Since May 2025, when I first began looking into cars before our move to the UK, I had my eyes on the i3.
This was very typical of me—I was attracted to something quite impractical, a bit off, and irrational. I was like this with my first car, when I chose the Golf Cabriolet. It was a fancy and overpriced Golf that had a convertible top. Mind you, I chose to own a convertible in Michigan, which meant I wasn’t able to have the top down 75% of the year. It was incredibly impractical. I then changed to a Civic, thinking that I would enjoy being practical and frugal. Nope. I couldn’t stand it. I was lying to myself. And I ended up splurging on a Toyota MR-2, a rear-engine convertible 2-seater, again, in Michigan.
And when we first got married, I forced my wife to own a 198x Mini Cooper. When we got the car, the first stop we had to make was not home. It was a garage, because it broke the moment we took it on the road. The air con worked only in the winter. It had no power steering.
And I thought after 27 years I would be more mature, more practical, more down to earth. So I told myself to give up on the idea of owning the i3. I told myself we didn’t have a home charger and hence it was not practical to own an EV. We opted for two Toyotas, and the one I got was a 7-seater 2018 Verso. This was such a utilitarian revenge, a major repentance, to all those years I have sinned for owning lavish convertibles.
I couldn’t stand it.
And so I manufactured reasons to justify myself to revive this desire to own the i3. I explored home EV charging rebates. I asked AI to prop me up and support me (which they always do with strategic prompting). Then I found the exact color I wanted. I lied to myself about the numbers. I took a big loss in trading in my peasant Verso. And now, I own an i3.
Before I continue, I want to make sure I put this down. I know everything I am about to say will have a strong hint of self-justification. I also am fully aware of my inability to square the tension between my deep-rooted desire to own expensive and impractical things and my own harsh criticism of this weakness of mine. I want to enjoy myself and I dislike myself for it. Anyway, let’s carry on.
EVs are great. I can’t believe it took me so long to jump onto the EV bandwagon. They are so smooth to drive. They are powerful and punchy and quiet. The i3 has so many quirks and opinionated design choices. Charging is much easier than I thought. I have been able to charge and live with it using only a 3-pin granny 3kW charger. The thing is, I drive 70 miles daily, and I have no issues with range and battery anxiety, even though I am only using the granny charger. It is quite incredible.
It is also quite frustrating to realize that there is so much incomplete information about EV ownership. It’s actually very simple and practical for most people to own an EV, yet even during my research I didn’t come across most of it. I thought I would need to balance at-home charging and street charging in order to make things work. I thought I would need a purpose-built home fast charger. Even the discussions on the environmental impacts of EVs versus ICEs are so fraught. Argh.
I love driving in my car. It’s beautiful. It feels modern. It makes me feel I am being very responsible to mankind. It’s a great feeling.
But this car is not without its flaws. The suicide doors are just plain stupid. It’s so inconvenient. I wish the internet illustrated this more clearly. It’s a 4-seater. It has very little trunk space. Its audio control and the iDrive is dumb.
But I love it, no matter how impractical it objectively is, just like how I loved my Cabriolet and my MR-2, just like how I loved my British green Mini. no matter how impractical they were.
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