Welcome to the BMW i3 Forum
- Thread starter bmwi3
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ultraturtle
Well-known member
Try Plug-in Supply at http://www.pluginsupply.com/ or Enginer at http://www.enginer.us/. They both sell mostly Prius Plug-In kits, but will modify their products to work in other EVs, PHEVs and Hybrids. They both require a seperate charger.tifon said:
Or, with a little imagination you can brew your own. I built a 4.8 kWh system for my own use.
noakey
Well-known member
Houdini said:
Hi Houdini. Hey thats great. I too am interested in these products. I have investigated various battery / charger combinations but would be very interested to see what these guys can come up with. Let us know when you have a quote etc... Thanks.
electricvirgin
Well-known member
Hi All,
Ordered my i3 Rex end of february, a bit late i fear as its not expected until august!
I have been peeking at the forum for a while now and thought i should say hello.
I am hoping to (partly) charge the i3 via solar panels and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the EVSE (charger?) specs? As i understand it in the uk i can have a 3kw point free (with subsidy) or 7kw for a nominal (£95 or so) fee. The question is if the 7kw option would draw more power than the Solar PV can provide (assuming good weather!) the Solar array is rated at 3.7kw i think. I do fancy the faster charging of the 7kw option of course and the cost is modest but it would be nice to fully utilise the solar panels too.
Ordered my i3 Rex end of february, a bit late i fear as its not expected until august!
I have been peeking at the forum for a while now and thought i should say hello.
I am hoping to (partly) charge the i3 via solar panels and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the EVSE (charger?) specs? As i understand it in the uk i can have a 3kw point free (with subsidy) or 7kw for a nominal (£95 or so) fee. The question is if the 7kw option would draw more power than the Solar PV can provide (assuming good weather!) the Solar array is rated at 3.7kw i think. I do fancy the faster charging of the 7kw option of course and the cost is modest but it would be nice to fully utilise the solar panels too.
Bunter
Well-known member
electricvirgin said:
The 7 kw charging option will draw twice as much (roughly) as your panels can produce at their peak production.
If your aim is to use all the energy the panels produce yourself but don't mind buying grid energy to top up the shortfall then get the 7kw charger. If you only want to use the panel energy without buying grid power with your current array size you will be fine with the standard charger cable supplied with the car in the UK. This draws 10 amps so 2.4kw which you may produce for say 6 hours on a good day (what does your house consume as a static load?). But my view is that the later is an unrealistic aspiration in the UK without getting a much larger pv array.
Bill
MikeS
Well-known member
I ordered mine on 22 Jan so expect delivery at the end of Aug. Personally, I am happy to have the delay as it will hopefully give BMW time to get rid of some of the early bugs!
I had the 7kw EVSE fitted by British Gas (£95 and very good service) and from my understanding of the car’s charging arrangement you have some control of the charge rate from within the car. Therefore, I should be able to restrict roughly the charge to stay within the PV array’s output if I want to but can opt for a quicker charge if I need it.
I had the 7kw EVSE fitted by British Gas (£95 and very good service) and from my understanding of the car’s charging arrangement you have some control of the charge rate from within the car. Therefore, I should be able to restrict roughly the charge to stay within the PV array’s output if I want to but can opt for a quicker charge if I need it.
electricvirgin
Well-known member
Thanks Bill, i suspected this was the case but its good to have it confirmed.
I did not know the charge rate could be controlled from the car Mike, that sounds handy on those rare days when the sun shines!
I did not know the charge rate could be controlled from the car Mike, that sounds handy on those rare days when the sun shines!
Bunter
Well-known member
I posted this in the tech discussion section, it's about charge rate settings/power consumption and solar PV.
Bill
http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=799
Bill
http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=799
hello all!
thought i'd say hi since i have been browsing this forum getting info on the i3 before my order. Ended up ordering one 4 weeks ago from a dealership 1000km away! Im a little scared buying a car with no local support but BMW Canada reassured me they would take care of me, including shipping car at their cost back to the dealer in case of warranty issues.
While i don't have a production number yet my sales rep is estimating August delivery.
Looking forward to more great info from this forum!
thought i'd say hi since i have been browsing this forum getting info on the i3 before my order. Ended up ordering one 4 weeks ago from a dealership 1000km away! Im a little scared buying a car with no local support but BMW Canada reassured me they would take care of me, including shipping car at their cost back to the dealer in case of warranty issues.
While i don't have a production number yet my sales rep is estimating August delivery.
Looking forward to more great info from this forum!
MikeS
Well-known member
Welcome to the forum. If you get your car by August those of us in the UK will be quite envious! I ordered mine a the end of Jan and don’t expect to get it until Sep.
Hi. I've been reading here but finally pulled the plug and made my deposit, I'm so excited! My dealer gave me a late July timeline but I'm not holding my breath.
I love the car, but it took a lot of talking, debating and consideration to be able to make the mental leap, not jut to ev but also to a luxury car.
Thanks everyone for putting your knowledge and experiences here so we can all learn from it!
I love the car, but it took a lot of talking, debating and consideration to be able to make the mental leap, not jut to ev but also to a luxury car.
Thanks everyone for putting your knowledge and experiences here so we can all learn from it!
mark1
Well-known member
Hi everyone,
Just ordered i3 REx after a few months decision making, looking forward to October 14 delivery.
Mark.
Just ordered i3 REx after a few months decision making, looking forward to October 14 delivery.
Mark.
noakey
Well-known member
mark1 said:Hi everyone,
Just ordered i3 REx after a few months decision making, looking forward to October 14 delivery.
Mark.
Hey excellent.. well done mark...
Gonville
Well-known member
mark1 said:Hi everyone,
Just ordered i3 REx after a few months decision making, looking forward to October 14 delivery.
Mark.
Good move! You didn't fancy a panda to match the other two then? That would look good in the drive. Hybrid.
Hello everyone. I currently have a Leaf and the lease has entered single digits in the remaining months of the term. Since it does not look like Nissan is going to change much before my lease is up I have already begun shopping around. I have driven the i3 several times now and have been intrigued so far and baring any major changes between now and the end of the year I will probably go with the i3.
noakey
Well-known member
jelloslug said:
I test drove most EV on the market, and the i3 (in my opinion) was by far the best.... go for it...
