jadnashuanh
Well-known member
Once you're exhausted the i3's batteries, what you are left with on a REx, regardless of when you turned it on, is a 34Hp engine which needs to convert that rotational energy into EMF to move the vehicle...Hp is Hp, whether you express it in Kw or whatever. When you have essentially no usable charge left in the batteries, you're relying on whatever you can produce from the REx, and if you are trying to use more than it can provide, it will not go very fast unless you can keep it running and build back up a buffer in the batteries.
IF your energy use is less than the REx output, you may never notice any degradation in performance, but you have to keep the SOC above a certain point, or you'll lose some of the creature comforts.
Plain facts. When was the last time you drove a car with a 34Hp motor? That's something like one of the original VW Bugs, or a Citroen 2CV...unless you have some battery buffer left, that's what you have left on the i3 REx once the batteries are depleted. Believe me, they can't keep any decent speed going up a long grade. To expect something else is just wishful thinking. Now, if you have enough buffer in the batteries, you can use all of the creature comforts and the full power of the electric motor, but it's not a perpetual motion machine, you cannot get more out of it than you put in, and that's limited to the 34Hp. Now, BMW may choose to run that little motor harder, and are known for understating the power outputs of many of their engines, but there's a limit on how much you can produce before you exceed the design limits and produce too much heat, or wear, or noise, or fuel consumption to make it all worthwhile, and there's a limit on how much you can produce with the supplied generator.
I like the i3, and if my needs required the REx, I'd have one rather than my BEV, but I'd have to think long and hard over whether that would be better than an ICE. Europe has a lot more choices on cars of the i3's size, and some of them are very efficient. The electric motor provides a neat kick in the butt, but it may not be the best vehicle for your needs.
IF your energy use is less than the REx output, you may never notice any degradation in performance, but you have to keep the SOC above a certain point, or you'll lose some of the creature comforts.
Plain facts. When was the last time you drove a car with a 34Hp motor? That's something like one of the original VW Bugs, or a Citroen 2CV...unless you have some battery buffer left, that's what you have left on the i3 REx once the batteries are depleted. Believe me, they can't keep any decent speed going up a long grade. To expect something else is just wishful thinking. Now, if you have enough buffer in the batteries, you can use all of the creature comforts and the full power of the electric motor, but it's not a perpetual motion machine, you cannot get more out of it than you put in, and that's limited to the 34Hp. Now, BMW may choose to run that little motor harder, and are known for understating the power outputs of many of their engines, but there's a limit on how much you can produce before you exceed the design limits and produce too much heat, or wear, or noise, or fuel consumption to make it all worthwhile, and there's a limit on how much you can produce with the supplied generator.
I like the i3, and if my needs required the REx, I'd have one rather than my BEV, but I'd have to think long and hard over whether that would be better than an ICE. Europe has a lot more choices on cars of the i3's size, and some of them are very efficient. The electric motor provides a neat kick in the butt, but it may not be the best vehicle for your needs.
