This BMW i3 Drove 3,658 Miles. It Needed Less Than 3 Hours Of Charging

The electric sedan drove from the top of Norway to southern Spain with just 2 hours and 46 minutes of charging.

BMW i3 Norway to Spain

Photo by: BMW

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Nov 11, at 12:15pm ET

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BMW’s i3 crossed eight countries and 3,658 miles with just 2 hours and 46 minutes of charging.
It combined roughly 5 miles/kWh efficiency with an average charging power of 275 kW.
Europe’s extensive fast-charging network already makes long EV road trips straightforward.

Quiet, smooth, and punchy, electric cars make fantastic road trippers. The daunting part is how much time charging adds to a journey—especially a long one. But in the latest EVs, that's becoming less and less of a concern, as BMW demonstrated with a nearly 4,000-mile road trip in the new i3 sedan across Europe. It spent surprisingly little time plugged in.

BMW used an i3 50 xDrive to cover the 3,658 miles (5,886.7 kilometers) from Norway’s North Cape to Tarifa, Spain, charging for precisely 2 hours, 45 minutes and 54 seconds. BMW says that beats the previous Paneuropeana record, set in 2017, by over seven hours.

The challenge is to cross Europe north to south spending as little time charging as possible. Drivers must pass through set checkpoints, but they can choose their route and where to charge. BMW used public chargers, averaging 275 kW during charging stops.

So, how'd BMW pull it off? Chalk it up to a combination of high-powered charging, long range, and strong efficiency, all enabled by the automaker's new 800-volt Neue Klasse EV tech.

On the road, the i3 used just 12.5 kWh/100 km (around 5 miles per kWh), meaning each charging stop provided a lot of mileage. With that consumption, the i3’s 108.7 kilowatt-hour battery would deliver 540 miles (869 km) of real-world driving range before hitting 0%. That's quite a bit more than the i3 50 xDrive's 468-mile EPA rating with 20-inch summer tires. The record-breaking i3 had 19-inch aero wheels and low-rolling-resistance tires, which certainly helped.

Remarkably, the 75-hour trip wasn't some slog at low speeds either. BMW reports an average speed of 79.7 km/h, or 49.5 mph.

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The i3 sedan features BMW’s sixth-generation electric drive technology, including an 800-volt architecture and cylindrical battery cells arranged in a cell-to-pack design. It also supports bidirectional charging, with a peak DC charging rate of 400 kW. BMW quotes a 10–80% time of 21 minutes and says it can add up to 263 miles (423 km) of WLTP range in 10 minutes.

BMW has already demonstrated the Neue Klasse platform’s long-range ability by driving an iX3 from Hungary to Germany. The 626-mile (1,007 km) journey took a production iX3 from Debrecen to Munich without recharging, arriving with 2% battery remaining. That required preparation, mostly country-road driving and switching off systems, including air conditioning. Impressive, certainly, but not how I’d choose to spend every road trip.

My iX3 drive across Romania and over the Transfăgărășan involved considerably less restraint. I wanted to enjoy the car on a great road, which meant Sport mode and enthusiastic mountain driving. I liked the climb enough to do it twice, and its big battery and impressive efficiency helped stave off range anxiety.

Gallery: BMW i3 Norway to Spain

BMW i3 Norway to Spain

Source: BMW

After roughly 250 miles (400 km) on the second day, including the mountain driving and the return to Bucharest, I got home with 16% remaining without charging that day. I proved that with one of the latest long-range EVs, you can skip an inconvenient charger, take a detour, or enjoy a mountain road without making the battery the main character of your holiday.

What do you think?

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Comments

Long-distance EV road trips across Europe are already much easier than many people realize. Taking part in Eurocharge 2025, I drove more than 3,000 miles across the continent in several different EVs, and finding a working fast charger was rarely a concern. We even covered 700 miles in a single day, with charging fitting around shopping and food stops.

You don’t need record-breaking range or a team of BMW engineers to make these journeys straightforward. The infrastructure already makes them pretty easy, and high-tech cars like the new i3 mean you can spend even less of your trip plugged in.