MOT Risk Index.co.uk

BMW i3 — MOT statistics 2024

The BMW i3 failed 12.92% of 23,610 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 72.5 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 27% less often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 72.5, 95% CI 70.2–75.0 (100 = national average) 100 72.5 0 200
Index
72.5
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
12.92%
n = 23,610
Dangerous /100
5
national ≈11
Rank
197 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Land Rover Range Rover Sport (index 72.5) — the two published results are 0.0 index points apart.

BMW i3 common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Brakes are well below the reference at 1.0 per 100 tests, against 4.3 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

BMW i3 common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

family vs national — matched to UK vehicles of the same ages — top component groups, per 100 tests. Legend: This family · National avg. Combined labels: family / national average. A gap here reflects how these vehicles are driven, used and maintained as well as how they were built — an MOT defect is a test outcome, not a breakdown.

Component-group comparison table

Each ratio carries a 95% interval. With 6 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Tyres7.66,6077.01.09×1.06–1.11
Visibility4.03,4595.30.75×0.72–0.77
Lamps & electrical1.71,4704.60.37×0.35–0.39
Brakes1.08684.30.23×0.21–0.25
Suspension0.65293.50.17×0.16–0.19
Road Wheels0.54690.22.08×2.04–2.45
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 87,422 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged3.252.541.28×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Direction indicator lamp missing, inoperative or…A direction indicator lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning0.560.600.93×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a…An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction0.310.460.67×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Wiper blade defectiveWiper blade defective0.791.260.63×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre cords visible or damagedA tyre cords visible or damaged0.961.630.59×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Windscreen washers not working or not providing…Windscreen washers not working or not providing sufficient fluid to clear the windscreen0.911.620.56×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Windscreen or window damaged or seriously…Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view1.502.360.64×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements2.683.590.75×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the…Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen0.512.220.23×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down…The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements0.452.570.18×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure

Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.

BMW i3 MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 50.3 per 100 tests; Identification is lowest at 0.4 per 100 tests — the gap is 49.9 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

BMW i3 MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres50.3
Brakes11.3
Non-component advisories4.5
Road Wheels3
Suspension1.2
Identification0.4

Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.

Tyres, brakes and suspension: BMW i3 against cars of the same age

AgePartBMW i3Same age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres5.114.170.94
3 yearsBrakes0.191.77-1.58
3 yearsSuspension0.110.63-0.52
4 yearsTyres5.064.540.52
4 yearsBrakes0.392.43-2.04
4 yearsSuspension0.221.21-0.99
5 yearsTyres5.35.060.24
5 yearsBrakes0.513.09-2.58
5 yearsSuspension0.492.19-1.70
6 yearsTyres5.495.54-0.05
6 yearsBrakes0.973.81-2.84
6 yearsSuspension0.663.72-3.06
7 yearsTyres5.475.95-0.48
7 yearsBrakes1.264.55-3.29
7 yearsSuspension0.935.68-4.75
8 yearsTyres5.56.31-0.81
8 yearsBrakes1.355.38-4.03
8 yearsSuspension1.337.78-6.45

Failing items per 100 initial tests, 2019-2024. The comparison group is every petrol or diesel car tested at the same age, so weight and drivetrain show up rather than fleet age.

If a car like this fails, does it fail again?

A failure rate does not say whether a failure is a one-off or the start of something. This follows the same vehicles into their next ordinary MOT a year later — retests after a repair are excluded, because they follow a failure by definition. 2019-2024.

After this year's testFails next yearVehicles followed
It failed15.6%2,019
It passed11.1%54,194

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 4.5 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment — 21.6% of those vehicles fail again next year. Some of this is the vehicle and some is the owner: a car that was let go once tends to be let go again. One caveat: a car that fails may be sold or scrapped rather than tested again, so these figures describe the vehicles that came back.

Adjusted for how much these are actually driven

The headline index adjusts for the fleet's age. Wear, though, follows mileage: a three-year-old taxi and a three-year-old garage queen sit in the same age band. These two rows compare every car with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 86,552 tests. Both stand on the six-year corpus so they are measured on identical data — compare them with each other, not with the headline index above, which is measured on 2024 alone.

