First 12 days

Location : Cambridge

Background : Need a car early, Volvo 2004 totalled in accident - wife walked away without a scratch.
Booked Tesla Model 3 in April, wanted to by used model-S in US, but Tesla would not upgrade for importation to Canada.
Used Model-S too expensive in Canada

0. Found out about Ontario's rebate of $13K
1. Did a test drive at BMW dealer in Brampton
2. Decided to buy 2016 REX, as we travel frequently to US - midwest
3. Called all i3 dealers and asked for best price

• Markham came in best but was bettered by Windsor
  Estimate we got about 7% off MSRP, do not know if it is good deal.
  Total Paid (including PDI...taxes) about $2.5K over MSRP

4. Collected car on 15th Sept, drove from Windsor to Cambridge (277 km)

• REX kicked in panicked when warning for gas came on, filled-up reached home

5. On 18th Sept drove to mid-west

• Started on full charge and gas
  Charged at Level 2 charge, at Best Western on 401 just after 402 fork - (45 min) charged 25 km
  REX came on drove to dealership in Windsor as there is Fast DC charger
  Charger parking slot ICE'ed, drove onto pavement and charged, called ChargePoint as no cards in hand.
  50 min - 119 km charge

6. Continued journey, with REX once charge depleted total 6 fillups
7. Drove most of the time in ECO PRO+ mode
8. Total time : 12.5 hrs, Driving time : 9 hrs

• Our normal time is 7.5 - 8 hours in Volvo V70 3.5 T

9. Presently using OUC, since driving only 25 km/day - got to full charge on second day after long trip.

NOTES :
1. Configured rear-view camera and guide lines
2. Tested self parallel parking
3. Still to get used to 'Navigate' and ConnectedDrive. Cannot find URL for Canadian ConnectedDrive account.
4. Adjustment of seat, still figuring out the settings
5. Wife complains about hard suspension, but is happy with seats

• at 5 ft, she used cushion in Volvo; no need for that in i3

6. Since we split time between Cambridge and mid-west want to figure out, if a Level 2 portable charger is available. - Any recommendations ?
7. Will see how i3 charging network expands and when 3 and 5 series EV are released.

• May cancel 'Tesla Model 3' booking if BMW can deliver on the following
  a) Increase DC Fast charger network
  b) Provide option for battery upgrade for i3

8. Charging to full capacity has varied between 142 km to 161 km - Anyone know the reasons ?

Would like to hear your experiences and thoughts ?

CSP
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There are various level 2 EVSE's available, and some of them adjust to the voltage and can be configured fairly easily to adjust its reported maximum current. The problem you may have is where will you actually be able to plug it in where you could get more power than what came with the car. Level 2 requires a connection to 240vac. A common source is a dryer outlet. You might find one you could use at a campground, but each of those might end up using a different plug. Some companies offer adapter plugs, but you must ensure they are good quality, as a loose connection, or inadequate contact area can cause overheating and maybe even a fire.

THe maximum range will easily vary because of at least a couple of reasons...maybe the one you don't have control over is the temperature...the colder it gets, the lower the range available. The other, significant one is that it estimates your maximum range based on the last 18-miles of travel. This afternoon when I got in mine, (it wasn't fully charged), it said 77-miles. Then, I drove 7-miles home. When I got home, it still said 77-miles...about the same driving, but the outside temperature had gone up about 10-degrees.

I've been using the JuiceBox Pro (40) with a dedicated, NEMA 14-50 (aka., RV park style) plug. Although it fully covers my daily charge in 1-1.5 hours, I would not consider it a good solution for cross country travel. A full battery charge would be ~3 hours versus 0.25 hours to refuel and get back on the Interstate. It works fine on an RV park NEMA 14-50.

My car is coded so I can start the REx at 75% and that worked well. I had over 50 miles EV at the end which is probably when it should be used. But I'm also thinking about smaller dips to extend the distance between refueling.

Once at the hotel, they provided a 120VAC extension cord. The 12A, portable that comes with the car fully charged the car overnight.

An abundance of caution, my first 1,120 km (700 mi) trip I carried a 1 gallon spare can in the frunk and used it once when a truck stop in rural Arkansas was closed for the night. I had plenty of EV power and could have continued but I was being overly cautious about the battery SOC. I may not do that on future trips.

As for the highway speed, I used ~104 km/h (65 mph.) There are trucking companies that use (104-109 km/hr (65-68 mph) already. I used the dynamic cruise control to follow them for as long as the gas lasted. At these speeds we were getting 7.2 l/100km (~39 MPG).

I am considering getting the fuel tank code that increases the usable from 1.9 to 2.3 gallons. On our trip we made 10 fuel stops. Adding the extra 0.5 gallons would have cut one stop. Now if we figure out how to bring it up to ~5 gallons, that would be a big time savings.

Bob Wilson