Nice Limeys. Wish I had one of each!
I drove my first electric - 2025 BMW i4 M50
- Thread starter alarmguy
- Start date
I'm not really partial to red cars or beige interiors but that personal preference aside, looks like a lovely car. My truck does 0-60 in 4.something, can't imagine 3.5, that is extremely fast. Of course being a BMW, I'm sure the handling and build quality are on-point as well.
Regarding the charging, I've found buying a monthly membership on one of the charging networks for road trips, pays for itself pretty fast. I bought a $12.99(+sales tax) Tesla membership for our 900+ mile round trip to South Padre Island and I never paid more than .35 a Kwh, and as low as .24 per kwh, which is a fair amount lower than the .54 that you noted. I paid a total of $106.26, with the truck charged once for free overnight on a hotel L2 charger, which probably saved me about $20 vs DCFC. So if you count in the membership plus the cost of charging and the $20 roughly saved at the hotel, it's pretty equivalent to my old vehicle.
My former vehicle, a Lincoln Navigator, would have gotten roughly 17mpg for the trip, at $2.75/gal would have cost $145.58.
Neither the Navigator nor the Lightning are very efficient. Much like gas vehicles, your mileage may vary. A Tesla Model 3, for example, probably would have cost half as much to operate for this trip as my Lightning did, the efficiency is close to 4 miles per KWH.
Regarding the charging, I've found buying a monthly membership on one of the charging networks for road trips, pays for itself pretty fast. I bought a $12.99(+sales tax) Tesla membership for our 900+ mile round trip to South Padre Island and I never paid more than .35 a Kwh, and as low as .24 per kwh, which is a fair amount lower than the .54 that you noted. I paid a total of $106.26, with the truck charged once for free overnight on a hotel L2 charger, which probably saved me about $20 vs DCFC. So if you count in the membership plus the cost of charging and the $20 roughly saved at the hotel, it's pretty equivalent to my old vehicle.
My former vehicle, a Lincoln Navigator, would have gotten roughly 17mpg for the trip, at $2.75/gal would have cost $145.58.
Neither the Navigator nor the Lightning are very efficient. Much like gas vehicles, your mileage may vary. A Tesla Model 3, for example, probably would have cost half as much to operate for this trip as my Lightning did, the efficiency is close to 4 miles per KWH.
For some (like me, and UncleDave apparently) this EV geek out stuff is fun and part of the adventure. I understand that some people "just want to drive".
Running it down to a low percent then finding out some bugger cut the cables off or the charger is down would be a real adventure.
Yes, that would not be ideal, to put it mildly. Thankfully when something like this happens, PlugShare usually gets updated pretty fast. But if it happened minutes prior, you probably would not be having a very good day.
We have observed an EA charger go offline immediately after we used it, at the very heavily used Electrify America station in Waco, TX, right on the I-35 frontage road. I generally try to avoid this station like the plague because it is so crowded all the time, seems like every EV owner going Austin or SA to Dallas or the opposite, stops there to charge.
It could be bricked...
My car displays how many chargers, how many in us and how many are down.
I understand that I live in the EV mecca with Superchargers all over the place. 100 miles north, in the Wine Ccountry and above, is a different story. Ya better pay attention! Realistically, along any CA freeway you would have to be a real dummy to run out.
It's a real problem for any charger that isn't a Tesla charger. That's just the benefit of OEM charging directly reporting information to the car. A 3rd party charger solution on an app just has more layers in the way and that's not the only road block. Most don't service their chargers regularly and don't have a handle that docks to keep constant continuity checks of the cable.
Not to polish Tesla too hard here, but they've figured out charging. They've learned it over the years and they just have more time and research into how they're used and how to keep them reliable. The cable continuity check is a game changer for staying up on theft and vandalism.
You're used to how a good system works. You rarely get up to the minute updates with non Tesla charging. I feel spoiled. It's awesome.
Musk built out the Supercharger network early and ahead of the game. And way ahead of anyone else. It's a key reason the company is so successful. Here's my 'hood...
LiFePO4 batteries can be safely charged to 100% time after time. Energy density is less than for lithium-ion chemistries. Tesla's standard range Model 3 and Y from Austin use LiFePO4.
No, it is just slow. Deliberately slow to protect the battery.
The reason for a "long range" battery on road trips is that it is faster to charge from 30 miles to 130 miles with a 300 mile battery than with a 200 mile battery.
Oh. The plebeian Tesla Model Y Long Range is a slow 4.8 seconds to 60 MPH, or 4.2 seconds with an over the air $2000 software upgrade. And weighs about the same as the BMW i4 M50, 4400 pounds.
Sure, Teslas are fast. I'm on my second. The LR Teslas may be the best EV you can buy, and is a better EV than the M50. But the M50 is a performance car with a proper suspension, not to mention expensive. That's apples to oranges. Just like the M3P is different than the M3 LR.
I learned a ton owning the 18 Mid Range. I knew what I wanted last year when the M3P Highland came out. That car, at $55 large, is apples to oranges as compared to anything else. If something happened to ours, I would buy another tomorrow; it's that good.
Yes.
That's my point. Inefficient.
Sure, efficiency improves. So does starting out range; you may not need to charge at all.
