BMW Sued Over Dangerous Mileage Boosting Feature In i3 Electric Vehicle

A U.S. owner of a BMW i3 has filed a lawsuit claiming that the German automaker’s electric vehicle can experience a sudden loss of power when a feature designed to nearly double its driving range is deployed. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court, seeks damages for i3 drivers nationwide and in California alone, or to force BMW to buy the vehicles back. It focuses on "Range Extender," an optional i3 feature in which a 34-horsepower, two-cylinder gas engine switches on when the vehicle’s battery runs low, boosting the advertised range to 150 miles (241 km) per charge from 81 miles.