Going Electric(For Two Years, Anyway)

[MCompact]

My bride is now driving a 2016 BMW i3 REX(Range Extender).

Long story short, I assumed a ridiculously cheap two year 10k mile/year lease from a friend who is a BMW dealer employee. So far it's been a blast to cruise around in; 0-60 in 7.0 seconds won't separate your retinas, but it makes keeping up with(or passing) traffic a cinch. Handling is surprisingly good and there are more than a few tech toys to play with(my friend ticked most every box on the order form). Since we live less than ten miles away from my wife's place of work we are simply charging it using the supplied charger- which plugs into a standard 110V socket. So far we have yet to hear the 750 cc twin kick on to generate power. My wife loves it; I think the only down side is that we will have to return it in a couple of years.

 

[RooflessVW]

I love those little cars!

Beware the range extender though. I have read reports that the car will struggle to do 35mph with the extender running.

 

[Nick1994]

Electric cars work great for some people. A coworker of mine talked to our company several years ago and they installed an electric car charging station, it's a tax write for for the company too. He's had countless electric cars and charges them at work. Some of them he'd have to charge at home too but with his Tesla it was free to charge at work since it's range was long.

 

[Donald]

When they can go 75 miles I might consider one.

 

[RSheets]

Love those little things. Any pics of the interior?

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: Donald
When they can go 75 miles I might consider one.


The i3 will go 80 miles on battery power alone- plus another 86 miles with the Range Extender.
The 2017s will 114 miles on just the battery.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: RSheets
Love those little things. Any pics of the interior?


This is a press photo, but it's identical to our car:

My friend ordered the highest trim level- what BMW calls Tera World. Plus, he checked virtually every box on the option form.

 

[JHZR2]

I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.

 

[Brybo86]

How much is ridiculously cheap??

 

[Joseph_S37]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.


35MPH can be very dangerous when you're on or need to be on a highway when the range extender kicks in.

The Chevy Volt on the other hand isn't as crippled when the battery runs out

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.


The 35 mph figure comes into play mostly on steep hills and such. I'm considering getting the car coded to European specs- which gets you another half gallon of available fuel, the ability to let the gas engine keep the battery charged at up to 75% of capacity, and the restoration of the AM radio band.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.


The 35 mph figure comes into play mostly on steep hills and such. I'm considering getting the car coded to European specs- which gets you another half gallon of available fuel, the ability to let the gas engine keep the battery charged at up to 75% of capacity, and the restoration of the AM radio band.


Wait, what?

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle


Wait, what?


BMW USA claims that the electric motor and its associated circuitry adversely affect the reception and sound quality(such as it is) of AM radio and therefore the AM band is not activated in the US spec i3- even though it's available in the rest of the world.

 

[Olas]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.


I hate the range extender function - BMW customers should learn to hypermile!

 

[KrisZ]

Congrats! I see few of them running around and they definitely look unique. They also look much better live than in pictures.

 

[Kira]

+1 on them looking WAY BETTER in person than in photos.

Neighbor's kids have one...also a real cheap lease. I loved driving it.

If you are a "local driver" (many people are) might the fuel in the back-up system gel up or form clogs in the injectors from non-use? Kira

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: MCompact
0-60 in 7.0 seconds won't separate your retinas, but it makes keeping up with(or passing) traffic a cinch.


Great, my entire fleet has been surpassed by a glorified golf cart...

Looks nice, sounds like a fun experiment to see how the near-PEV goes for you. Friend of ours has a Tesla and I'll be interested to hear how it goes for them; I kinda like the idea (but not the price tag!) of a PEV.

Loss of the AM band isn't that much--is there anything good down there? Hardly surprising that the band reception is compromised; I know in Europe they have some strong shortwave broadcasters but I'm surprised that it'd be turned off here but not there.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Kira
+1 on them looking WAY BETTER in person than in photos.

Neighbor's kids have one...also a real cheap lease. I loved driving it.

If you are a "local driver" (many people are) might the fuel in the back-up system gel up or form clogs in the injectors from non-use? Kira



I bet it's probably programmed so that it will run the engine from time to time in order to prevent it from sitting unstarted for too long, the Chevy Volt will do this if you don't use the engine for 6 weeks.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I love the concept of that car - the "range extended" concept is idiotic in terms of how it is sold to Americans to meet EPA designations. It is ingenious in that 35 MPH is more than fine to limp to a charger if needed. Better than a tesla which will leave you stranded.


Because of the Tesla's huge range, and massive network of free charging stations, I feel like very few Tesla owners have been left stranded, unless they've really gone off the beaten path or completely haven't paid attention to how much range they have left.

 

[MCompact]

Originally Posted By: Patman



I bet it's probably programmed so that it will run the engine from time to time in order to prevent it from sitting unstarted for too long, the Chevy Volt will do this if you don't use the engine for 6 weeks.


As I understand it, if the engine has not been used for 2,000 miles it will fire and run in "Maintenance Mode" for a short period.