Standardised forIndexReading
Age only66.3fails less often than expected
Age and annual mileage73.4fails less often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year11.6%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 7.1 points — this fleet is driven less than the vehicles it is measured against, so the age-only view flatters it — but it does not change which side of normal the car sits on. One limit to keep in mind: mileage is partly a result of how often a car breaks down — one that spends weeks in the workshop covers fewer miles — so the mileage-matched figure can understate a real weakness. Tests with no usable odometer reading are left out of it.

How the BMW i3 compares with cars of its own age and size

Not against the whole fleet — against cars of the same size class tested at the same age, 2019-2024.

AgeBMW i3Same class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years10.54%10.87%-0.33 pp21,404
4 years9.92%13.89%-3.97 pp18,867
5 years10.9%17.43%-6.53 pp15,592
6 years12.42%20.7%-8.28 pp11,749
7 years13.8%23.57%-9.76 pp8,643
8 years14.5%26.81%-12.31 pp5,422
9 years17.03%30.38%-13.35 pp3,242
10 years17.6%33.51%-15.91 pp1,301

Raw first-time failure rates within each age, so fleet age cannot flatter either side. A positive difference means this model fails more often than its own class at that age.

How does the BMW i3 perform as it gets older?

The i3 at age 11 is well below the reference at 19.7%, against 33.2% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the BMW i3 perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–39%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old i3 has roughly a 18% chance of failing its MOT.

Data table
AgeBMW i3All vehiclesGap
312.5%12.4%+0.1 pp
410.3%13.1%-2.8 pp
510.7%15.1%-4.4 pp
611.9%17.5%-5.6 pp
714.5%20.2%-5.7 pp
815.1%23.3%-8.2 pp
917.6%26.5%-8.9 pp
1017.8%30.1%-12.3 pp
1119.7%33.2%-13.5 pp

Is a BMW i3 ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 BMW i3 MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 100.0%.

Based on 23,609 classifiable initial MOT tests. This describes the tested fleet, not a specific car. MOT data do not record Euro class, so likely compliance is inferred from fuel and first-registration date. For the only authoritative answer, check the registration with TfL's official ULEZ checker.

higher = larger share likely compliantinferred from fuel and first-registration date; not a recorded Euro class

Age-band estimate from classifiable initial MOT tests
Vehicle age at testLikely ULEZ-compliant shareTests
Under 3 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 158
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 11,819
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 6,270
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,154
9 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 1,915
10–14 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 1,293
15–17 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
18 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
19 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0

How dangerous are BMW i3 MOT failures?

Major defects are well below the reference at 8.7 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are BMW i3 MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor2.7814.220.20×
Major8.6852.750.16×
Dangerous5.1811.150.46×

Chart values: Minor 2.8 · Major 8.7 · Dangerous 5.2.

Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.

Does the month of a BMW i3 MOT matter?

Jan is highest at 12.8%; Aug is lowest at 10.6% — the gap is 2.3 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a BMW i3 MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 9%–33%.

bars: BMW i3 · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthBMW i3All vehiclesGap
Jan12.81%31.12%-18.3 pp
Feb11.04%29.99%-18.9 pp
Mar11.66%28.26%-16.6 pp
Apr12.54%29.78%-17.2 pp
May11.28%28.79%-17.5 pp
Jun11.06%28.15%-17.1 pp
Jul11.84%29.33%-17.5 pp
Aug10.56%29.2%-18.6 pp
Sep11.22%28.19%-17.0 pp
Oct11.41%30.34%-18.9 pp
Nov12.48%30.58%-18.1 pp
Dec11.7%29.33%-17.6 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 2.3 percentage points — booking month barely matters for this family. Seasonality partly reflects registration-date clustering, not weather.

Before reading the shape: most of it is not about cars. Britain changes its registration plates twice a year, and 18.9% of these cars were first registered in March with another17.1% in September — 36% in two months against the 17% an even spread would give. An MOT falls due three years after first registration, so the buying calendar becomes the testing calendar. That shapes how many cars are tested each month — not how often they fail: the busiest months here are not the worst ones, so read the failure line on its own and the volume behind it separately.

BMW i3 average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of i3s runs from 37,031 miles to 69,845 miles, against 50,700 miles as the median.

further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75

Bars: BMW i3 · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–83k mi.

Does high mileage mean more BMW i3 MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 3–5, 10.8% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 16.3% of those with 70,000–100,000 miles.No clear mileage gap inside this age group, among cars still being tested.

