Erich's Krazy Karmax Adventure (i3 content)

Did you have the option of hopping from one BMW dealership to another in order to recharge?

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

You could probably do that (if there were any BMW dealers in rural Ohio) but the dealers all install 220V AC units, which would take about 12 hours to deliver what these DC units do in 30 minutes.

I should also point out that most but not all i3 were shipped with fast charging capability, so that's definitely something to look for. Other i3 options that are of interest:

• tech package (much better center screen, intelligent cruise)
• 94 Ah battery (a few 2017s were still shipped with the smaller battery)
• Upgraded Stereo (the base stereo has just two speakers, which I'm fine with but would probably annoy some)
• power moonroof (I avoided this as it's tiny and adds weight)

Erich said: 

Anybody interested in an 06 Accord V6 Manual Sedan? 

Nobody likes those around here /s

adam525i said:

Erich said: 

Anybody interested in an 06 Accord V6 Manual Sedan? 

Nobody likes those around here /s

Wait...how did I miss that part?

Enjoyable read!  13/10 would recommend this thread!  Intrigue, dastardly deeds, daring feats of bravery, cargo shorts, Harley's, and electric cars.

I'm past this stage with my boys but need to know about the car seats and day care.  Did you take them with you to Carmax or leave them at daycare?

In reply to wawazat : left the two booster seats behind at daycare

Did I read your story correctly in that your  child - who still goes to daycare - bullied you into doing something like buy an EV?  If so, fella, you are in for some interesting years ahead as she gets older.

einy (Forum Supporter) said:

Did I read your story correctly in that your  child - who still goes to daycare - bullied you into doing something like buy an EV?  If so, fella, you are in for some interesting years ahead as she gets older.

Right? Just wait until they are teenagers. LOL!

einy (Forum Supporter) said:

Did I read your story correctly in that your  child - who still goes to daycare - bullied you into doing something like buy an EV?  If so, fella, you are in for some interesting years ahead as she gets older.

Yeah it's a daycare/latchkey hybrid situation. The enviro-bully is 9 going on 19. 

Re: our solar project. It's a small system (3.6 kw array) because DTE has really bad net metering policies - better to use the power you generate than to sell back if you can avoid it. It was quite overcast yesterday but we still generated 16 kwh. 

i3 update after living with it for a month+

This car is a fantastic size for a city use case like mine. Parking is super easy, it zips around town and yet it's relatively planted on the freeway. The last small car I had was a Honda Fit and this BMW is light-years better on the freeway. 

I have taken it on a few cross-state trips and as long as there's a fast charge station on the route it's not a big deal, only takes 15 minutes longer than usual to visit the other side of the state.  For most of our charging we are plugging both the i3 and our PHEV Pacifica into a single garage-mounted 50 amp charge station. Looking over the past month, our small solar array on the garage has put out about 100 more kwh than our cars have used, so our energy bill is actually down quite a bit from last year when we were driving two gas-powered vehicles. If you count gas savings, the solar panels will be paid off in about 5 or 6 years (depending on gas prices)

Some other things:

• Regen braking is always set to "aggressive" for one-pedal driving. I like that, but some wouldn't. Also it has some kind of computer wizardry that allows a faux "regen" effect when you lift off the gas and uses the brakes to simulate regen even when it's fully charged. 
• The wool seats love to water-spot. Gotta be careful coming back from the pool or you have to clean them.
• The glossy black plastic panels on the exterior scratch extremely easily. Look at them funny and there's a scratch, and so drive-through carwashes ar definitely out of the question.
• The rear half-doors aren't as annoying as the ones I had in my old Element, because the front doors are much smaller and so easier to use in parking lots. 
• The $50k that BMW charges for this car makes no sense when you can get the Tesla Model 3 (which is probably my next car unless they make a smaller hatch)

I like this car a lot, so it only makes sense that BMW is discontinuing it for a more traditional sedan and SUV form factor EV lineup. 

Winter commuting update!

The summer Ecopias came off and I sprung for a wheel and tire setup, some black alloy Rial wheels with the narrowest Blizzaks on the market, 155/70/19s - as expected it got a huge improvement on cold weather, snow and ice handling.

The range has taken a hit, which I knew was coming, but still it's dramatic when you see it the first time. Yesterday I had the i3 unplugged in the morning and didn't precondition before leaving. The departure temps were in the low single digits, and when I powered it up, the range showed just 60 miles with the heater on blast - usually the guess-o-meter will show up to 120 miles in the summer. The seat heaters are ridiculously powerful and help cut down on cabin heater use, but I wish the car came with a steering wheel heater. 

