Just took delivery! Two quick questions.

Hello everybody, I have been lurking here for a while, and finally took delivery of my Tera White i3 Rex.
So far I have had it for 24 hours and have driven over 150 miles, just for fun. I tested out the Rex last night and works flawlessly. My commute is only 7 miles so I don't think I will every use the Rex again, but it is a nice bonus.

Anyway, I have two quick questions, A friend pointed out that the cup holders in the rear seat are warm. (no rex running) I am curious as to what makes them warm, the seats were not warm, but the cup holders were. Im guessing the coolant for the electric motor runs near here, it is a liquid cooled motor correct?

The second thing, the BMW i Remote app works, but I was expecting it to send me notifications such as charge complete etc, and I was also hoping to start/and stop the charging from the app. Is it supposed to do this because mine does not.

Thanks again to the community in advance.

I don't know about the rear cup holder question. I don't see the functions you mention in BMW i Remote app either. The OnStar RemoteLink app does have some of that for the Volt / ELR so I would expect we'll see that for BMW in a future update. As far as the notifications, I have that coming from my EVSE which is networked. I haven't seen this available from the vehicles directly.

I can confirm the rear cup holders in my REx also get warm. My kids aren't too happy about that.

My i3 is waiting for a truck in Oxnard, so I am still a few days from personal experience. However, I understand that the brains of the i3 are under the rear seat. I'm guessing it is in the center and is what is warming up the cup holders.

You can't stop/start charging via the app although you can set it to be finished at a particular time, or to charge during off-peak times. Apparently we'll have more control over this early next year.

And no, the remote doesn't notify you, but it will indicate charging is happening, or complete, if you look at it.

@i3Alan is correct - all the car electronics (iDrive, ConnectedDrive, Cruise Control etc) live under the back seats, see http://www.jack.sh/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/09_I01-Information-and-Communication.pdf

There are some other functions for the i3 App, but they are currently only available to the 'Electronauts' until next year...maybe as partly a perk for being the guinea pigs on their first EV, and second as a perk and to help determine what's going to work out best for people. There was some info in one of BMW's press releases about this, but I do not remember the details - figured out, by the time I had access, it would probably change anyways!