Does high mileage mean more BMW i3 MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
BMW i3: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles10.8%10.2–11.4%9,967
3–540-70k miles12.6%11.1–14.3%1,690
3–570-100k miles16.3%11.1–23.3%141 (rough estimate)
6–9<40k miles10.8%9.9–11.8%4,078
6–940-70k miles14.5%13.5–15.6%4,236
6–970-100k miles20.4%18.5–22.5%1,543
6–9100-140k miles23.4%19.5–27.8%406 (rough estimate)
6–9140k+ miles34.2%24.4–45.7%73 (rough estimate)
10–14<40k miles11%7.9–15%300 (rough estimate)
10–1440-70k miles17.6%14.6–21.1%539
10–1470-100k miles21.5%17.4–26.3%325 (rough estimate)
10–14100-140k miles26.1%18.9–35%111 (rough estimate)

line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
312,13317,80125,4143,561
415,93122,61832,0454,166
520,05929,80241,0924,092
625,65137,00251,8503,091
733,26647,67765,0333,179
837,03150,70069,8452,154
938,73655,71875,4871,915
1041,10259,95678,8511,176
1141,35057,92578,227117

A typical 8-year-old i3 has ~50,700 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the BMW i3 fails its MOT most

Watford area is highest at 21.6%; Dumfries area is lowest at 3.4% — the gap is 18.3 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BMW i3 line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Watford (WD)21.62%+10.0 pp
Dundee (DD)18.5%+6.9 pp
Exeter (EX)17.02%+5.4 pp
Tonbridge (TN)16.6%+5.0 pp
Plymouth (PL)16.55%+4.9 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Dumfries (DG)3.36%-8.3 pp
Doncaster (DN)6.47%-5.1 pp
Oldham (OL)6.67%-4.9 pp
Bromley (BR)6.81%-4.8 pp
London E (E)6.88%-4.7 pp

Why do areas differ?

For each external factor we correlate the area fail rate with the factor across postcode areas that have ≥800 tests of this family, then compare the bottom vs top fifth (quintile) of the factor. Correlation, not causation — factors travel together (the north is colder and often poorer; urban areas are denser and less salted). Road surface condition is joined now, for the 91 English areas the DfT publishes, and it explains nothing: the correlation with suspension failures is −0.01 and with body and structure failures 0.07. Potholes wreck wheels and tyres between tests, but by the time a car reaches the bay the road it drives on leaves no measurable trace.

In areas with the highest terrain gradient this model fails 2.6 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.32, n=24 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest income deprivation this model fails 2.7 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.30, n=39 areas with ≥800 tests).

In the most coastal fifth of areas this model fails 1.9 pp more often than in the most inland fifth (r=-0.25, n=41 areas with ≥800 tests).

BMW i3 Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
Terrain gradient11.7%14.2%+2.5 ppr=0.32
Income deprivation13.0%10.3%-2.7 ppr=-0.30
Distance to coast13.0%11.2%-1.8 ppr=-0.25

Factors that only mean something combined

Some conditions are useless on their own and informative multiplied together. Frost days alone say little — Britain barely freezes. Salt tonnage alone says little — it tracks frost. Distance to the sea alone says little. Multiply the first two and divide by the third and you get an index of how hard an area attacks a car's underside, and it lines up with the corrosion defects we actually record. We built five such combinations and tested each against our own data. Three survived; two did not, and the failures are listed here on purpose — a proxy that was never checked is decoration. One survivor only survived on the second attempt: built from a crude stand-in for street parking it failed outright, and rebuilt from the census — terraced streets carrying more cars than they have driveways — it works, and carries information the salt index does not.

Composite area indicators, each tested against a defect rate we measure
CompositeBuilt fromTested againstrVerdict
Underbody corrosionfrost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1)share of tests with a corrosion defect+0.42holds (116 areas)
Tyre wearrain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisoryshare of tests failing on tyres+0.45holds (116 areas)
Overnight corrosionterraced housing × cars per household × frost daysshare with a corrosion defect+0.41holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index
Deferred maintenancedeprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour ratecars repeating the same advisory−0.26fails (118 areas)
Powertrain stressengine capacity ÷ kerb weightsuspension, brake and emissions failures−0.16fails (22 models)

The deprivation result is the one worth dwelling on. The intuition that poorer areas defer repairs is strong enough that most people treat it as established. We tested it twice — once on raw failure rates (r = 0.04) and again, more fairly, on whether an advisory turns into a failure — and it did not hold any of the three times we tried it — on raw failure rates, on advisory-to-failure conversion, and again with deprivation measured properly inside each nation rather than England alone. We are closing it. What does predict local failure rates is the density of test centres, which is a statement about testing, not about cars.

