In June I took the family for a test drive in a BMW i3 as the PCP for our Renault ZOE was into its last few months. I had had two i3 drives in the previous couple of years, with cars from BMW at Warwick and Milton Keynes, but this was a chance for the rest of the family to try it out.

We arranged the test drive at our local BMW dealer this time, Wollaston BMW in Northampton. As well as the i3 charging up ready for our drive it was nice to see an i8, the i3’s pricier brother.

I had a good drive, as did my wife, and neither of us could see any objections. Our daughters also seemed happy with the ride, and the eldest felt that it was bigger in the back than our ZOE. That may partly be due, of course, to the i3 having just two seats in the back rather than three.

We took the i3 home as Wollaston had given us a generous time allowance for the test (about two hours). It looked good on the drive, but the main purpose was to confirm that it fitted fine in the garage and that it was happy to charge on the Chargemaster charge point installed for the ZOE.

We had a good look around the car. The boot is a bit smaller than we’d like, certainly smaller than that in the ZOE, but unlike in the ZOE the rear seatback splits allowing for some flexibility when carrying large loads with just three people.

The i3 has a ‘froot’ – the UK ‘front boot’ equivalent of the US Tesla’s ‘frunk’ or ‘front trunk’ – but it’s not large enough for most purposes. It does, however, handily take the usual car-specific bits – warning triangle, first aid kit, charging cable, etc. – that would otherwise be rolling around the boot. It exists, of course, because the i3 is rear-wheel drive.

Overall the i3 was a big hit, and we ordered one for the family soon after; we went for the longer-range i3 94Ah but that’s a story for another day.