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clutchy

Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2017
Messages
5
Hi All,

I picked up a used 2014 BEV a couple of weeks ago and I'm having a great time.

I have 3 other BMW's so I suppose I'm a fan of the brand. I made the mistake of test driving an i3 and wow it was eye opening to say the least. I previously had a model 3 reservation(day 1!) and gave that up after driving the i3. I've also driven a P85 and a Leaf as well. The REGEN is what sold me on the car. It's so much fun to drive. I tend to drive manual cars and the i3 was the only car that really was interesting to drive and made it sort of a game to be the most efficient and not use your brakes.

I did some quick analysis to see if a battery only would work with my commute and it did so I pulled the trigger.

I self installed a 32Amp chargepoint in my garage and I'm having a great time with all the tech and the metrics. Currently surveying my energy usage for the next 3 months in order to figure out how to size solar for my home and car.

I'm in SW Ohio so it should be interesting to see how winter treats the car.

I think BMW really did an amazing job with this car. It's just a great commuter vehicle with a lot of potential. It's efficient and full of tech. I feel like i'm driving the future every time I get in. What a treat to be able to drive something so forward thinking for such a reasonable price(used).
 
welcome

2nd i3 here and like you just got a cpo 2014 bev recently

yea the brake regen is amazing

i live just a few miles from the tesla factory and have only seen 1 model 3 ... its too big and i dont like the styling

you will definitely notice reduced efficiency/ range in the winter

even here in very moderate climate san jose the range reduction is significant

not a problem for me since i drive < 40 miles/ day

i charge only in the garage L1 115v reduced ~8a with no problem
 
I'm in Illinois and doing some measurements myself to try to figure out what solar option to throw on the garage roof to help keep my i3 topped off.

I also considered the Tesla 3 but after test driving the P85 and the i3, the i3 was a no-brainer for me. Since my maximum drive distance is only 31 miles each way and my entire region has a ton of DC charger options along with tons of free L2 chargers everywhere (Walgreens!), I couldn't see a need for more than the 80-100 miles I've been averaging on a full charge.

Winter is going to be interesting for sure because at 40 degrees I am already seeing a major range hit, but I also get free L2 charges almost everywhere, so I'd only use power at home to top-off 10% or precondition for the next morning.

Right now my assumption is that I'd probably only have to cover about 30,000kW of charging power at home monthly (think that's about $5-6 from ComEd) but I'll soon be a two EV household and the second driver won't get free charges like I do. So my solar roll-out is going to assume one car is charging daily, and my car just gets topped off.
 
theothertom said:
At $5-6per month is it worth it to go solar? Also you probably meant 30kw, not 30,000kw
30Kw is only recharging the i3's original battery about 1.3x...most homes in the USA tend to use about 30Kw a day, throw in an EV, and you might come close to doubling that.

If you are plugged in and set a departure time, then, don't make a lot of short trips where it has to reheat the cabin over and over again, the hit on the range in the winter isn't as bad as it could be. Preconditioning the cabin during a departure time battery warm up can draw as much as 20A (at least on mine), and you won't be able to leave with a full battery if you use a level 1 EVSE.
 
jadnashuanh said:
30Kw is only recharging the i3's original battery about 1.3x...most homes in the USA tend to use about 30Kw a day, throw in an EV, and you might come close to doubling that.
kW is a power unit whereas kWh is an energy unit, so apple and oranges. The original i3's battery pack could hold ~22 kWh of energy whereas CaptainABCD's proposed solar system would produce 30 kW of power.

If CaptainABCD's solar system output 30 kW of power for an hour, it would produce 30 kWh of energy.

The i3 motor's continuous output power limit is 75 kW. An i3 with a full battery pack (~19 kWh usable) using its maximum continuous output power would run out of energy and stop moving after 19 kWh / 75 kW = 0.25 hours, or 15 minutes.
 
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