All external-factor correlations (machine-readable)
Factorrn areasLow-Q fail %High-Q fail %Gap ppLow-Q factorHigh-Q factor
Terrain gradient (% grade)0.3232411.714.2+2.60.63.2
Income deprivation (score)-0.3053913.010.3-2.70.10.2
Distance to coast (km)-0.2544113.011.2-1.99.789
Urban share (0–1)-0.2174113.310.8-2.50.51
Frost days (days/year)0.0434112.012.6+0.611.126.1
MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles)0.0124111.811.7-0.14.77.3
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)-0.0064112.311.4-0.9211.5459.3

Deprivation uses England IMD 2019 income score only (Scotland SIMD is a different scale). Salt proxy is a simplified NWSRG-style dry-salt sum from air Tmin; coastalness is distance from the area centroid to the nearest coastline.

Every dot is a postcode area — size = how many were tested there, colour = share failing. These figures are not age-adjusted: coastal and rural areas often run older fleets and salted roads, so higher raw fail rates do not automatically mean a worse local stock of this model.

Map labels: Scotland · N. England · Wales · London · S. West. Colour scale: 7%–16% failing.

BMW i3 survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 11 is well below the reference at 0.8%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BMW i3 survival: which cars are still on the road — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
321,404100%10.54%
418,867100%9.92%
515,592100%10.9%
611,74976.3%12.42%
78,64356.1%13.8%
85,42235.2%14.5%
93,24221%17.03%
101,3018.4%17.6%
111170.8%19.66%

By age 10, only about 8% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈15,402); survivors still fail at 17.6% vs 9.9% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a BMW i3 last?

100,000+ miles stands out at 1.6%.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles1,3581.57%

Of 86,554 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 1.6% had reached 100k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a BMW i3 likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 2.5 years; Bought at age 10 is lowest at 0.5 years — the gap is 2.0 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—2.5
8—at least 1.3
10—at least 0.5

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has at least 0.5 expected years of further MOT-present life. The curve is observed only until age 10, so the true figure is likely higher.

BMW i3 faults that come together

Body & structure + Lamps & electrical stand out at 9.75×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment249.75× (rough estimate)
BrakesSuspension288.77× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems356.9× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels305.54× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility375.17× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension304.74× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsTyres934.47× (rough estimate)
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment364.36× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility564.34× (rough estimate)
BrakesVisibility854.06× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleTyres343.74× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres403.69× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility1533.68× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureVisibility233.68× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureTyres323.38× (rough estimate)
BrakesTyres1053.31× (rough estimate)
SuspensionVisibility482.98× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsVisibility412.98× (rough estimate)
SuspensionTyres712.92× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres1782.83× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres552.82× (rough estimate)
TyresVisibility4242.66× (rough estimate)
BrakesRoad Wheels16too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment15too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility14too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems12too few (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension11too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension10too few (rough estimate)
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks10too few (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks9too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems8too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBrakes8too few (rough estimate)
SteeringVisibility8too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSuspension7too few (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSuspension7too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels6too few (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering5too few (rough estimate)
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Body, chassis, structure» and «Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment» appear together 9.75× more often than chance (24 co-occurrences in the same test; 66 pairs compared).

Lift = how many times more often both groups appear on the same test than if independent. A pair is listed from 5 tests with both faults; the lift is shown from 20, and called above chance only when its 95% interval excludes 1 (see rough estimates).

Is low mileage better for a BMW i3?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 10.1%, against 14.9% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year10.06%14,611
8–12k miles/year14.85%10,407
Gap (low − normal)-4.79 pp—

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 10.1% vs 14.8% for 8–12k miles/year — 4.8 pp lower (n_low=14,611, n_normal=10,407). In this family low annual use is associated with fewer MOT fails, not more — the ‘garage queen’ penalty is not visible in overall fail rates.

