Well, I had a 25 mile Test Drive today here in the San Francisco Bay Area (mostly on Hwy 92 and Interstate 280) in a Solar Orange i3, apparently one of the "US Fleet" that was used at the LA Auto Show.
These cars are a blast to drive and the LA Show cars are COMPLETELY LOADED with options, including full leather, voice management of Navigation functions and Adaptive Cruise Control, which I got to experience (for the first time ever) as we caught up to traffic traveling downhill on a significant grade on Highway 92 with cruise set at 68 mph ==> as we caught up to the cars ahead, the i3 slowed firmly but smoothly down to 63 and kept a constant and significant distance from the car in front. Earlier I had a chance to blast by a 5 series on a two lane road ... Cool! :twisted:
I mentioned to the BMW Rep that the US Rex cars will be constrained by a CARB requirement that eliminates the ability to manage battery status i.e., the "Use Battery Now/Use Later/aka Mountain Mode" of European i3s. I told him that my understanding is that Rex will only start at a quite low battery level (approx. 5% ? ) and will not re-charge the battery but will simply provide a "Keep Going"/"Get Home" mode.
==> He was completely unaware that the US cars will be different in this way. :shock:
When I also mentioned that there has been discussion of a possible "upper speed limit" while in Rex mode, he got really interested in learning more about the US Rex technology and limits. He called me back about an hour later stating that a BMW USA executive had just told him that top speed of US i3s in Rex mode will
not be constrained; IOW, 90+ mph.
I didn't get into the "Rex Power Required to Maintain X MPH" discussion with him.
EDIT: Apparently, power/speed restrictions
were considered in CARB's Draft BEVx regulations but were dropped from the final version.
We'll have to see what speed an i3 in Rex mode can sustain in 15 mph headwind/uphill/cold/max heat or hot/max A/C conditions.
Hope I have the chance next year to try out these scenarios!