A healthy dose of cynicism seems obligatory when it comes to this stuff. But on that note, and my comment about nominal battery life, if the typical battery lasts long enough to exceed the 4 year/50k mile threshold then the Maintenance Program would not apply.

I don’t know how much thought BMW put into it, but maybe they were not comfortable with the projected number of batteries that would fail prior to 4 years/50k miles. Or maybe they felt too many customers would complain about healthy batteries being in CBS and showing a projected replacement interval that was beyond the Maintenance Program coverage period. It just seems to me that the battery is a prime example of something that should be in a CBS type display, regardless of it being due in or out of warranty.

Alternatively, if it’s so important to register the battery, they could allow the battery to be registered/reset similar to the way the TPMS is reset by a user. While not ideal due to lack of CBS estimated replacement duration, not to mention the increased likelihood of accidental/improper reset (reset via CBS service menu is a bit more protected), I’d be satisfied with at least this ability to reset upon replacement.

I think it comes down to consistency in design philosophy and implementation, as there are makes with models that don’t allow you to swap TPMS sensors without using a special hardware/software tool. Thankfully BMW doesn’t do that, but they failed in applying the same philosophy to the vehicle’s battery.