Low Cost Charging out of whack

I've had my i3 for about 3 weeks now and using the BMW (Bosch) charger at home every evening. I've set up the car to use Low Cost Charging and, until last night, it was working perfectly. This morning I realized the charge state was only 16% so it clearly did not charge last night. Tonight I plugged it in and it began charging immediately even though it should be delayed 3 hours. I reset the charging station, deselected Low Cost Charging on the car and reselected it, then reconnected the charging cable but no resolution. Anyone have any ideas?

That feature from the utility company is not viable for me, so I have no personal experience using it. Lots of others have reported variable results if you search the forum. I do not think anyone has really figured out exactly what causes the issue. But, note that some EVSE's have trouble if there's a power glitch while attached and won't properly restart. I do not know about the Bosch, I have a Clipper Creek unit. Also, if the battery SOC is quite low when plugging in, the car will start to charge to bring the level up some, then turn off. That might give some EVSE's problems.

heppme said:

I've had my i3 for about 3 weeks now and using the BMW (Bosch) charger at home every evening. I've set up the car to use Low Cost Charging and, until last night, it was working perfectly. This morning I realized the charge state was only 16% so it clearly did not charge last night. Tonight I plugged it in and it began charging immediately even though it should be delayed 3 hours. I reset the charging station, deselected Low Cost Charging on the car and reselected it, then reconnected the charging cable but no resolution. Anyone have any ideas?

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From my experience Low Cost Charging is buggy and unreliable and you should not depend on it to have your car charged and ready when you need it. I've kept charging records for months and it failed to charge 4 times in two months for example. Fortunately my wife gets up early was able to check the status and if it did not charge, triggered charging to begin by just unlocking the vehicle. I can see exactly when my car is drawing power since I have my Clipper Creek HCS-40 unit on a separate circuit which is hooked up to my solar monitoring system. I commute 75 miles a day and really need to have my i3 ready for the daily commute. I've gone back and forth with my dealer and BMW about this and it appears that neither of them will do anything about it and I have expressed my deep disappointment. They keep trying to imply that I'm doing something wrong! Not only will it fail to charge, it will begin to charge before the start time for low cost charging which sort of defeats the purpose. So to nip this in the bud I don't use low cost charging anymore at home as I've finally installed a WH-40 water heater timer to power the Clipper Creek and keep my car set to immediate charging. Now it does what I want and expect it to do according to the on/off time I set on the timer which I hope continues since I installed the timer only about a week ago. I really cannot understand why BMW is at least up to now INCAPABLE of fixing this as you would think that a PRIMARY REQUIREMENT for an electric vehicle would be to charge reliably :!: :!:

My i3 has been in for 2+ weeks for a low-cost charging issue. Been told it's getting some updated software this week directly from Germany (not distributed to US dealers) that *might* take care of it, there are no assurances from the techs so it doesn't exactly fill me confidence.

Having caught up with some other threads on this board it seems to be a wide-spread problem, I had no idea that so many people were experiencing the same anomalies.

BMW will need to vastly improve the reliability in their i-line if this is going to be a party of their future, this is just one part of a long-list of issues my i3 has had so I'm going to pursue lemoning the car.

I've had mixed results with off-peak charging, but have become used to the quirks and workarounds now (I think).

- make sure you have the right mode enabled when you see the Good-Bye screen when switching off the car. It happens easily that you charge the car publicly when out and about and then forget to set it back to "off-peak" when you're back home. (btw, Wouldn't it be great if the car would notice this itself? yep!)

- make sure you have a departure time set and ensure that the small display shows you the departure time when the car is plugged in for the night. The moving silver charging bar should not be visible (sometimes it shows for 1-2 sec, until the EVSE is switched off again and off-peak kicked in).

- also check the app and ensure it tells you "Charging Paused" - this is the proof that everything is set ok.

- also, remember that if your car is below about 18% SOC, the car will start charging as soon as it's plugged in. This is regardless of any off-peak or departure setting. It's a feature that is built-in to protect the batteries and give it a certain minimum SOC. If this happens, the car will fall back into off-peak as soon as it has reached this SOC (I believe this is at 18% SOC).

Hope this helps.

M

psquare said:

- also, remember that if your car is below about 18% SOC, the car will start charging as soon as it's plugged in. This is regardless of any off-peak or departure setting. It's a feature that is built-in to protect the batteries and give it a certain minimum SOC. If this happens, the car will fall back into off-peak as soon as it has reached this SOC (I believe this is at 18% SOC).

