i3 2015 BMW Charging Range

Should have done a little research before I bought this yesterday but it looked so cool.

At a full charge it only claims to have 58 Miles and this is using an at home adapter.

I plan on getting a 240W charging station installed. But the main issue will I get more mileage or will a full charge only be 58 miles.

Just a little confused.

This car only had 17000 Miles.

Range is determined by size of battery pack. A new charger won't give you additional range.
You are probably also reading your charger rating wrong, 240W is a very very slow EV charger.

I am assuming you meant 240V charger, that'll charge at about 2KW.

A full charge is a full charge. You could be getting a false reading.

I have the 2018 Rex and I get range readings up to 142 miles. After a 42-mile round trip, starting fully charged in Eco Pro, I was just down to 75% battery. I had to drive a few more miles to get to where I could start the Rex for a test. Temperatures in the low 90s. I do put the ventilation in recirculate if it is just me in the car.

I'm past any range anxiety after 6 weeks with the car and I would not get the Rex the next time, especially with the latest battery. I would go for a higher quality interior. Sadly, used Rex are all I see on the market locally.

Drive the car for a few miles and see how it goes. The "miles remaining" seems to reflect past driving style, so perhaps it was driven hard or running A/C, etc., before you got it and did your first charge. Also, try putting it in Eco Pro mode. Your "miles remaining" should immediately increase. I have my 2014 coded to automatically start in Eco Pro mode.

lukehhhhh said:

I am assuming you meant 240V charger, that'll charge at about 2KW.

Click to expand...

Actually, with a 40 A charging circuit and a 32 A charging station, an i3 would charge at ~7.2 kW.

Fisher99 said:

Also, try putting it in Eco Pro mode. Your "miles remaining" should immediately increase. I have my 2014 coded to automatically start in Eco Pro mode.

Click to expand...

I, too, have our 2014 BEV coded to start in Eco Pro mode. However, doing so reduces the climate control power unless one decouples climate control from Eco Pro mode using an iDrive setting. If you live where temperatures can be very warm or very cool, you might be disappointed with the reduced climate control power.

Many find Eco Pro's less sensitive power pedal in the first half of its range preferable to the more sensitive Comfort mode power pedal. Full power is the same in either mode.

In a way, a faster charger will give you more range simply by allowing you to add more miles in less time. That's assuming, of course, that you can plug it in during the time period when you are using the range.

I have a 2015 like yours and the range has never really been an issue. On a typical day (before COVID-19) I would only use about 25 or 30 miles of range driving to work, lunch, then home. That left about half the range remaining when I got home.

For the first month or two, I used the slow 110v charger. Even though it took hours to completely charge the car, there was plenty of time from when I got home to the morning.

I now use a Level 2 charger which is not only faster, but more convenient since the cable is stored next to where I park so it literally just takes seconds to plug the car in to charge or to disconnect it to leave.

Typically, it takes about an hour or hour and a half to get back to a full charge after I get home from work.

You can get a bit extra range by preconditioning your car while it is connected to the charger. You tell the car through the menus or app when you leave in tbe morning and it will precondition the battery temperature and climatize the cabin while still connected to the charger. If leaving at an irregular time, you can climatize the cabin while connected to the charger using the app.

I have been using the slow charger during the first 6 weeks with my 2018. It will be 102 degrees this afternoon and the garage was still 80 degrees this morning, thanks to global warming.. Here in central Texas, I want to wait to install a 30-amp level 2 charger until the heat in my attic has decreased to the level where I feel I can ask an electrician to spend time in the attic running wire to the breaker box on the far end of the house.

I charge from 11 PM to 7 AM when the power rates are super low. If the feed to our clothes dryer can be accessed, I will ask that the wire to the Level 2 charger be spliced into that wire. The dryer never runs during the hours I charge. That would save about 80' of wire and a separate breaker.

Tapping into your dryer circuit would be like you say save you wire and a breaker. I would look into a "change over switch" that would allow you to tap into the circuit and also prevent the dryer being used at the same time. This kind of switch is used with motor homes that have gas generators and then switch over to outside power when they park in camp ground that provide power.

As others have posted, driving style, ambient temperature, pre-conditioning, comfort or eco mode, all impact your range. I have a 2015 REx with 20,000 miles on it. My range can vary from 57 - 58 miles in 95 degree plus days when I drive a little aggressively, to 79 miles on cooler days, at slower speeds. (all in comfort mode).

Lots of variables
If you drive it like you stole it, your mileage will drop accordingly.

If the outside temp is 95 degrees, and you have the AC set for 70 degrees, your electric AC pump will be working overtime, drawing from your HV battery pack, which will lower your range in the car's 'guess-o-meter'.

If you let the car do the braking for you for the most part, making good use of the regen braking system, your mileage will be better

If you set pre-conditioning, to optimise your battery temp, and balance the battery cells, your range will be better.

Drive it for a week and see what your range looks like.

The community average power usage is in the 4-miles/Kw range. Sunday, I was sitting in line with the a/c running for maybe 20-minutes. My power usage for that trip was like 1-mile/kw. The range to empty on the i3 is based on the previous 18-miles of travel, so it is anticipating your next miles will be just like the previous ones. That often isn't realistic, so you need to consider your actual driving. After a bit, you'll get better at that and be able to compare the estimate with your historic usage. I've driven nearly 13-miles with the range to empty not budging because the previous use was high, and the current use was not.

alohart said:

Fisher99 said:

Also, try putting it in Eco Pro mode. Your "miles remaining" should immediately increase. I have my 2014 coded to automatically start in Eco Pro mode.

Click to expand...

I, too, have our 2014 BEV coded to start in Eco Pro mode. However, doing so reduces the climate control power unless one decouples climate control from Eco Pro mode using an iDrive setting. If you live where temperatures can be very warm or very cool, you might be disappointed with the reduced climate control power.

Many find Eco Pro's less sensitive power pedal in the first half of its range preferable to the more sensitive Comfort mode power pedal. Full power is the same in either mode.

Click to expand...

Good point, and definitely worth noting. But for me it hasn't been an issue. Our summer temps range in the 90's with days reaching triple digits (105 last week) and so far I haven't needed to switch to Comfort Mode for better cooling. Then again I also prefer to run my temp control on manual rather than auto (set at 72 degrees), and if it's feeling a bit warm I just boost the fan speed to circulate the cool air better. Probably if I felt the need to run the AC at a lower temp it would be more problematic.

Related to my above post: Today is 98 degrees and I just drove into town (about 20 minute drive), around town, and back home with the AC in manual mode set at 72 and fan in position 4, and in Eco Pro mode. Felt fine. But just for fun I switched to Comfort Mode and within about a minute the air was much colder, so as Art says, there is definitely a difference with the performance of the AC in Eco Pro vs Comfort mode. But since it still feels ok for me in Eco Pro, I won't bother with decoupling the HVAC from the driving mode. Still, pretty interesting to note the difference. And a quick fix to jump to Comfort mode if I ever feel the need for a shot of extra cool air...