Day 1

so i set a world speed record at the dealer. i sent all the paper work in in the morning, told them everything we wanted.
we went in, without a test drive, singed papers and got the i3. we got a great tour, i took off to work, and my wife drove it home

i start getting frantic text messages from her. she says that the "gas" pedal it very sensitive and if she lightly lets go of it, the car just pretty much comes to a halt. I haven't driven it and would appreciate some quick help before this blows up in my face

any pointers?
is this normal and she has to get used to it?
i googled for a while and found hardly anything worthwhile

thanks in advance

Obligatory first response: you bought a revolutionary new car without any research?! Doesn't seem wise.

Now with that out of the way... 100% normal. Electric vehicles have regenerative braking. In short, when the motor is not producing power to accelerate, it creates resistance to generate electricity that is captured into the battery. This resistance is realized in the form of braking. If used correctly, 99% of all your driving does not require the use of the actual/traditional brakes.

There is a sweet spot of slightly pressing the pedal that results in the car coasting (no power from the motor and no regenerative braking), as if the car were in neutral.

Most people adjust to this "one pedal" style of driving quite quickly.

All perfectly normal, I'm surprised the dealer didn't mention it. You'll quickly become used to it.

amateurish said:

All perfectly normal, I'm surprised the dealer didn't mention it. You'll quickly become used to it.

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You can reduce the 'sensitivity' by using eco pro mode... i use this all the time. I find comfort mode is a bit too snappy for everyday cruising. Enjoy and get to know your new friend.

Congratulations !!

You made the right choice and broke a world speed record. Tomorrow, your wife will be so used to it that she will hate to drive any other car that does not slow down when you remove the foot from the accelerator.

Louis

BMW touts the i3 as being capable of being used as a one-pedal car for a reason...regeneration can be quite strong in slowing you down. In normal driving, I try to rarely use the brake pedal as you can coast, accelerate, or slow all from fine tuning your right foot on the pedal. Most people get used to it quickly, but it doesn't hurt to have it explained a bit, but practice a little, and it usually becomes second nature. I know when I get into my ICE, I have to think twice about why isn't it slowing down much, and quickly react. Goes away shortly, but I, at least, do notice and it takes a moment to readjust. My i3 is my primary car now, and the iCE only gets used for long trips or when I need to carry more people or things.

:lol:

ok, so this is day 4.
this car is so much to drive

excuse this stupid question, but when the car is fully charge, is my electric meter still running and am i still being charged for electricity ???

won't matter much. we are in a sunny location and the solar is going up soon

so for the price of one tesla, we got two electric cars and solar panels
i notice most of you are not in the US. we have great federal and local incentives for getting into electric cars and solar

our other car is a Rav4 ev
the idea was that i drive the SUV and my wife would drive the i3
but she is slow to warm to a drastic change in driving. she was intimidated for sure but will get over it

ok, back to reading the manual!

MamedBozza said:

excuse this stupid question, but when the car is fully charge, is my electric meter still running and am i still being charged for electricity ???

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When the car is fully charged, it won't be drawing any significant power (unless you set up preconditioning). There might be a few watts being drawn by the EVSE to maintain it's electonics.

so for the price of one tesla, we got two electric cars and solar panels

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Top effort. Your electric cars are more efficient than a Tesla as well!

i notice most of you are not in the US. we have great federal and local incentives for getting into electric cars and solar

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We currently get a small incentive for solar power installation and a piddling FIT (8c) and no incentive for electric cars! The current government here has killed off the carbon tax and is basically in denial about the realities of CO2. pfft.

The EVSE has an indicator lamp (usually labeled CHARGING). WHen that lamp is off, the car is not being charged. The standby electronics in the EVSE do use some power, but I have a meter on mine that reads out to 0.1A, and when not charging, it never changes from zero, so 0.1A at 240V is 24W, so the standby power is less than that.

MamedBozza said:

ok, so this is day 4.

excuse this stupid question, but when the car is fully charge, is my electric meter still running and am i still being charged for electricity ???

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There is a relay in the EVSE. Probably on the EVSE there's a "charge" light that indicates when the relay is closed (i.e. supplying power to the car). When the "charge" light is off and the relay is open, the amount of energy going into the car's charging electronics is exactly equal to 0. You will hear an audible clunk when the relay closes or opens. The relay is an electromechanical device, there are contacts that physically move back and forth completing the circuit between the mains and the car, that's why you hear the sound.

The ENTIRE PURPOSE of the EVSE is to stop you from getting shocked when plugging and unplugging the car. The way this is accomplished is to open the relay in the EVSE and the house supply is then isolated from the car, and therefore it is impossible to get a shock from the mains supply.

The EVSE itself uses a little power, but it's in the order of maybe 10-30W or so (it doesn't trigger my current meter's 0.1A reading off of 0.

jadnashuanh said:

The EVSE itself uses a little power, but it's in the order of maybe 10-30W or so (it doesn't trigger my current meter's 0.1A reading off of 0.

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Should be well under 10W when the relay is not energized.

All I can say is that it's less than 0.1A, since that's the resolution of my attached meter. IOW, it's not much.