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I think it's even lower than 18%: I've plugged in with about 12% remaining and it's not started immediately: I always check, both by listening to my charger (it hums when it's actually charging) and with my Wattson meter.

Also: with me, it has never paused charging once it's started this "emergency top up". I wait until it's about 25% and then turn it off and on again. Charging is then stopped and starts again off peak.

It is a bit ridiculous that one has to either buy a mechanical timer or else use such a complicated procedure to get the car to function as advertised. But what is unforgivable is the lack of response from BMW to this issue.........

In parts of NA posters here have reported that they have been told that BMW do not support the iRemote app! The one that was downloaded directly from the BMW site!

ReadyPlayerOne said:

My i3 has been in for 2+ weeks for a low-cost charging issue. Been told it's getting some updated software this week directly from Germany (not distributed to US dealers) that *might* take care of it, there are no assurances from the techs so it doesn't exactly fill me confidence.

Having caught up with some other threads on this board it seems to be a wide-spread problem, I had no idea that so many people were experiencing the same anomalies.

BMW will need to vastly improve the reliability in their i-line if this is going to be a party of their future, this is just one part of a long-list of issues my i3 has had so I'm going to pursue lemoning the car.

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Would reading those threads before getting your own i3 have influenced your decision? Would you still have bought the car if you had known that others were having issues with low-cost charging and the app that BMW were not fixing?
Maybe if BMW think they are losing sales due to this they will put a higher priority to fixing the problems.

WoodlandHills said:

ReadyPlayerOne said:

My i3 has been in for 2+ weeks for a low-cost charging issue. Been told it's getting some updated software this week directly from Germany (not distributed to US dealers) that *might* take care of it, there are no assurances from the techs so it doesn't exactly fill me confidence.

Having caught up with some other threads on this board it seems to be a wide-spread problem, I had no idea that so many people were experiencing the same anomalies.

BMW will need to vastly improve the reliability in their i-line if this is going to be a party of their future, this is just one part of a long-list of issues my i3 has had so I'm going to pursue lemoning the car.

Click to expand...

Would reading those threads before getting your own i3 have influenced your decision? Would you still have bought the car if you had known that others were having issues with low-cost charging and the app that BMW were not fixing?
Maybe if BMW think they are losing sales due to this they will put a higher priority to fixing the problems.

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WoodlandHills,

If I realized the i3 was going to have this many issues, no. My E90 M3 in comparison has been bulletproof.

WoodlandHills said:

In parts of NA posters here have reported that they have been told that BMW do not support the iRemote app! The one that was downloaded directly from the BMW site!

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That's because it's true! The dealership has got nothing to do with support of third party software, which is not directly part and parcel of the vehicle. Think about it: Your local PC World doesn't support and fix Microsoft Windows either.

WoodlandHills said:

Would reading those threads before getting your own i3 have influenced your decision? Would you still have bought the car if you had known that others were having issues with low-cost charging and the app that BMW were not fixing?
Maybe if BMW think they are losing sales due to this they will put a higher priority to fixing the problems.

Click to expand...

Hi Woodlandhills,

I think you are blowing things out of proportion a little. Obviously not the first this is happening...

The off-peak charging is not as buggy as you claim to be. As I stated, I have become used to its quirks and know how to get it working. I have logged the issue with the in-car software (not the iRemote app, btw) with my dealership, who had already raised this with BMW i. Forums like this provide potential users help in resolving the off-peak issues.

psquare said:

Hi Woodlandhills,

I think you are blowing things out of proportion a little. Obviously not the first this is happening...

The off-peak charging is not as buggy as you claim to be. As I stated, I have become used to its quirks and know how to get it working. I have logged the issue with the in-car software (not the iRemote app, btw) with my dealership, who had already raised this with BMW i. Forums like this provide potential users help in resolving the off-peak issues.

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I have to chime in here because you're argument just supports compensating for a problem that is inherent in these cars. The car is designed to be able to set into a low-cost/off-peak charging mode and handle it all by itself, the owner shouldn't have to be awake to prompt the car to charge in low-cost periods or do some hack as others have that controls when their power supply turns on, that's just ridiculous. If I program the settings for low-cost charging, plug it in and find I have a non-charged car in the morning that I can't use, that isn't my fault, that's BMWs.

