BMW i3 REX - Taking too long to charge on Maximum Setting

I've had my i3 Rex for 2 days now. I've noticed that it is taking way too long to charge. The first issue I had with it is, I took it to a DC Fast Charger station and the charger would never connect to the car. Today, I was trying to play catch up on charging and plugged it into the Level 2 220/240v charger at 5:46PM and at almost 10:00PM the car is STILL not done charging. I've been hunting the internet on issues with charging and I can't find much on i3's that are taking too long to charge. Based on the time the car tells me, it would have taken 6 hours to charge on a 220/240. I have a 2014 Fiat 500e also, and I can charge that car in 3 hours flat. The BMW advertises the same charge time (3 hours roughly). I am using the same charger that I use with my Fiat. Why am I getting twice as long a charge time. I even adjusted the charge setting to reduced (as I read another person did) and it increased the charge time. The charger is putting out 22kwh...

It's like the car isn't getting the full power. I have an appointment to take it into BMW service to address the charging issue on 220 and on the DC Fast Charger which was a complete fail. The car never would charge.

I am very frustrated. Aside from this, I am loving the car. Don't get me wrong. I can't keep people off of it.

This seems to be a common problem for the i3 at least in America, have a look in the general discussion here. Whereabouts are you?

Bill

I'm in the Los Angeles area.

Common problem, huh? Hopefully there is some sort of appropriate diagnostics for it or a fix. It goes in for service today.

Both DC Fast Charging not working and increased charge time are both a problem? Yikes.

i3Panda said:

I'm in the Los Angeles area.

Common problem, huh? Hopefully there is some sort of appropriate diagnostics for it or a fix. It goes in for service today.

Both DC Fast Charging not working and increased charge time are both a problem? Yikes.

Click to expand...

No I meant the increased charge time.

Bill

A few things:
1. THe time is not how long it will take, it is the time of day when the car thinks the charge will be completed.
2. Unless you changed it, the car may not be allowing the full charge rate - you need to go into the charging menu and verify it is set to full charge.
3. Did you have a delay set in? It may not have tried to start for awhile.
4. Not all level 2 EVSE's charge at the full rate the i3 can take. Level 2 only means it's 240vac - you need to know the amount of current it is designed to output (it needs to be 30/32A - the US and Eurozone rate them slightly different, but they're essentially the same). If the EVSE is actually a 30/32A unit, and the i3 was programmed to use full rate, and no delay, it should be fully charged in about 3-4 hours from fully depleted, and less most of the time.

So, everything might be working just fine. Then, note that some EVSE designs may not be up to the latest specifications (more likely in the USA), and some connectors may not make great contact, and therefore fail to let the car actually start to charge. Most, though, work fine.

As to yours specifically, would need more info to troubleshoot...might just be misunderstanding of its operation, or it could have a bad charge module.

In response to your post:

1. I was not referring to the time in the dash. I was referring to the actual time. The car took a total of over 6 hours to charge on a 220/240v Level 2 charger pushing out 22kwh.
2. The car is set to Maximum charge setting (see thread title )
3. There is no delay set in. It is set to charge immediately.
4. I use the same Level 2 charger on my Fiat 500e and I charge in less than 3 hours.

It's definitely not the charger. The car is set to charge at the maximum setting and begins charging immediately, but just charges incredibly slow. This is not my first electric car rodeo. This is definitely a technicality on the part of the vehicle. I was curious if anyone else has had the same issue. In digging through the threads, I'm not. Hoping for a resolution soon!

I just took it into the dealer today. There's only one certified engineer that can work on the i3 there so I'm not feeling very confident they will figure out what is wrong with it. New car blues. I will update when I know!

Thanks!

Some have reported premature failure of the charge controller. BMW has designed an upgraded unit, and it will be awhile before they are available. If yours has this problem, they will install a new one temporarily that is set to about 75% maximum of the normal value until stock of the new ones comes in. Not everyone has seen this, I do not think it is by any means a majority. I have not seen this on mine in the first 5-weeks of ownership, and mine charges in the expected time.

There's a recent thread on this forum describing it.

My car went into service on July 31st. It will be there through the beginning of the week. The service advisor and their engineer do not know what is wrong with it yet. They are "in contact with BMW." Well, I had it for 2 days and it is already in the shop! Off to a rough start. I will provide an update as soon as I know!

Looks like I have developed a similar problem. My i3 REx (2,000 miles) has been charging fine using the low cost charging setup. I have a power consumption monitor for my home electrical service and I can see that the car draws about 7.2KwH. Last night the car charge failed. I switched it to charge immediately and checked that it is set to maximum charge - the car is drawing only 4.1 KwH. The i3 dash indicating it would take about 6 hours to charge. I took it to the public level 2 charger near my home to rule out home charger...same result. On the way home my CEL came on. Yes, I have had the software update. Hell....

harttim1 said:

Looks like I have developed a similar problem. My i3 REx (2,000 miles) has been charging fine using the low cost charging setup. I have a power consumption monitor for my home electrical service and I can see that the car draws about 7.2KwH. Last night the car charge failed. I switched it to charge immediately and checked that it is set to maximum charge - the car is drawing only 4.1 KwH. The i3 dash indicating it would take about 6 hours to charge. I took it to the public level 2 charger near my home to rule out home charger...same result. On the way home my CEL came on. Yes, I have had the software update. Hell....

