All good things must come to an end. This month, one of the most remarkable cars ever to get the green light for mass production will roll off a German assembly line for the last time. The BMW i3 – the car that promised to put its maker at the forefront of the electric revolution – officially reaches the end of the road after an incredible nine-year production run. 

In the cold hard light of day, the decision to end i3 production makes perfect sense. If we take emotion out of the equation here, there’s simply not a business case for cranking out a small £34,000 electric car with a 38kWh battery, 50kW rapid charging and a production cost that is almost certainly double that of any other car in your line up. 

And while the i3’s sales curve has risen gently over the last nine years, the numbers just didn’t stack up. BMW produced 250,000 i3s in total with the quarter millionth car built earlier this month. That’s an impressive number for such as unusual car, but when you consider that Tesla sold 293,000 Model 3s in just the last three months of 2021 (taking chunks out of BMW’s 3-Series market share in the process), you can understand why BMW bosses have opted to put the i3 out to pasture. 

But somehow the i3’s demise is more than just the story of a car reaching the end of its life. It’s bigger than that. Just as aviation and flight times took a backward step when Concorde went out of service in 2003, the car world is a poorer place without the i3. 

The final i3 will roll off the production line in Germany this month

Let’s look at the evidence, starting with the carbon composite body shell. So light (150kg) that two people could lift it, yet so strong that BMW didn’t need to fit a stabilising central pillar. Lightness would be the key to efficiency, BMW said at the time. But here we are, nine years on and we’re building two and half tonne family hatchbacks out of steel and wondering why we need to bolt in 80kWh batteries to deliver a decent range.

It doesn’t end there. The i3’s featherweight plastic body panels absorb minor blows and will never, ever, rot. The bicycle thin wheels minimise rolling resistance and slice through the air like a scalpel, while its narrow frame means every parking space – even those multi-storey car park ones with a concrete pillar taking up 20 percent of the bay – are fair game. 

Then there’s the interior which I don’t think has been bettered by any car manufacturer since. From the layout to the materials used, the i3’s cabin still feels like a car from the future. Although I drive a Hyundai IONIQ 5 for longer hauls these days (an incredible car by any standards), the driving position, material quality and ergonomics are all better in the BMW. If my garage was on fire and I could only save one car, it would be the i3. 

The i3's carbon composite frame is so light (150kg) it can be lifted by two people

Of course, the parallels between the i3 and Concorde don’t stop with the fact that neither are around any more. Both were financial millstones around their respective maker’s necks. Heaven knows how many millions of euros BMW has lost on the i3 over the years but the total will be eye-watering. When you consider that the A2 lost Audi around €1.2bn* and smart cost Mercedes €3.3bn, one can only manage the financial carnage the i3 created. Building a single car on a bespoke platform with only a handful of common components with your other cars is just about the easiest way to lose money. 

History has proven that being the first to market is no guarantee of success. When it comes to technology, getting to market first just gives your competitors the chance to see how you did it. Just as the iPhone signed the death warrant for the BlackBerry, BMW has seen its advantage and reputation in the electric car arena evaporate completely. Ask a non car person to name a German car brand that sells electric cars and they’ll probably say Audi - a brand that until 2019 didn’t even have a battery car on its books. 

The i3's interior features a pillar-less frame and a host of recycled materials

I’m happy to confess that I’m a hopeless romantic when it comes to the i3, but I know I’m not alone. I’ve conversed with i3 owners in Europe and the US via our social platforms and we’re all united in our love for this oddball creation. It’s a car with soul - clearly born in environment where designers rather than accountants and marketing types got to make all the big decisions. Yes, it looks as though it was designed by two people who never actually met and the rear suicide doors are a pain in the backside if you regularly have rear seat passengers coming and going, but like a three-legged dog or a teddy bear that’s lost an eye, the i3 had a charm and appeal that was more than skin deep. 

What’s more, i3 owners appear to be a very happy bunch. There’s no cult mentality, no ‘everything else is rubbish’ vision of the electric car world. I’ve met some lovely i3 owners at charging points over the last four years – all of whom seem to share the same approach to life. 

The demise of the i3 leaves many electric car buyers in something of a pickle. As many have told us via our social media channels, the i3 has no obvious successor. Few i3 owners have much an appetite for the i4 or the iX1. Fewer still want to to join the massed ranks of Tesla owners. I know exactly how they feel. If, by some miracle, BMW announced next week that the end of production was all some ghastly mistake and that they were reinstating it with a 250 mile range and 200kW rapid charging, my IONIQ 5 would be in the classifieds within the hour. But it won’t happen, of course. The end is nigh and we should all just be glad that it existed in the first place. 

Danke und auf Wiedersehen, freund.