BMW i3/i8 or other electric motor vehicles

[PDenbigh]

Nice man! Drive it to Staunton on your way home. (seriously). You can charge here.

[.RJ]

The i8 looks like it's birthing a 911.



You can't unsee it now.

I have nothing useful to add except that I saw an i8 in NYC last weekend - I was shocked. I didnt even know that the i8 existed, only the i3 (which I think looks a bit dumb, but I'll allow it), and it looks really rad. Such futuristic. It definitely had a presence on the road.

[BLINGMW]

Nice man! Drive it to Staunton on your way home. (seriously). You can charge here.

Looking like it might be thursday morning, but yes, I'd be coming back through there. And back again fri eve. So yes, we could probably arange an F150 vs i3 street race / towing competition.

[Sully]

Nice man! Drive it to Staunton on your way home. (seriously). You can charge here.

Looking like it might be thursday morning, but yes, I'd be coming back through there. And back again fri eve. So yes, we could probably arange an F150 vs i3 street race / towing competition.

Tug of war cause those never end badly

[PDenbigh]

Chan - I emailed ya.

Thanks!
Peter

[Jake]

Asked my friend at BMW of Fairfax about the i3 Extended Test Drive - he said they do it there, and he would find out when I can try one out.

The thing fell from the world's biggest ugly tree (and hit so many branches on the way down) but I'm interested in the technology, how it drives, and if one that wasn't so heinous to stare at could be a useful commuter car in a bunch of years.

[Cody]

I want to hear all about it! A couple points of advice

1. An unusual amount of newer Camaros appear, seemingly out of nowhere, and attempt to drag race you. They lose at least to 40mph ha
2. You can turn off traction control with the i-drive. It'll spin the tires if you start from a stop while turning
3. Try to get from Point A to Point B without touching the brakes
4. Go to an area with high foot traffic, park it, and people watch from a café nearby. You get some funny reactions from people.
5. Steal the floormats, removable cupholder, cigarette lighters, and antenna off the back. Sell on ebay, donate to the club so they can kart

[*insertusernamehere*]

I want to hear all about it! A couple points of advice

2. You can turn off traction control with the i-drive. It'll spin the tires if you start from a stop while turning

I mean no offense cause i dont know you so you won't know my tone but uhhh bruh,

just about any car can do this especially with the wheels turned haha

[Cody]

*insertusernamehere* I toured the west coast with these things for 4 months. It's a joke, intending that they practically never spin wheels. They designed the electric motor to lag just a touch from a dead stop to give it sudden yet smooth acceleration to revs around 11k. The i8 is similar in that they retarded initial acceleration to avoid wheelspin. Unlike say.. a Fiat E. Not only is it FWD, it hasn't been tweaked what so ever and the slightest blip on the "accelerator" will produce some wheel spin and un-earthly torque steer.

[Jake]

*insertusernamehere* I toured the west coast with these things for 4 months. It's a joke, intending that they practically never spin wheels. They designed the electric motor to lag just a touch from a dead stop to give it sudden yet smooth acceleration to revs around 11k. The i8 is similar in that they retarded initial acceleration to avoid wheelspin. Unlike say.. a Fiat E. Not only is it FWD, it's hasn't been tweaked what so ever and the slightest blip on the "accelerator" will produce some wheel spin and un-earthly torque steer.

I bet an i3 would do an alright holdback though.

[Cody]

bet an i3 would do an alright holdback though.

Yeah, they're fun
Once you're moving at like 25-35mph and floor it, it brings you to däs future. Try it at 70mph and it still is plenty but not as impressive.

[BLINGMW]

Well... not the best experience so far due to the dealer being ready in no way whatsover with no tags on the car, battery completely dead, and as I've found out tires also low. OH, and it didn't take long to register a "Drivetrain Malfunction". So I've filled it up (1.8 gallons at a time) twice to get it here, but it's here (two hours later than I hoped). Driving it around in motorcycle engine mode for 2 hours feels pretty dumb, but at least it kept up just fine.
Hopefully it'll be able to get a full charge in 14 hours via 120V for tomorrow.