Best year for a BMW i3, and the years to avoid

Build year 2020 is highest at 110.1; Build year 2013 is lowest at 86.7 — the gap is 23.4 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected

BMW i3 build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
BMW i3 by build year, tests 2019–2024. Below 100 is better than the model's own age norm.
Every build year with its confidence interval
Build yearvs own age norm95% CIRaw fail %TestsVerdict
2020110.1103–117.210.92%8,368worse
2019105.299.5–110.810.65%12,456no different
201810094.6–105.410.68%12,424no different
201795.390.9–99.810.74%16,664better
201697.892.9–102.711.7%13,083no different
2015103.598.4–108.613.47%11,734no different
2014100.594.4–106.514.39%7,298no different
201386.768.1–105.413.13%632no different

The best build year here is 2017 and the weakest is 2020. Comparing build years sounds simple and is not: within a single year of testing, a car's build year and its age are the same number, so a naive comparison of years is a comparison of ages wearing a disguise. Each year below is measured against the same model at the same age in other cohorts, across six years of testing — 2 of 8 years come out distinguishable from their own model's age norm.

Two limits worth knowing before you act on this. Age, test year and build year are locked together by arithmetic, so the test-year effect is taken from the observed national failure level of each year rather than estimated — it is an adjustment, not a solution.

BMW i3 MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £11.80 to £22.42, against £54.85 for the test itself.

bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only

MOT repairs, budget
£12–22
per test, repairs only
The test itself
£54.85
statutory cap, unchanged since 2010
How the figure is built: chance of failing × typical price of that repair
ComponentFails per 100 testsTypical repairIts priceContribution
Tyres7.6 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£6.84
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment1.7 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£2.38
Brakes1.0 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£1.50
Suspension0.6 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£1.08

Multiply how often each component fails on this model by what that repair usually costs, and you get the amount an owner should expect to budget per test for MOT-failing faults only — roughly £12 to £22, on top of the test fee itself. It is a budgeting figure, not a quote: the spread between a set of pads and a set of discs is most of the range.

Prices are modal quotes from a hand-kept catalogue of published UK garage guides — we do not scrape the booking sites, their terms forbid it, so this list is short and updated by hand with a source and date against each line. Each line prices one typical repair in that group, not a full remedy, and only groups our catalogue actually covers are counted. The contrast worth noticing is the second card: the legal maximum for the test has been £54.85 since 2010, while the repairs it uncovers have followed inflation the whole time.

For scale from a different direction: Warrantywise, which sees used-car warranty claims rather than test failures, puts the average claim at £2,052 across the ten highest-claim models it ranks and £539 for Honda, the lowest-claim make in its index (Warrantywise index 2026, 1.6 million claims, cars aged 3–15). Those sit an order of magnitude above the figures in this table, and the gap is the point: a warranty claim is a gearbox or an engine, which almost never fails an MOT, while the faults that do fail one are corrosion, lamps and tyres, which no warranty pays for. The two numbers answer different questions and neither replaces the other.

BMW i3 running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 18.0%, against 11.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
11
vehicles needing work
At age 10
18
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024 (rough estimate: 1,176 tests)
Repairs per 100
£1,180
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 36.13% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
312.5%17,8013,561+1.8 pp
410.27%22,6184,166-0.4 pp
510.7%29,8024,092+0.0 pp
611.91%37,0023,091+1.2 pp
714.5%47,6773,179+3.8 pp
815.13%50,7002,154+4.4 pp
917.6%55,7181,915+6.9 pp
1017.77%59,9561,176+7.1 pp
1119.66%57,925117+9.0 pp

No single year stands out as the point where this model starts costing more: the year-to-year steps in its failure rate are too small or rest on too few tests to name one (D1 rule: a step is named only with at least 2,000 tests on both sides and a jump above 3 percentage points).

Repair spend uses the same modal prices as the section above, so it inherits the same limits: one typical repair per component group, not a full remedy. Downtime is the gap between the failed test and the passed re-test, which is the window a vehicle is legally off the road.

BMW i3 rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is well below the reference at <0.1×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less

How it rusts
<0.1×
0.07% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
15th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 41 postcode areas

This BMW i3 virtually never fails on corrosion once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are gentler than most for the models we publish.

Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.

Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.

Does a BMW i3 advisory become a failure?

Tyres are highest at 7.3%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 7.3 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now

BMW i3 chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
BMW i3, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Tyres 7.3% · Brakes 3.7% · Road wheels 2.7% · Non-component 0%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Tyres7.3%12 months6,20314,183
Brakes3.7%12 months6,9054,023
Road wheels2.7%12 months7,9421,353
Non-component advisories0.0%——2,584

This is the question an advisory note actually raises, and it needs six years of test history to answer. We followed the same vehicles from one MOT to the next across 2019–2024 and measured how often a component that was merely advised came back as a genuine failure at the next test.

Read it as a budgeting horizon, not a prophecy: the most likely component above turns into a failure for about 7 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 6,203 miles. The rest were repaired, sold, scrapped, or simply held. Rows with fewer than 500 tracked advisories are not shown.

What will fail next on a BMW i3?

Tyres after a advisory at age 9-11 are highest at 9.6%; Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 0.8% — the gap is 8.8 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Probability of each component failing at the next test, by age and last result
AgeLast testMost likely next failuresCars tracked
<3passedTyres 4.5% · Visibility 2.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 0.8%9,728
<3advisoryTyres 6.3% · Visibility 3.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.2%2,693
<3failureTyres 5.5% · Visibility 3.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.0%1,389
3-5passedTyres 4.4% · Visibility 3.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.1%23,444
3-5advisoryTyres 6.8% · Visibility 4.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.5%8,737
3-5failureTyres 6.6% · Visibility 5.7% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.9%3,808
6-8passedTyres 4.1% · Visibility 3.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.9%7,471
6-8advisoryTyres 6.3% · Visibility 5.7% · Brakes 2.3%3,849
6-8failureVisibility 8.3% · Tyres 8.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 3.3%1,820
9-11passedTyres 5.4% · Visibility 5.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 3.1%350 (rough estimate)
9-11advisoryTyres 9.6% · Visibility 8.1% · Brakes 3.5%198 (rough estimate)
9-11failureTyres 8.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 5.3% · Visibility 5.3%131 (rough estimate)

The same chains, cut differently: given a car's age and how its last test went, which component most often causes trouble at the following one.

The pattern that repeats across every family: a failure at one test roughly doubles the chance of a failure on the same component at the next one, and an advisory sits about half-way between a clean pass and a failure. Age bands in years; probabilities are per car, not per defect item.

BMW i3 ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 61.6%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.3% — the gap is 59.3 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
36.13%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.186
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
51.72%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
0.598%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 7,371 failures followed through to their re-test, 36.13% were repaired and passed the same day and 61.58% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 11,240 defect items were cleared in the process.

Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.186 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 5,371 miles a year across 20,241 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.

Two populations hide inside one model. 51.72% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 12.25% carried the same advisory three times or more — the same fault, noted, ignored, noted again. When you buy used you are buying one of those two histories, and the MOT record shows which.

Odometer anomalies: 0.598% of 20,250 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 8,711 miles. We call this an anomaly and not fraud on purpose — instrument swaps, imports, unit mix-ups and keying errors all land in the same bucket. Obvious typos (drops under 100 miles or over 90% of the reading) are already excluded.

BMW i3 safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 7.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