Click to expand...

ooo dear... This is what happened to me... I received a text from the car at 2am saying that charging had failed, and so I tried to restart it without success though. Also errors on the screen about drive train and pull over (even though the car was stationary on the drive). I was told I blew a KLE. On return, I am only achieving 5.2KW charge rate... I am told by BMW that they upgraded all my software and have de-rated the charging through their temperature monitoring modelling at the moment while they have a think.

i3Panda said:

In response to your post:

1. I was not referring to the time in the dash. I was referring to the actual time. The car took a total of over 6 hours to charge on a 220/240v Level 2 charger pushing out 22kwh.
2. The car is set to Maximum charge setting (see thread title )
3. There is no delay set in. It is set to charge immediately.
4. I use the same Level 2 charger on my Fiat 500e and I charge in less than 3 hours.

It's definitely not the charger. The car is set to charge at the maximum setting and begins charging immediately, but just charges incredibly slow. This is not my first electric car rodeo. This is definitely a technicality on the part of the vehicle. I was curious if anyone else has had the same issue. In digging through the threads, I'm not. Hoping for a resolution soon!

I just took it into the dealer today. There's only one certified engineer that can work on the i3 there so I'm not feeling very confident they will figure out what is wrong with it. New car blues. I will update when I know!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi,
perhaps I am missing something, do you really have a 22KWH charger? On a 125 amp 240v circuit breaker?
Because that is 91 amps and that is one big charger.
I ask not to be snarky but to try to understand the issue better,
Brian

AviatorMan said:

i3Panda said:

In response to your post:

1. I was not referring to the time in the dash. I was referring to the actual time. The car took a total of over 6 hours to charge on a 220/240v Level 2 charger pushing out 22kwh.
2. The car is set to Maximum charge setting (see thread title )
3. There is no delay set in. It is set to charge immediately.
4. I use the same Level 2 charger on my Fiat 500e and I charge in less than 3 hours.

It's definitely not the charger. The car is set to charge at the maximum setting and begins charging immediately, but just charges incredibly slow. This is not my first electric car rodeo. This is definitely a technicality on the part of the vehicle. I was curious if anyone else has had the same issue. In digging through the threads, I'm not. Hoping for a resolution soon!

I just took it into the dealer today. There's only one certified engineer that can work on the i3 there so I'm not feeling very confident they will figure out what is wrong with it. New car blues. I will update when I know!

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi,
perhaps I am missing something, do you really have a 22KWH charger? On a 125 amp 240v circuit breaker?
Because that is 91 amps and that is one big charger.
I ask not to be snarky but to try to understand the issue better,
Brian

Click to expand...

I believe he is referring to the amount of energy output over the 6 hours ...

The battery temperature will affect how fast the system charges. If the a/c unit is not working properly, the heat generated by recharging will cause it to proceed slower, and to keep the heat under control. So, it may be a problem with the a/c.

This picture shows the start time, and how long it took to charge exactly. We are using a Chargepoint charger, rated at 6.7kw/h. With the vehicle set to Maximum charge setting via the iDrive

This vehicle is a brand new i3 just off the truck, with 15 miles remaining before dead battery.

It took 5 hours and 10 minutes to charge to full.

This is pretty standard from what i've seen on all of the i3's that I have PDI'd so far. Is there a problem? I dont know. Initially they told us 3.5-4.5 hours for a full charge. All I know is what i've seen, and with a vehicle that shows 5-10miles remaining, you can expect a 5-6 hour charge cycle.

If you read the BMW documentation clearly, it's a 3 hour charge time to get to 80% capacity,
Using a 7.4 kWH / 32 amp charger.

I'm just telling you what I've seen in the last 3 months worth of PDI'ing new cars. My repair book from BMW says 3-4 hours, clearly its not accurate if everyone is saying it's taking longer.

They've all taken 5-7 hours to charge. It doesn't really matter what the documentation says, if it's taking longer then 3 hours for most people, then the documentation isn't correct, or there is outside influences causing reduced charging rate.

-Carl

See this thread - http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1295

It appears that the current software patch lowers the charge rate to protect KLEs. If you've taken delivery in the past two weeks or so, or you've brought an older one in for service, you likely have it.

Hey everyone. I just took delivery of my REX on Saturday and noticed today that on the brand new ChargePoint 6.6kWh chargers at my office I can only charge at a maximum rate of 4.9 kWh. These are the only chargers I have used so far so I don't know if it has something to do with the chargers or my i3. I have verified (a number of times) that my L2 charge rate is set to MAX.

I find it odd that my charge rate is different than the other reduced rates others have posted.

I just double checked the training manual for the i3. It says that with a KLE, and a single phase 32amp power supply, it should take 3-6 hours to fully charge the car.

I don't believe that there is anything that has to do with the current software version. I've been pdi'ing them for two months, and they all had older software versions, and they all took about 6 hours to charge.

I'm not doubting that guys info, often times customers hear about inside info before dealers hear about issues. But as an employee for BMW, I have not heard anything about any issues with charging being too slow, yet...

Some pedantry:

kWh (kilowatt hour) and kW (kilowatt) are regularly confused on this forum. This is akin to confusing miles with miles per hour. If someone asks what the i3's top speed is, you wouldn't answer "93 miles".

The rate at which a charger provides power is measured in kilowatts. Since watts are amps times volts, an EVSE (charger) providing 30 amps at 240 volts is providing 30 x 240 = 7200 watts or 7.2 kilowatts. The total amount of energy provided during a charging session is measured in kilowatt hours. Charging at 7.2 kilowatts for 2 hours provides 7.2 x 2 = 14.4 kilowatt hours of energy (assuming perfect efficiency).