Cold Weather: Thanks Tom M!

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

cmj912

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 8, 2015
Messages
83
Location
Rhode Island
I have found the posts from Tom M extremely helpful especially when dealing with/having questions about cold weather performance. The blog posts I saw also contained VERY HELPFUL little cards and infographs, etc., about battery performance, tips etc. for winter. I was, at first, wary of using the seat heaters over the heat but I've found that the tips are very, very helpful for getting the most range you can when it is cold (it is 9F here today). Putting the car in EcoPro and using the seat heater (one bar is enough...they are very good heaters) with the heat off (after preconditioning the car while it was still plugged in) gets me a pretty good range, all things considered. I'm going to love it when Spring comes and I finally see higher ranges again!

Interestingly, I've been so "range anxious" that I've never let the car get down to the point where it is running on Rex so the tank is still full. I'm going to have to do it one of these days, but perhaps during some time where I'm not watching the odometer to confirm I can stay within the daily mileage for the lease :) and, of course, after we potentially figure out level 2 charging at home.
 
The i3 will automatically run a maintenance cycle on the REx engine after a period of time, but it requires the battery to be less than 75% SOC before it will do that so that there is someplace to put the generated energy. IOW, don't worry about it.
 
You're welcome, thanks for mentioning it. Many first time EV owners really have no idea what to expect or how to help offset the effect the cold has on their range. For those who haven't see the post cmj912 is referring to and are interested, here's the link: http://bmwi3.blogspot.com/2015/10/i3-owners-be-prepared-for-reduced-range.html
 
No problem. I agreed very much with that these tips would have been very helpful to have had during the sale/lease process so that instead of having to worry and search I would have known straight away.
In the Northeast...at least in this area it seems, the dealers are not super "into" the i3. When I had originally asked about the car, one dealer told me "it should be fine in the snow because it is front-wheel drive."

Umm.
 
"When I had originally asked about the car, one dealer told me "it should be fine in the snow because it is front-wheel drive."

Facepalm
 
TomMoloughney said:
"When I had originally asked about the car, one dealer told me "it should be fine in the snow because it is front-wheel drive."

Facepalm

Off topic, but where've you got that i3 American football jersey?
 
cmj912 said:
TomMoloughney said:
"When I had originally asked about the car, one dealer told me "it should be fine in the snow because it is front-wheel drive."

Facepalm

Off topic, but where've you got that i3 American football jersey?

BMW only made a couple hundred of them and sold them right before the 2015 Superbowl. If you remember they had a big i3 commercial during the game, so these were part of the celebration. Every now and then you can find one for sale on Ebay, if you really want one.
 
Back
Top