recall campaigns launched per year

BMW i3 recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the BMW i3. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2015: 1 · 2016: 0 · 2017: 0 · 2018: 0 · 2019: 0 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the BMW i3
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2022/32214/11/202218During supplier s production process of the battery cells a manufacturing defect occurred
R/2022/08930/03/20222,018THE MICRO GAS GENERATOR WITHIN THE FRONT SEATBELT'S RETRACTOR MAY HAVE BEEN DAMAGED
R/2021/44229/12/202138THE MATERIAL QUALITY OF THE SCREWS USED FOR SEAT BELTS AND REAR SEATS MAY NOT BE TO SPECIF
R/2021/15828/04/202182THE CONTROL RING OF THE BACKREST RECLINER IN THE SECOND SEAT ROW MAY BREAK
R/2020/16208/06/2020189THE AIR BAG CONTROL UNIT MAY HAVE BEEN EQUIPPED WITH A DEFECTIVE SENSOR FOR THE ROLLOVER D
All 7 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2022/32214/11/202212/11/2018 – 16/07/202118During supplier s production process of the battery cells a manufacturing defect occurred
R/2022/08930/03/202221/01/2022 – 26/02/20222,018THE MICRO GAS GENERATOR WITHIN THE FRONT SEATBELT'S RETRACTOR MAY HAVE BEEN DAMAGED
R/2021/44229/12/202121/10/2021 – 27/10/202138THE MATERIAL QUALITY OF THE SCREWS USED FOR SEAT BELTS AND REAR SEATS MAY NOT BE TO SPECIF
R/2021/15828/04/202119/02/2021 – 05/03/202182THE CONTROL RING OF THE BACKREST RECLINER IN THE SECOND SEAT ROW MAY BREAK
R/2020/16208/06/202016/03/2020 – 18/03/2020189THE AIR BAG CONTROL UNIT MAY HAVE BEEN EQUIPPED WITH A DEFECTIVE SENSOR FOR THE ROLLOVER D
R/2019/28903/04/202007/01/2019 – 21/03/2019120THE ELECTRIC MOTOR ELECTRONICS PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD WAS NOT MANUFACTURED ACCORDING TO THE
R/2015/24403/12/201509/10/2015 – 04/11/201541STEERING MAY NOT BEHAVE AS DESIGNED

DVSA lists 7 safety recall campaigns for the BMW i3, covering roughly 2,506 vehicles in total. A recall is the manufacturer fixing a fault for free, so an open recall on your car costs nothing to clear.

Counter-intuitive, and measured on our own data: across the 25 families published here, more recalls go with a lower MOT Risk Index (r = −0.52). Heavily recalled models are not worse cars in the test bay — an active manufacturer removes the fault before it becomes an MOT failure.

Check whether a specific car has an outstanding recall — free, by registration — at DVSA's recall service. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls (check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk), OGL.

BMW i3 technical service bulletins: what dealers are told

US market, BMW I3 and its variants, model years 2015–2019 only. A count of bulletins, not a UK failure rate.

NHTSA manufacturer communications are 312.

bigger number = more recorded dealer communicationsnot affected vehicles or confirmed faults

These are the issues the manufacturer fixes quietly: service communications sent to dealers without a public recall campaign. They show what the service network has been told even when the issue never became news.

United States · NHTSA manufacturer communications

US technical service bulletins by communication year; leading subjects cover the full file
Communication yearBulletinsLeading subjects across all years
201435
  • Electrical system (137)
  • Equipment (107)
  • Steering (26)
  • Engine and cooling (24)
  • Adaptive and mobility equipment (20)
  • Structure (17)
  • Visibility (16)
  • Engine (15)
201555
201678
201731
201841
201930
202025
20218
20223
20245
20261

Caveat worth stating plainly: this is NHTSA data about US-specification cars. British cars sold under the same name often use different gearboxes, engines and equipment, so a bulletin may describe a component that was never fitted here. The file counts dealer communications, not affected vehicles or confirmed failures, and it cannot tell you whether an individual UK car has the issue. A communication can carry more than one subject tag, so topic counts do not have to add up to the total. Source: NHTSA Manufacturer Communications API (US-market vehicles; queried model years 2015-2022). Licence: U.S. Government work / public domain · retrieved 2026-09-25.

BMW i3 owner complaints: what goes wrong

US market, BMW I3 and its variants, model years 2015–2019 only. A count of owner complaints, not a UK failure rate; NHTSA has no UK denominator.

Steering is highest at 41; Engine (not MOT-tested) is lowest at 8 — the gap is 33.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

Owner complaints (US) against actual MOT failures (UK) for the same component groups
ComponentComplaintsShareMOT fail items per 100MOT rankAgreement
Steering4125.8%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Body & structure3320.8%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Lamps & electrical2616.4%1.7#3complained about and fails often
Restraints2113.2%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Transmission (not MOT-tested)1710.7%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Engine (not MOT-tested)85.0%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure

Two different populations answering two different questions: the MOT records what an inspector can measure once a year, the complaint file records what annoyed or frightened an owner on the road. A component high in one column and absent from the other is the interesting case — driver-assistance and electronics dominate complaints while almost never appearing as an MOT failure item.