250 mile days are a snap if you have 300 EPA, in my experience. I could easily get rid of all my other cars and live with the M3P and Tundra. Of course wifey gets what she wants, so there's that.
Yeah, and EV is best for that. Never stopping for fuel hits different.
Our car is about as easy to own and operate as it gets. Fun? In spades... Your cell is your key. You don't have to start or stop the car; it's on when you get in and off when you leave. Auto locking; auto shifting. Voice commands. You can open and start the car remotely if necessary. Tracks itself. No confusing dash with a bazillion buttons, gauges, whatever. Tech for the win, baby.
Watch, other cars will follow suit. Flame suit on... Don't judge me!
Slow from 80% to 100% SOC is not inefficient. If it was inefficient then the power would remain the same but the rise in SOC would be slow, and a lot of heat would be generated.
The EV instructs the DCFC to reduce power as SOC increases so as to minimize wear on the mostly-reversible chemical reaction which occurs during charge, and reverses during discharge.
Not efficiency.
Not wise. A 100% charge to start the 250 mile day is hard on the battery. Probably worthwhile to do once every 6-12 months. Far better off starting with an 80% charge and finding a 5-10 minute splash-n-go in the later part of the day,
You need to try Tesla's A.S.S. sometime in a Walmart parking lot!
My son enjoys it as well. I posted he LOVES the car. He had the outlet installed in his current house and now again in the new home he is building. My posts weren't intended to be read negative. He enjoyed his trip but it seems at least reading the words in here some were suggesting right away that he should do it differently in the way they would with no knowledge of what an enjoyable road trip you can have here in the land of the free.
(I think that is when it turned negative sounding)You are right, it's part of the adventure and he had fun, as I do on road trips, whether an EV or not would be my thought on fun most likely not for a long trip but local car YES for sure.. Hasn't anyone who posted a reply to me been to a Buc-ee's?
Do they know what it is? I mean a general manager can make over $200,000 a year. https://buc-ees.com/careers/
It's EASY to pass one hours worth of time and then jump on the interstate for another 173 miles non stop even at up to 85 MPH (no higher if you dont want a ticket)
Yes, some people definitely just want to drive, I am kind of like that on the interstates here, it's awesome driving fast from point A to B for 100+ miles. Rarely do you hit any traffic except when accidents occur OR near any city areas. Now on the NC coast I lost some of that fun. When I lived in SC I-26 was less than 3 miles from my home.
PS, The BMW charged up perfectly, trouble free too. I cant get into charge rates ect. He wouldnt even know, had the car 4 days.
Im not big into red cars either, the combo works well with the interior. This is his first red car too. He did it because I think it's the only color on the BMW scale he never had. Not sure if you know he gets a new car every 6 to 9 months or so. Whether the next one is an EV or not, he doesnt know yet, he typically orders them a two months in advance so hasn't thought much about it yet.
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I am talking about efficiency from a time standpoint.
I never charge to 100%. Not even when I had the Mid Range. And yes, if I need to charge, like I did on a recent 350+ mile day, I simply stop at a Starbucks, plug in and grab a coffee, chai, whatever. Then on my way.
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All lithium based chemistries leave a top buffer. The primary reason for charging LFP to 100% is that they have a stupendously flat voltage curve. So while they do benefit from keeping the voltage lower, they have to be charged to 100% periodically to top balance them. Otherwise you end up with one cell reading 75% and another reading 65%, but those numbers can't be trusted because of the flat curve. This actually just happened on my on my LFP home pack. Same voltage, as the packs are in parallel, but the BMS of each was reporting completely different charge states.
I think the reference to inefficiency while charging above 80% was referring to the fact that the miles gained per minute of charging slows substantially above 80%, so it's better to continue traveling and resume charging elsewhere at a lower charge state.
A good analogy for charging batteries of different sizes is filling cups with water. You can dump more water into a big cup before it overflows, as compared to a smaller cup.
That may be true, but the practical application of this does not lead to a flat charging curve when DC fast charging on the LFP vehicle that I own.
The DCFC tapering on the Mach-E's LFP battery is pretty bad, which is why I prefer the NMC Lightning for road trips despite it's signficantly lower efficiency on a KWH per mile basis.
The Lightning will hold 160KWH to a minimum of 50% and over 100KWH into the low 70s. The Mach-E's charging curve is pretty much
, you'll be below 100KWH by 35% SOC, sometimes by 30%. This means in practical terms that the Lightning will charge faster than the Mach-E despite having a battery that is 28KWH larger in usable capacity, and is a much better road trip vehicle. It does cost more to drive the Lightning on the highway than the Mach-E because you are putting more energy into the battery, but, it's more comfortable to boot, and that's good enough for me.And despite the highway ratings being within 10 miles of each other, the Lightning actually goes quite a bit farther in real world conditions. You'll be running on fumes so to say after 145 miles in the Mach-E whereas with neutral to favorable wind conditions in the Lightning, I have gotten 173 miles with still 23%, I could have gone on another 25 miles to the next supercharger and in fact regretted not doing so because Buc-ees was so crowded. It's also easier to extend the range by driving slower in the Lightning, if you are doing 80, you will see a significant efficiency improvement dropping to 65.
That said, the Mach-E is a fine around town car and we use it a lot for that.
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