ReadyPlayerOne said:

psquare said:

I have to chime in here because you're argument just supports compensating for a problem that is inherent in these cars. The car is designed to be able to set into a low-cost/off-peak charging mode and handle it all by itself, the owner shouldn't have to be awake to prompt the car to charge in low-cost periods or do some hack as others have that controls when their power supply turns on, that's just ridiculous. If I program the settings for low-cost charging, plug it in and find I have a non-charged car in the morning that I can't use, that isn't my fault, that's BMWs.

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Again, things are blown out of proportion here. Can I please ask you to re-read posts re off-peak charging?

I charge my car off-peak every night and don't have to do any of these sort of activities you describe. I certainly didn't have to hack it and do not intend to. (To what purpose anyway?)

The occasional problems I had stem from situations where I charged "immediately" during the day away from my house (where the data signal is poor). On returning to my house, the car might not have been able to talk to BMW server and therefore the app couldn't send commands to the car. As you might appreciate, this is not a BMW problem.

The other situation people described on here is the minimum SOC charge the car goes through, despite off-peak being enabled.

The only design flaw I put at BMW's doors is the linking of departure time and off-peak charge, which is forced by the software. In my view, it doesn't make sense. However, that's not a bug, but a design gap.

psquare said:

Again, things are blown out of proportion here. Can I please ask you to re-read posts re off-peak charging?

I charge my car off-peak every night and don't have to do any of these sort of activities you describe. I certainly didn't have to hack it and do not intend to. (To what purpose anyway?)

The occasional problems I had stem from situations where I charged "immediately" during the day away from my house (where the data signal is poor). On returning to my house, the car might not have been able to talk to BMW server and therefore the app couldn't send commands to the car. As you might appreciate, this is not a BMW problem.

The other situation people described on here is the minimum SOC charge the car goes through, despite off-peak being enabled.

The only design flaw I put at BMW's doors is the linking of departure time and off-peak charge, which is forced by the software. In my view, it doesn't make sense. However, that's not a bug, but a design gap.

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It's laughable that you can't understand other i3 owners could be experiencing problems with their cars.

How could these issues not be a BMW problem? It is a BMW car running BMW software. If the BMW engineers chose to implement a system that required a perfect internet connection and perfect response from BMW servers to function properly that is their choice. They are still responsible for the fact that it was perhaps not the best way to implement low cost charging.

While I don't have dog in this hunt (CO doesn't have ToU charging available to us), its pretty inexcusable for the low-cost charging to not just work better. I get that there may be quirks, but people have been complaining about low cost charging not working correctly for 18 months now.

WHere I park my i3, it can have marginal telemetric coverage. Is that BMW's problem? There are places where that have lousy coverage, it doesn't matter whose carrier you use. If the car can't talk to the server, trying to do anything from the app can fail. Making the changes IN the car, though, should work reliably. I resort to that if I can't get it to work via the app, maybe 30% of the time.

I know it's a wild and crazy idea, but how about a system that does not use a server? How about simply telling the car when your low-cost window is and that's that? Why involve the Internet at all........ I recall that my VHS VCR back in 1985 had that capability: just set a mechanical timer and it knows when to turn on and off, surely BMW can emulate this in the i3!

Honestly, YES, it is BMWs fault for designing a system that requires a perfect internet connection at all times to function correctly. They had a blank sheet of paper and this is what they came up with, how are they NOT responsible for their choices?

It is also BMWs fault for telling their NA customers that the iRemote app is unsupported when they complain about the lack of functionality. This has been reported here by several posters......

psquare said:

I think you are blowing things out of proportion a little. Obviously not the first this is happening...

The off-peak charging is not as buggy as you claim to be. As I stated, I have become used to its quirks and know how to get it working. I have logged the issue with the in-car software (not the iRemote app, btw) with my dealership, who had already raised this with BMW i. Forums like this provide potential users help in resolving the off-peak issues.

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Lucky you. If I follow your steps on my panda, all seems to be fine until I will find a car with empty bat at the morning. It does not work as it has to. My dealer is not able to help as well.

WoodlandHills said:

I know it's a wild and crazy idea, but how about a system that does not use a server? How about simply telling the car when your low-cost window is and that's that? Why involve the Internet at all........

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If you do this IN the car via the I-drive menus, that's exactly what happens...you do NOT need the app and therefore the internet. Being able to do it from remote is more convenient, but you're dealing with not only the internet via a cellphone connection, but also a server that then talks to the car. Some places have better cellphone coverage than others which is a fact of life. Moving my car a few feet can make the difference of making a connection or not where I live. The thing will only retry so many times before it gives up.