For those of you that carry gas in your frunk....

http://news360.com/article/322922921

ouch and thanks for posting


after 9 months i regret getting the rex since ive never come close to actually needing it

justanotherdrunk said:

ouch and thanks for posting


after 9 months i regret getting the rex since ive never come close to actually needing it

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I'm finding the same thing, could have taken a bev instead. I find most of the time my use of the Rex is maintenance mode.

justanotherdrunk said:

after 9 months i regret getting the rex since ive never come close to actually needing it

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I think that was the general design of the vehicle. They included the REx as an option for people with range anxiety so they could gain some converts to the EV experience.

Having a lot of crush depth is a big safety factor. On another forum, there's all sorts of people bashing the car for the apparent damage, but the people walked away without issues and the air bags did go off according to one who knows the owners.

For repair, the front chassis is designed to have parts of the CFRP literally cut off, and new ones bonded back on. There are three very specific points where this can be done. If damage extends beyond the furthest back, then the car is likely totaled. No bending the metal back like in a normal car. But, reaffixing the new part must be done using very specific materials after a very specific and accurate cut so that everything will align properly. Not all dealers and probably no independents have the tools necessary to do this. In reality, it could end being faster than putting a metal car on a chassis straightening machine, and then welding in bits as needed, not counting ruining the factory rustproofing (you can never recreate the dip the whole body in primer with an electrostatic charge in a repair shop) that is ruined in the process.

I hope I never need to find out the crash worthiness and repairability of mine!

jadnashuanh said:

For repair, the front chassis is designed to have parts of the CFRP literally cut off, and new ones bonded back on. There are three very specific points where this can be done. If damage extends beyond the furthest back, then the car is likely totaled. No bending the metal back like in a normal car. But, reaffixing the new part must be done using very specific materials after a very specific and accurate cut so that everything will align properly. Not all dealers and probably no independents have the tools necessary to do this. In reality, it could ...

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Much like communism, this approach only works in theory.

In reality the cost of the repair to the life module are so high that it is very easy to create a total loss of an i3.

The i3 behind mine in the picture below was a total loss. There was no damage other then the direct hit to the front, but it hit hard enough to damage the foot well of the life module. That car is a total loss, and it quite clearly has one heck of a lot less damage done to it than the one in the first post of this thread. (Mine, closer to camera, has 10,000 US dollars worth of damage, but no CFRP damage so it was repairable.)

FWIW - There are independent body shops that have gone through the BMW certified training for CFRP repairs and further still independents who have invested in the necessary tooling to undertake the repairs. In reality it looks like the training may simply make them qualified to create the repair estimates that justify total losses.

For the time being CFRP repair on i3s will be hard to justify, especially given the just-drove-off-the-lot replacement value being pegged at around $30,000.

They included the REx as an option for people with range anxiety so they could gain some converts to the EV experience...

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...and for people like me who do long journeys from time to time and didn't want a second (ICE) car to do them. I don't have range anxiety, but have range awareness!

A 'long' journey in England is sort of like a trip to the grocery store in parts of the USA...long is relative. To me, a long journey is 400-500 miles or more one way (Texas is almost 800-miles east-west, and that's not even the biggest state!). The i3 with a REx could do it, but it would not be convenient. IMHO, there are better cars for long distance travel, but you do what you can with what you have. You can tighten a bolt with a pair of pliers, but that doesn't mean it is the best tool for the job. Running cross-country with a moped motor powering me isn't my idea of a great thing.

jadnashuanh said:

A 'long' journey in England is sort of like a trip to the grocery store in parts of the USA...long is relative. To me, a long journey is 400-500 miles or more one way (Texas is almost 800-miles east-west, and that's not even the biggest state!). The i3 with a REx could do it, but it would not be convenient. IMHO, there are better cars for long distance travel, but you do what you can with what you have. You can tighten a bolt with a pair of pliers, but that doesn't mean it is the best tool for the job. Running cross-country with a moped motor powering me isn't my idea of a great thing.

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I've done Midlands, UK to Germany once (440 miles each way), with occasional REx use (about 20% of the journey) and it's very well suited for that. The journey included 4 CCS fast charges and 1 REx refill.

I'll be doing Midlands to Amsterdam, then Germany and back to the UK soon. About a 1k miles roundtrip, I'd say. Thanks to the great CCS infrastructure in the Netherlands (FastNed), this should be achievable with 15% REx use. I could do it all-electric, but since I've got a business appointment in Amsterdam and it's winter now, I think I'll opt for some "dino-miles".

jadnashuanh said:

A 'long' journey in England is sort of like a trip to the grocery store in parts of the USA...long is relative. To me, a long journey is 400-500 miles or more one way (Texas is almost 800-miles east-west, and that's not even the biggest state!). The i3 with a REx could do it, but it would not be convenient. IMHO, there are better cars for long distance travel, but you do what you can with what you have. You can tighten a bolt with a pair of pliers, but that doesn't mean it is the best tool for the job. Running cross-country with a moped motor powering me isn't my idea of a great thing.

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We do a monthly journey in our I3 to North Carolina that is 500 miles each way.
When we started there was 1 CCS fast charger, now there are 3.
So our Rex use is down to circa 300 miles out of 500.
We do carry a 2 gall gas can in the frunk and are aware of the risk.
My wife would rather accept this risk than stop to refuel at a Gun Racked Pick Up Truck majority customer gas station in the Red Neck zone.
The gas can comes out at home and destination.

redbarn said:

My wife would rather accept this risk than stop to refuel at a Gun Racked Pick Up Truck majority customer gas station in the Red Neck zone.

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Wow. I'm mildly speechless.

Schnort said:

Wow. I'm mildly speechless.

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You parsed your quotes incorrectly...I never said that!

jadnashuanh said:

Schnort said:

Wow. I'm mildly speechless.

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You parsed your quotes incorrectly...I never said that!

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sorry, fixed.