[Cody]

Sorry to hear that. I'm really unimpressed with BMW dealers dropping the ball on such an awesome product. There's no excuse for you to have to go through that. It almost makes me want to work as a client advisor so I can make bank off of people that flock to me because everyone else is clueless. It should have no problem charging overnight.

Drivetrain Malfunction could pop up
1) If it was one of the original batch of REX cars that had issues
2) If they haven't updated the software like they were supposed to
3) The i3 is confused... If you don't hit the "Park" button before hitting the start/stop, for shut off, it can get confused (this was mostly just a issue with our prototypes). The i3 would rarely would lock up and not move. All I did was shut it off, turn it back on, press the "park" button, put it in gear, scoot forward a foot, hit park, then shut off and it was fine and went away.

My personal advice would be to buy next year's model unless you can get a good deal on a 2015. You do have the safety of the 4 year 100k warranty***EDIT 50k warranty*** on everything, the battery is 8 years (they're built to last 20 years)

[BLINGMW]

It should have no problem charging overnight.

While in theory 12-14 hours should be able to deliver the ~20kWh needed, it didn't (even though I had it set to max which should be 16A). The car was indicating (I think) this morning that it would finish charging around 11:30AM. When unplugged at 7:30 departure it indicated 45 miles of charge on the guess-o-meter. Bummer. It's a little more difficult to test this thing out than I hoped!

[Jake]

Scheduled my i3 test drive for mid-January at BMW of Fairfax. Curious to see how the thing does, particularly in the cold weather.

I should find out if my office has dedicated EV parking so it can charge while I'm at work. Will be easy to charge overnight at home or at Ryan's place, though.

[RawrImAMonster]

You do have the safety of the 4 year 100k warranty on everything, the battery is 8 years (they're built to last 20 years)

Are they just normal lithium-ions? If so, there is no way they are lasting 20 years with regular use.

[Sully]

What's the process for an extended test drive? Register and sign your life away or do you actually have to show real interest in buying one?

[BLINGMW]

sign up online or call a dealer and they'll get you set up. You don't have to fake interest or show any ability to pay*. Bring your fake ID and print out an insurance card and go steal yourself one :lol:

*I'm sure the dealer is free to use his BS detector if some punk, homeless looking kid walked up and wanted to borrow one for 72 hours

Curious to see how the thing does, particularly in the cold weather.

It was 27 deg and snowing when Jess left for work this morning, so at least we lucked out on the "cold weather testing" today.

[Cody]

While in theory 12-14 hours should be able to deliver the ~20kWh needed, it didn't (even though I had it set to max which should be 16A).

i3 equation 22kwh battery, 18.8 of which is usable meaning that BMW built in a buffer to prevent draining it to death.
All you will ever charge is 18.8kwh or less
@120v 12amp it will charge at up to 1.4kw/h which takes around 13.4 or so hours to charge, just like you said.
BMW states 20hr
@240v 32amp it can charge at up to 7.2kw/h which takes around 2/12 to 3 hours on a really good day
BMW states 3.5hr
@440DC super juice 80% in 20 minutes, comfortably full charge in 30mins
BMW says the same

The biggest variance I noticed was on the 240v. Although LV2 stations are labeled "240", the amps could be lower. I saw a max at 7.2kw/h and low end around 5.8kw/h. This could be the issue with your slower charge as well. The car can do it, sometimes the outlet underperforms.

As far as battery engineering goes here's a great piece. BMW v Tesla shows a big difference in performance throughout depletion, different cooling techniques, and difference in longevity. I.E. BMW doesn't copy/ paste laptop batteries like Tesla
http://www.slideshare.net/DavidQuarles/b...la-battery

[Cody]

i8 during photo shoot during initial press release in Santa Monica Mountains



When I had to drive the prototype at Laguna Seca ... :dunno: :lol:


The interior, couldn't show any photos previously


How I like to spend my free time. It was kinda cool going from electric power to wave power. The board is a 5' 7" and it Juuust fit