Sad times: production of the BMW i3 has finally ended

The innovative little BMW i3 has been on the chopping block for a while now, but that doesn’t make BMW’s announcement that production has ended any easier to take. 

Yep, eight and a half years after it was launched, the i3 is now finally dead. BMW says just a few days ago it built the 250,000th example in Leipzig, before the final ten cars were treated to a special HomeRun edition spec. 

The HomeRun editions get new Frozen Dark Grey or Frozen Red II paint finishes, 20-inch wheels and pretty every i3 option under the sun. Sounds like there were some parts bins to clear out. That means an electric glass roof, adaptive LED headlights, ‘Vernasca Dark Truffle’ heated leather seats, a leather instrument panel, a rear-view camera, wireless charging, a Harman Kardon speaker system and much more.

Sounds brilliant, right? Well, sadly you can’t have one. All of the HomeRun editions are sold and each customer was invited to see their car being built at the factory. Nice touch. 

So what of the factory in Leipzig? Well, BMW says that it’ll continue to build electric cars and their components. Won’t be futuristic carbon and aluminium rear-wheel drive city cars built with a load of recyclable and sustainable materials, though, will they? Nope. In fact one of them will be a new all-electric Mini Countryman. Yawn…