Cheap BMW i3 Propshaft

No – the BMW i3 is a rear-wheel-drive electric vehicle where the motor drives the rear wheels directly through a single-speed reduction gearbox, with no propshaft in the drivetrain at all. This layout means there is no front-to-rear driveshaft regardless of the variant, year, or whether the car has the optional range-extender (REX) engine. If you are hearing a noise or have a driveline vibration, the fault is more likely to be a rear driveshaft (CV shaft/halfshaft) or a differential/gearbox component – speak to a breaker about those parts instead.

It is unlikely to be listed under another name because the part simply does not exist on any i3 variant – there is no front axle drive and no torque tube connecting front and rear, so there is nothing to list. What you may actually need is one of the rear CV driveshafts (sometimes called halfshafts or drive axles), which connect the rear differential to each rear wheel on the i3. Contact a breaker with your registration and describe the symptom or the component location, and they will be able to identify the correct part.

No – the REX two-cylinder petrol engine fitted to some i3 models acts purely as a generator to charge the battery and is not mechanically connected to the wheels in any way, so it does not add a propshaft to the car. Both REX and standard battery-electric i3s share the same rear-wheel-drive layout with a direct motor-to-rear-axle arrangement and no front-to-rear driveshaft. If you own a REX model and have a driveline concern, the drivetrain parts you should be asking a breaker about are still the rear CV driveshafts or the rear drive unit.

No – despite sharing some BMW engineering, the i3's electric drivetrain is entirely different from the conventional front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout of the 1 Series or 3 Series, and the i3 has no propshaft mounting points or tunnel to accommodate one. Parts from those models are not transferable to the i3 for any drivetrain component. If you need a rear driveshaft or drive unit for your i3, ask a breaker specifically for i3 parts and confirm against your registration number.

On the i3, 'driveshaft' almost certainly refers to one of the two rear CV halfshafts that run from the central rear drive unit out to each rear wheel – these are sometimes loosely called driveshafts and are the rotating components most likely to be diagnosed as faulty. A propshaft (a front-to-rear shaft) is a completely different component that the i3 does not have. When contacting a breaker, ask for a rear driveshaft or CV shaft and confirm whether you need the nearside (NS, left) or offside (OS, right), as they are handed and not interchangeable with each other.