What the reports actually say
When driving down the interstate the carbon fiber roof suddenly delaminated of its top layer causing the cars behind me to have to slam on the brakes as chunks of carbon fiber flew off the car. This is a known issue with the BMW carbon fiber roofs that is worse on the i3 because of instead of a weave it is forged carbon.
NHTSA complaint, filed 10/22/2025 · STRUCTURE
The carbon fiber roof of my 2015 is de-laminating and the resin coating is bubbling. BMW knows its an issue for all I3's without a sun roof and with Carbon fiber roofs and won't fix it.
NHTSA complaint, filed 08/19/2023 · STRUCTURE

US owners have filed 159 complaints about the equivalent BMW i3 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 7 that mention a crash, 2 a fire and 5 an injury. These are owner reports, not verified findings — but they are the only large public record of what drivers themselves notice, and they cover the years between MOT tests.

Caveat worth stating plainly: US-specification cars, self-selected reporters, no denominator — complaint counts scale with how many cars were sold there and how motivated owners are to file. The mechanical gap matters as much as the statistical one: American cars of the same name often carry different gearboxes, engines and equipment — automatics where Britain buys manuals — so a drivetrain complaint filed in Ohio may describe a part that was never fitted here. Read the ranking inside a model, not between models, and treat drivetrain entries with particular caution. Source: NHTSA ODI consumer complaints (US market, public domain) — US-spec vehicles, indicative only.

BMW i3 inspection results in other countries

Finland Katsastus is well below the reference at 10.5%, against 26.3% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)12.92%26.01%-13.1 pp23,610
NorwayPKK33.9%33.7%+0.2 pp2,581
FinlandKatsastus10.5%26.3%-15.8 pp581

The verdict is consistent across every regime where the difference is clear, which is the strongest form this comparison takes: independent inspectorates, different rulebooks, same direction of travel.

Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the BMW i3 is on the road in all of them. Each national regime writes its own rules, so the pass rates below are not comparable to each other — what does travel across a border is whether a model sits above or below its own country's average.

Rows with fewer than 500 inspections are not published. Sources: Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0; Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

BMW i3 MOT: quick answers

BMW i3 MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 72.5, against 100 for a car with the same age profile.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

What is the BMW i3 first-time MOT pass rate?
87.08% of first attempts passed in 2024 (23,610 tests). This is the first-time figure: retests after repair are excluded. Basis: first-time, excluding retests.
Why does this number differ from other sites?
Other sites often report a pass rate that includes retests or counts all attempts. Our 12.92% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 23,610 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 72.5 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the BMW i3 with other cars

Land Rover Range Rover Sport is highest at 72.5; Skoda Karoq is lowest at 72.3 — the gap is 0.2 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Same brand

All BMW MOT statisticsBMW X5 MOT statsBMW X1 MOT stats

Similar risk

Land Rover Range Rover Sport (index 72.5)Mercedes-Benz GLE (index 72.4)Skoda Karoq (index 72.3)

Same size class

how Mercedes-Benz CLS compareshow Jaguar XK compareshow Jaguar X-Type compares

By build year

BMW i3 2013BMW i3 2014BMW i3 2015BMW i3 2016BMW i3 2017BMW i3 2018BMW i3 2019BMW i3 2020

By area

BMW i3 MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

BMW i3 body, chassis and structure failuresBMW i3 brakes failuresBMW i3 vehicle identification failuresBMW i3 lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresBMW i3 noise, emissions and leaks failuresBMW i3 road wheels failuresBMW i3 seat belts and airbags failuresBMW i3 steering failuresBMW i3 suspension failuresBMW i3 tyres failuresBMW i3 visibility failures

Inspections abroad

BMW i3 in NorwayBMW i3 in Finland


Data details & how to cite

Scope: class-4 vehicles (cars), initial tests only, outcomes pass / fail / fixed-on-the-spot at the station (PRS counts towards the failure rate — the defect was present at arrival). Index = observed initial failures ÷ failures expected for this fleet's exact age profile, ×100; margin of error is a 95% confidence interval. Covers ALL generations together — a 3-year-old and a 15-year-old are very different cars; a generation split is on the roadmap. Dataset release dataset_release_id=dvsa-2024-v2, frozen baseline; headline claim_id=family-stats:bmw-i3:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). BMW i3 MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/bmw-i3/ · Published 2026-07-30.