BMW i3 MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a BMW i3 in Great Britain in 2025 — 26,186 tests. Figures cover every i3 first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the i3 ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
86.9%
14.6 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
26,186
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
3.7%
of i3 first tests; national 7.3%
Typical mileage at 10 years
61,250
middle half: 43,750–81,250 miles (2,500-mile-band midpoints)

How many BMW i3 cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 25,651 BMW i3 cars that were taxed or on SORN: 25,251 taxed and 400 on SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification — kept, but declared off the road by the keeper). The MOT figures above count tests; these count cars, across the whole United Kingdom, cars only. BMW i3 vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
25,251
98.4% of the 25,651 i3 cars taxed or on SORN; 4 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
400
declared off the road by their keepers — 1.6% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed i3 cars peaked at 25,610 at the end of 2023 and has since fallen by 359 (1.4%) to 25,251 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 9 at the end of 2014 to 400 at the end of 2025, up 4344.4%. A car leaves the taxed count when it is scrapped, exported or declared off the road; the year-end counts do not say which.

Taxed i3 cars, year by year

Cars of this model taxed and on the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025.

010k20k30k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed i3 cars, year 2014: 2kTaxed i3 cars, year 2015: 4kTaxed i3 cars, year 2016: 6kTaxed i3 cars, year 2017: 9kTaxed i3 cars, year 2018: 12kTaxed i3 cars, year 2019: 16kTaxed i3 cars, year 2020: 20kTaxed i3 cars, year 2021: 23kTaxed i3 cars, year 2022: 26kTaxed i3 cars, year 2023: 26kTaxed i3 cars, year 2024: 25kTaxed i3 cars, year 2025: 25k25k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed i3 cars
20141,534
20153,574
20165,858
20179,024
201811,960
201916,078
202019,813
202123,366
202225,560
202325,610
202425,333
202525,251

i3 cars on SORN, year by year

Cars of this model declared off the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025. Its own scale — SORN counts are a fraction of the taxed count.

01002003004002014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)i3 cars on SORN, year 2014: 9i3 cars on SORN, year 2015: 76i3 cars on SORN, year 2016: 123i3 cars on SORN, year 2017: 147i3 cars on SORN, year 2018: 199i3 cars on SORN, year 2019: 231i3 cars on SORN, year 2020: 300i3 cars on SORN, year 2021: 154i3 cars on SORN, year 2022: 215i3 cars on SORN, year 2023: 252i3 cars on SORN, year 2024: 331i3 cars on SORN, year 2025: 400400
View this chart as a table
Yeari3 cars on SORN
20149
201576
2016123
2017147
2018199
2019231
2020300
2021154
2022215
2023252
2024331
2025400

Which model years survive

Taxed i3 cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 25,251 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. A build year's count depends on how many were sold that year as well as how many have lasted.

Year of manufacture Taxed, end of 2025Share of taxed i3 cars
20222,61810.4%
20213,36413.3%
20204,04816.0%
20193,93815.6%
20182,99911.9%
20173,07712.2%
20162,1138.4%
20151,8347.3%
20141,1424.5%
All other build years (two years, each under 1%)1180.5%

Population source: Department for Transport / DVLA vehicle licensing statistics, table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026; counts of the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, United Kingdom, cars only, excluding cars recorded with no model name. SortedCars groups DVLA's model name I3 under this model. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, DVLA or the Department for Transport.

How the i3 ages

First-time pass rate by vehicle age, i3 vs all cars, 2025.

BMW i3All cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)BMW i3, vehicle age 3: 88.2%BMW i3, vehicle age 4: 91%BMW i3, vehicle age 5: 88.7%BMW i3, vehicle age 6: 88.5%BMW i3, vehicle age 7: 88.7%BMW i3, vehicle age 8: 84.2%BMW i3, vehicle age 9: 81.8%BMW i3, vehicle age 10: 82.1%BMW i3, vehicle age 11: 79.4%All cars, vehicle age 3: 88.5%All cars, vehicle age 4: 87.2%All cars, vehicle age 5: 86%All cars, vehicle age 6: 83.5%All cars, vehicle age 7: 80.9%All cars, vehicle age 8: 78.2%All cars, vehicle age 9: 74.9%All cars, vehicle age 10: 71.9%All cars, vehicle age 11: 68.6%All cars, vehicle age 12: 65.8%All cars, vehicle age 13: 63.5%All cars, vehicle age 14: 61.2%All cars, vehicle age 15: 59.3%All cars, vehicle age 16: 58.3%All cars, vehicle age 17: 57.2%All cars, vehicle age 18: 57.4%All cars, vehicle age 19: 57%All cars, vehicle age 20: 57.6%BMW i3 79.4%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)i3 testsi3 pass rateAll cars
32,92488.2%88.5%
43,50791.0%87.2%
54,09788.7%86.0%
64,05088.5%83.5%
73,10688.7%80.9%
83,16484.2%78.2%
92,15981.8%74.9%
101,88782.1%71.9%
111,17379.4%68.6%

Better or worse than the average car?

The i3's pass rate minus the all-cars pass rate at each age, in percentage points. Bars above zero: the i3 beats the average car of that age. Below zero: it trails.

i3 aheadi3 behind
-12-6+0+6+12Age 3: -0.3 points vs the average car3Age 4: +3.8 points vs the average carAge 5: +2.7 points vs the average car5Age 6: +5.0 points vs the average carAge 7: +7.8 points vs the average car7Age 8: +6.0 points vs the average carAge 9: +6.9 points vs the average car9Age 10: +10.2 points vs the average carAge 11: +10.8 points vs the average car11Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
3-0.3
4+3.8
5+2.7
6+5.0
7+7.8
8+6.0
9+6.9
10+10.2
11+10.8

The i3 fleet on the road, by age

How many took a first MOT in 2025 at each age — the shape of the i3 fleet still in use.