Coming home from work, with the temps now in the 20s, I saw the range go as high as 76 miles by the time I got home. So, worst case scenario I think I would get 70 or so miles from a full battery. 

One annoying behavior is the car cuts the amount of acceleration power available when the temps are extremely cold - you can see on the gauge cluster below that the bars to the right, labeled ePOWER, are cut off. It was plenty of power to get up to freeway speeds but not in the hurry I'm used to. Do other EVs do this? I don't remember my Leaf doing so. 

One cool thing in Michigan is I don't have to worry as much about rust with the plastic body and carbon fiber frame. I borrowed my wife's minivan today and had to put gas in it - dislike!

In reply to Erich :

I remember putting the Rials and Blizzaks on my i3-- they are narrow enough it's like driving through snow on pizza cutters, though the braking is likely better.

The Blizzaks wore out pretty quickly though-- maybe two winter seasons and they were done.  Had just purchased some Nokians before I sold the car.

In reply to Karacticus :

Did you ever come up with a good winter charging port cover solution?

For others - the charge port cover is a powered latch, which you press the door from the outside and it pops open. Fine, until it's iced over, or it snows overnight and you've left it outside charging, at which point you run the risk of it getting frozen closed. 

My wife's old Sienna had a similar problem but instead of the gas cap cover, it was the entire sliding door that would freeze shut.

Back when we had an i3, I was a member of an i3 group on FB that was VERY active. Not sure if you use FB, but they are a wealth of info.

As for the freezing part, we live in FL, so no help to offer! 

In reply to Erich :

Most my BMWs have heated windshield washers and heated driver's door handle to avoid cold weather problems. I wonder if there is a "Cold Weather Package" or "Scandinavian Package" that addresses this problem. 

If there is, it might be an easy retrofit. 

In reply to Erich :

I can't even wrap my head around the idea of 155/70/19s.

In reply to Erich :

I was always parked in a heated garage at night, so I never had any problems with the charge port door.

What I did have trouble with was the cord locking mechanism freezing solid when charging the car outside at work.  Maybe something could be fabbed based on a a hose bib cover?  If nothing else, maybe soak the mechanism down real good with silicone spray or some other water displacing compound. 

Hilarious read sir.  WD40 and or silicon spray on a nice clean surface helps.  The Tesla door handles like to free solid without the lube as does the charge port door.

Would a lithium ion butane heat gun work

I love the I3. I really want to see what BMW comes up with next, updated for contemporary range numbers. It's a cool body, and they built it well.

Also I love super narrow wheels.

We had a somewhat major snowstorm a week ago and the i3 on winter tires handled it with aplomb. It's certainly not the best winter car I've ever owned (that probably goes to my old Volvo 240 with Hakkas) but it does the job so long as you have a set of dedicated snow tires. 

The heated seats warm up very quickly and are super powerful, but the HVAC is not nearly as blast-your-face-off as I expected, pumping out air cold enough so that I thought perhaps there is something wrong with it when the temps dipped below 10 degrees. I took it to the dealer but they were unable to replicate the issue. Apparently the little 12v battery has to be "registered" to the car when replaced - I didn't do that so the 12v was only being charged to 80% of full. The tech thought maybe that wasn't allowing the resistance heater to power on fully. 

I don't know, as it's been above 20 degrees since that time - into the temps where the heat pump takes over from the resistance heater. My theory is that the heat pump is working properly but the resistance heater is not, but hard to test that unless it sits in the cold overnight at frigid temps. 

Rons said:

Would a lithium ion butane heat gun work

I have to apologize for going sideways in the i3 thread, but that heat gun looks one McGuyver moment away from a flamethrower/hand grenade. I mean all the explody components - propane? Check. Lithium battery? Check. Hand held? Check...

In reply to secretariata (Forum Supporter) :

yeah, I wouldn't put that anywhere near the soft plastic panels on the i3.

Our solution to snow packing the charge door is to park the i3 inside in winter, and the minivan outside. There are charging covers that attach magnetically to the car, but obviously that doesn't work on this particular car. 

Some owners have hacked outdoor faucet protectors to suit this purpose, but it only solves part of the problem from my perspective, as it covers only part of the affected area. 

Nothing says "electric car purchaser" faster than arriving on foot...