Stranded in a BEV?

Yes I know one should buy a Rex if there is a chance you might run out of charge but while awaiting delivery of my BEV I like to ponder...
So has any BEV owner actually run out of charge and been stranded? What happened? How many more miles did it actually go when it said zero miles left? What did you do? Can you be towed? Or did you have to be loaded onto a trailer? Can you just be towed home, plug in and battery resumes charging?
Would love to hear.

whistleworm said:

Yes I know one should buy a Rex if there is a chance you might run out of charge but while awaiting delivery of my BEV I like to ponder...
So has any BEV owner actually run out of charge and been stranded? What happened? How many more miles did it actually go when it said zero miles left? What did you do? Can you be towed? Or did you have to be loaded onto a trailer? Can you just be towed home, plug in and battery resumes charging?
Would love to hear.

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Hi... i have a bev but can only answer one of your questions. ... never tow a bev. .. There is no disengaged neutral as the motor is permanently engaged.

I would like to see the answers to other questions... my plan was if I run out of juice to press the red button in the ceiling under the flap and see what happens. ..

John McIlroy covered some of this in a post on 12 Mar in the What Car? BMWi3 Long Termer thread.

I also wrote about my semi deliberate run down beyond zero in a previous topic
http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=854

It's a trailer job, in a nutshell!

A friend with a portable a/c generator might save the day...just make sure it has a bunch of gas! Even better, if it comes with a level 2 EVSE!

I wonder if some of the service vehicles might start carrying something like that? They often have industrial sized 12vdc chargers...maybe a/c units for EV's may make their appearance as well.

So I posted a few months ago about the idea of carrying a small generator just in case. Something like a Honda 2000W unit that's quite portable.

I got a bit of flack, but I still think it's a good option in a jam. It would take about 4 hours to get about 10 km of range (if I remember correctly?). But that's better than being stranded.

There should be no issue with the quality of the power generated. Honda units esp provide cleaner power than what is probably coming out of our utility outlets (which is generally quite "dirty").

Carting around a generator and the gasoline to run it all of the time just doesn't seem like a great solution...but, a friend with one as an emergency backup, might be useful! Better planning, and the eventual expansion of public charging stations should make that unnecessary, though.

Sure you can`t tow it?

You can certainly tow a Mitsubishi i-MiEV BEV. While towing, the battery even gets charged. Somebody reported about a long trip home from the dealer, where they did exactly that. When the battery was empty, they towed it for a while until regen had filled the battery again. Not sure whether this is legal though.

Frank

Manual definitely says not to tow.

fdl1409 said:

Sure you can`t tow it?

You can certainly tow a Mitsubishi i-MiEV BEV. While towing, the battery even gets charged. Somebody reported about a long trip home from the dealer, where they did exactly that. When the battery was empty, they towed it for a while until regen had filled the battery again. Not sure whether this is legal though.

Frank

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i think it may be unsafe since the control electronics are not on when the vehicle is turned off, therefore charge control of re gen is not active.
I suppose over charging could occur.

You need at least some charge to get it into neutral. A dolly might keep the drive wheels off the roadway, but I'm not sure that there is a good place to anchor the vehicle safely to anything other than a fixed platform.

I just took delivery and asked this question of the dealership. Short answer is you hit the red button and they send out a flatbed truck to get you and 'tow' you to a charging station.

...should add that the tow is free of charge (at least that's what I was told).