Will CARB disadvantage Non Californian i3’s

[Parker]

As someone that doesn’t live in California I have a concern that maybe unfounded but I thought I would put it out there to see what others thought.

My Father lives 180 miles from me and at the moment I visit him about once a month. OK I could use the BMW ICE rental car scheme but it does seem daft to use an a full ICE car when the i3 is quite capable of travelling that distance. My concern is that because of CARB rules the Rex generator won’t start until the battery is almost depleted meaning my last 80 miles would always be in limp home mode... regardless of the fact that I know from the outset that I will need extra battery charge pretty much from the get go to provide full battery power until the last mile.

I sincerely hope that non Californian i3’s will have the ability to “request” the range extender to start recharging the batteries well before they are flat. Does anyone know if this will be the case?

 

[TomMoloughney]

As someone that doesn’t live in California I have a concern that maybe unfounded but I thought I would put it out there to see what others thought.

My Father lives 180 miles from me and at the moment I visit him about once a month. OK I could use the BMW ICE rental car scheme but it does seem daft to use an a full ICE car when the i3 is quite capable of travelling that distance. My concern is that because of CARB rules the Rex generator won’t start until the battery is almost depleted meaning my last 80 miles would always be in limp home mode... regardless of the fact that I know from the outset that I will need extra battery charge pretty much from the get go to provide full battery power until the last mile.

I sincerely hope that non Californian i3’s will have the ability to “request” the range extender to start recharging the batteries well before they are flat. Does anyone know if this will be the case?

None of these details have been released yet, all we have is speculation at this point. I would venture to guess there will not be a different version for non-CARB states (it's not just California but about 9 other States also). BMW has not even announced what the REx capabilities will be. It's speculated they will want to comply with the new "BEVx" CARB rules because the market in California is so huge and being the only EV with a range extender that qualifies for HOV access would be a coup, still those details just aren't available yet.

The best thing for you with your trips to see your father would be if they install a quick charge station along the route. That would eliminate all your issues.

 

[Parker]

Thanks for the reply.

My plan would be to keep the i3 as long as possible .... and my understanding of quick charges is they don't do the batteries much good.

Also the only quick chargers en-route to my Fathers (there are only 3 of them) are designed for Nissan Leafs so again I don't think you can charge an i3 with a Leaf style plug .... or can you get an adapter?

 

[TomMoloughney]

Thanks for the reply.

My plan would be to keep the i3 as long as possible .... and my understanding of quick charges is they don't do the batteries much good.

Also the only quick chargers en-route to my Fathers (there are only 3 of them) are designed for Nissan Leafs so again I don't think you can charge an i3 with a Leaf style plug .... or can you get an adapter?

No you won't be any adapters, but many of the CHAdeMO chargers that are for the LEAF will have a second cable attached with a CCS connector (That is the one the i3 will charge with )

As for Quick Charge harming your battery, don't worry about that. The batteries can handle quick charge without ANY problem, the problem occurs when the high speed charging overheats the battery cells. The LEAF for example does not have a complex active thermal battery management system like the i3 will. The i3's batteries are liquid cooled during the quick charge process, keeping them from heating up to the point where the cells get damaged. I would not recommend using a quick charger every day, but if you do use it every now and then (a couple times a month) you will not suffer ANY battery degradation from doing so.

 

[ChrisC]

Just to second Tom's comments, you don't need to worry about quick charging at all. Back in 2010 Nissan was cautioning owners not to quick charge more than three times PER DAY. Doing it a few times once a month is literally negligible. Further, Nissan has now seen that all that warning did was confuse people (like you here!) and now Nissan says do it whenever you want.

That's all in addition to what Tom said about the other cars having better battery temperature management systems! So, really, forget about it and just do it.

 

[essaunders]

Just to second Tom's comments, you don't need to worry about quick charging at all. Back in 2010 Nissan was cautioning owners not to quick charge more than three times PER DAY. Doing it a few times once a month is literally negligible. Further, Nissan has now seen that all that warning did was confuse people (like you here!) and now Nissan says do it whenever you want.

That's all in addition to what Tom said about the other cars having better battery temperature management systems! So, really, forget about it and just do it.

It would be nice to actually have an installed quick charge capability in the North East US. I've had my LEAF for over a year and never been within a days drive of a CHADEMO...

I suppose that's where the REx would be handy. It's your own 65MPH charging capability. I know if I had a REx solution (or even a proper DCQC network) for my LEAF I'd certainly be more willing to use the whole battery.

 

[Parker]

I know if I had a REx solution (or even a proper DCQC network) for my LEAF I'd certainly be more willing to use the whole battery.

If I were to get a Rex i3 that would be the reason I would spec it .... not really to use the Rex but just so I would feel comfortable using 95-100% of the battery capacity ..... knowing I wouldn't get stranded if I (or the car) miscalculated the range. Without Rex I would probably want to keep 20 miles “in the bank” and actually a car with a 80 mile range at best would be a non-starter for me.

 

[YashuV]

I will be going with all electric version. Rex is nice option, but I decided to be more responsible for planet. In Chicago there are few charging stations by my house, Quick charge is 4 minutes away in the mall parking lot. I'm pretty sure in near future every store or point of interest will have charging stations. So where ever you park you will be able to charge up even for these 10- 15 minutes on level 2.