW, you may open those features and options that are usually available to the owners of more expensive i3 trims. Interested? This is a feature of the European vehicles - they program your car so that it has a certain set of options for your trim.

Interior mods for your BMW i3

Even if you love your BMW i3 really much, you will hate its interior after one year of use or something like that. You will find your $60K car doesn't have some options that a usually $25K gas-powered hatchback has. For example, the manual seats will bother you much and the problem is that you won't do much with that.

But the biggest issue is that the BMW i3 is not a very popular vehicle compared to other EVs, so it's not going to have a lot of accessories offered on the market. And if you want to add something, you will need to order it from somebody who can create a custom-built accessory for solving your problems. And you know that it's going to be expensive.

Here's what we would change in this vehicle:

• lack of heated objects in your interior - for example, a heated steering wheel would be a nice idea;
• manual seats are just a shame for a vehicle that costs like a spaceship;
• sun visors are said to be very bad in use, they just don't help you at all;
• dash material really sucks, well, yes, it's very environmental, but it looks like the car should cost $10K or something;
• the interior will sound really bad - we mean it's going to rattle and squeak every time you go over an uneven spot of the road;
• rear windows don't open and it's not a big deal until you want to drive with open front windows and hear impossible bumps of air behind you.

Well, the BMW i3 is not an ideal car with its interior that is full of strange decisions. Yes, it's still a very efficient electric vehicle for city driving, but you will want to change a lot. And you know what? You will not have the chance of changing even half of the problems we've just said about.

The problem is that the market can't offer you any good accessories or products to deal with the problems. And this is what makes the i3 so different from a Tesla, for example.

Please get us right. This vehicle is not bad at all and it really competes with all the EV markets to be one of the best EVs for city driving. But some decisions are just unexpected for a BMW car.

What's with cheap Chinese accessories?

You can get a huge amount of different accessories from AliExpress or any other website selling cheap Chinese things. But think twice before you do that. Now, you are driving a luxurious German electric vehicle which is one of the most expensive in its class. It's a BMW car every part of which is made and assembled in highly reputable countries.

But if you install a Chinese accessory, you will get a couple of problems:

• these cheap things may stink because they are made of very cheap plastic;
• the accessories may not match the places they are meant to be installed;
• all these goods are going to be broken soon and you'll have to get rid of them;
• they don't solve your problems but add some troubles making things only worse;
• they may seem to be cheap, but actually, they aren't worth the money you pay for them.

So, frankly speaking, we wouldn't buy those "cheap" accessories from unknown brands because they usually disappoint with their quality and durability. If you buy a BMW i3, you should be ready to put up with some problems.

Final words

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to modify your BMW i3. This is the vehicle that will probably remain at the same level as you first saw at a BMW dealer. Instead of trying to modify your EV, you should save some money to buy a new battery when the old one fails. This is probably the most expensive thing in your vehicle and no aftermarket products will suit the i3.