01k2k3k5kAge 3: 2k3Age 4: 3kAge 5: 4k5Age 6: 4kAge 7: 3k7Age 8: 3kAge 9: 2k9Age 10: 1kAge 11: 1k11Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
32,924
43,507
54,097
64,050
73,106
83,164
92,159
101,887
111,173

What an i3 fails on

Where the failure items land when an i3 fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Tyres36.6%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment23.5%
Visibility15.2%
Suspension9.2%
Brakes7.0%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems2.6%
Road Wheels2.4%
Identification of the vehicle1.3%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.7% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a i3, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Tyres: 64.6% of advisories64.6%Brakes: 20.0% of advisories20.0%Non-component advisories: 5.6% of advisoriesRoad Wheels: 4.4% of advisoriesSuspension: 3.8% of advisoriesIdentification of the vehicle: 0.8% of advisories
TyresBrakesNon-component advisoriesRoad WheelsSuspensionIdentification of the vehicle
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres64.6%
Brakes20.0%
Non-component advisories5.6%
Road Wheels4.4%
Suspension3.8%
Identification of the vehicle0.8%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid i3?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested i3 fuel types, 2025, against the all-cars average. Fleet ages differ by fuel — newer fleets help the electrified bars.

50%60%70%80%90%100%all cars 72.3%Electric: 88.2% of 17,812 tests88.2%Electric17,812 testsHybrid electric: 84.2% of 8,374 tests84.2%Hybrid8,374 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Electric17,81288.2%
Hybrid electric8,37484.2%

What mileage is normal for an i3?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) i3; the shaded band holds the middle half. A car far outside the band, in either direction, is worth questions the recorded history can answer.

Typical i3 (median)
0k25k50k75k100k357911Vehicle age (years)Age 3: typical 16,250 miles (middle half 11,250–26,250)Age 4: typical 23,750 miles (middle half 16,250–31,250)Age 5: typical 28,750 miles (middle half 21,250–38,750)Age 6: typical 36,250 miles (middle half 23,750–48,750)Age 7: typical 43,750 miles (middle half 31,250–58,750)Age 8: typical 53,750 miles (middle half 38,750–73,750)Age 9: typical 56,250 miles (middle half 41,250–76,250)Age 10: typical 61,250 miles (middle half 43,750–81,250)Age 11: typical 66,250 miles (middle half 46,250–86,250)66k mi

Mileage values are midpoints of 2,500-mile bands.

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
311,25016,25026,250
416,25023,75031,250
521,25028,75038,750
623,75036,25048,750
731,25043,75058,750
838,75053,75073,750
941,25056,25076,250
1043,75061,25081,250
1146,25066,25086,250

What fails at each age

The i3's failure mix by age band, 2025 — each band's top categories at their true share of that band's failure items; the pale remainder is everything else. How the mix shifts with age is the point of the chart.

TyresLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibilitySuspensionBrakesEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
3-5 yrsTyres61.6%
3-5 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment12.4%
3-5 yrsVisibility11.4%
3-5 yrsSuspension3.7%
3-5 yrsBrakes3.4%
3-5 yrsEverything else7.5%
6-9 yrsTyres44.0%
6-9 yrsSuspension14.1%
6-9 yrsVisibility11.8%
6-9 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment10.8%
6-9 yrsBrakes9.9%
6-9 yrsEverything else9.4%
10-13 yrsTyres28.2%
10-13 yrsVisibility17.4%
10-13 yrsSuspension16.0%
10-13 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment13.1%
10-13 yrsBrakes13.0%
10-13 yrsEverything else12.3%

More vehicles we've checked

How these figures are computed. Every number on this page is calculated by SortedCars from the DVSA anonymised MOT results dataset (every MOT test in Great Britain — 2025 for single-year figures; trend figures state their span, currently 2023–2025). Where a figure comes from a sample or uses banded values (mileage is banded to 2,500 miles), the page says so beside the figure. Test class 4 only, first tests only — retests are excluded. Class 4 is the car MOT class and also covers car-derived vans, pickups and motorhomes tested to the same standard; where this page says "cars" it means class 4. Pass rate = passes ÷ (passes + failures + pass-after-rectification): a vehicle that failed and was fixed during the visit counts as a fail. Pass rates describe fleets, not individual machines: they reflect how cars were driven, maintained and used as well as how they were built, and beyond recorded mileage none of that is in the data. A well-kept example of a model with a weak average can still pass; a neglected example of a strong one can still fail. No figure is shown for any group with fewer than 500 tests. Alias spellings of a make in the DVSA file are counted under one make name, and all trims and variants of a model are grouped under one model name, using SortedCars' grouping tables. The taxed and SORN counts on this page are the one exception: they are not computed from MOT records but taken from the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics (DfT/DVLA table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0), which count the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, UK-wide, cars only. They describe a model as a whole, grouped under SortedCars' model names, and say nothing about any one car. “Dangerous” is DVSA's statutory defect category (in force since May 2018): a defect posing an immediate risk to road safety — driving the vehicle before repair is an offence. What these figures are for. These statistics are general information about groups of vehicles. They are not advice, a valuation or a recommendation to buy, avoid or price any particular vehicle, and no decision about one car should rest on them alone — check the car itself and its own records. We take care over the calculations, but we cannot guarantee they are complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on them. This does not limit any liability that cannot lawfully be limited — see our Terms & Conditions. If you believe any figure on this page is inaccurate, contact us. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the DVSA or DVLA. DVSA publishes the raw test records; the statistics on this page are SortedCars' own calculations from them. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.