Does Anyone Have ANY Info On BMW Battery Modules?! (i3 Speciffically)

John.Siler

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Jul 15, 2017
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I have an opportunity to pick up over 50kWh of BMW i3 Battery Modules for $86/kwh.
Does anyone have any information on these cells? Any concrete info on how I'd wire a BMS to these?
As much as I'd like to go the DIY 18650 route, I can't argue with the price on these, or the simplicity...

Thanks in advance!

John
 
If you can get the model number of the packs, that could help you out a lot! Or pictures of the packs. Maybe you might get surprised and find that they are filled with 18650 cells ;)
 
This is pretty much all I have at the moment.


image_yklmjz.jpg

image_tgqkcm.jpg


Looks like 12 cells per module?
So, 44volt nominal?
 
Well, I can't find anything close to what's in the picture of the stack, or anything based on the numbers. The batteries I see listed for the i3 doesn't look like those above.

However, I do remember watching a video awhile back where they guy took apart a battery that looked similar to this. Even though there are 2 terminals on the outside, there is a bms on this inside of each battery. I don't recall the arrangement of the cells. In his video they were 18650, or maybe the 26650 (I think that's the right #).

How long will they be available? You think you could buy one now, take a look at it, then buy the rest later? Or is it a grab all or nothing kind of deal?

But what I can gather, is they are made by Samsung.

Update:
Here's a video that shows the packs. At the starting point you see the pack partially taken apart. Then later on, they take it further apart.
1M23s you can see how they are wired up internally. And at 1m55s, you get an overview shot of the packs in the holder with their caps on. These look like what you have pictured above.

So based on that, the cells are individual units made of an aluminum shell with 2 terminals and there are 12 cells per pack. I don't know what each cell/pack voltage is.

And there's the full assembly of the packs to the carriage:
 
Everything you've mentioned is why I'm a little worried. It looks like the BMS plug has been cut.
In the videos I've seen, it doesn't look like there is a plug on the module, it looks like the module has a pigtail with a harness.
That harness is missing in the pictures. I'm starting to think this may be why they are so cheap. They're damaged goods.
 
No, the harness is inside the packs. The main computer plugs into the two raised portions on the packs. It's all plug-n-play kinda thing.

In the circled spots you can see the mail connector clearly. The wiring harness to the bms is not present because this is not a whole battery skid, just the packs. If you were to open the top of the pack, you'd see the smaller wires inside.



image_rstbzn.jpg



Now, itispossible that these arerejectsbecause they have bad connectors and won't plug in correctly to the rest of the harness. BMW would just rather get rid of the whole thing than take time disassembling and then figuring out which packs are good and slapping them in a new unit.
The other thing is, maybe these are reclaimed units from a crashed i3 and they are parting it out. I don't think the batteries are bad, though. They should be easily reusable.

Also, in the picture, you can see other battery types in the background. So this may just be a recycler for an insurance claims of totaled cars.
 
I emailed the seller asking for any more information they had.
Haven't heard back yet.
 
Inverted: it's not flagged, he chose that icon when he made the thread. ;)
 
Haven't heard back from the seller yet. I had asked questions about where the cells came from, the mileage on the vehicles, and if any of the cabling was available.
 
Hi, These batteries doesn't seems to be i3 batteries. I have this car and battery is in the floor or the i3, so I think this is not an i3 battery.... or the 12V battery used for 12V stuff inside the i3 (that is charged from the HT battery).
 
@kiwi: These batteries are mounted inside the skid battery pack that's bolted to the i3's undercarriage. The videos I posted show how they are assembled.
 
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