2019 i3S 18000 miles Battery only shows 129 miles when fully charged overninght?

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jgpapillon

New member
Joined
Dec 17, 2022
Messages
2
Hello,

My 2019 i3S (18000 miles) battery only shows 129 miles range when fully charged overnight? The car is on a 240 V charger in my garage with temperature around 55 degrees F.
As soon as I start driving the car on ECO, the range drops to 118 or less very quickly. I mainly drive on country back roads at 45 to 50 mph because freeway speeds will drop it even quicker....I am pretty far from a BMW dealer and not sure if I can reach them.

Any idea, if the cold weather really affect the battery that much. Temps here in Frederick County Md have been in the upper 30's to mid 40's

Thank you for any advice you might be able to offer.

Jacques
 
Get into your car's hidden menu to check battery capacity. What you'll be down isn't a 100% reliable number but it's good enough for a start.

https://youtu.be/ELT5b2YWL58

You're looking for something in the 37 range for your 120 Ah 2019 model.

Based on what you're describing, the reduced range you're seeing is probably related to winter driving. Without getting into nitty gritty detail, the warm garage sounds like a primary defense against a cold soaked battery overnight. Has it been raining? Do you use a lot of heat?
 
Is this a REx model, because those have a lower rating, don't they? I thought it was 126 miles for REx, 153 for BEV.

How do you drive? Lots of short trips? I'm in NoVa about an hour south of you, and if I run a lot of short trips of 2-3 miles with gaps in between, indicated range really drops off because of cabin and battery temperature cycling back to cold. However, if I take a longer trip, I see the range come back. My 2018 is 94ah, longest trip I've done is to South Richmond and back, made it on two charges. On the return trip up I-95, I went 95 miles on 63%, cruise mostly set on 71-72. It was a nice day, though, low 60s, so very low HVAC demand. Still, I was impressed, it exceeded my estimate.

Maybe take a longer drive and see how it goes... there a lots of chargers between Frederick and DC, west to Hagerstown, and south down 15 (EA in Leesburg and again in Haymarket, EVGo in Leesburg, etc), so you could get a feel for the range on a single trip without having to worry about being stranded.
 
My car is a full electric vehicle not a REX. I never take long trips because I don't want to have to look for chargers along the way. I use the car for 10 to 20 miles trips in average and the range was fine, showing 152 miles when full. Now I am showing a much lower range even though it is charged in same garage with same charger. I keep heat at 74 degrees and fan on #2. No AC this time of year and heated seats very infrequently...
I haven't try to access the secret menu yet, but I will do that shortly.

Thank you for your responses.
 
The "range" takes into account your driving over the last 18 miles or so. If you have used the HEATER, this drops the range a LOT.
I have a 2017 BEV with the 33kWh/94ah battery and as soon as it got cool outside, my range dropped by a relatively similar amount...because we use the HEATER in the car, and we have Winter Tires installed as well.
 
jgpapillon said:
I never take long trips...
I keep heat at 74 degrees and fan on #2. No AC this time of year and heated seats very infrequently...
These two things conspire to report low range. Heat at 74, especially when not in ECO PRO, will drop range a LOT. With a full charge, set ECO PRO and then check the eDrive menu for how much range it's costing you.

You could precondition the cabin while still plugged in, that will help.

I've learned to keep the heat much lower (62-68 depending on how cold outside), and use the seat heater. They are PHENOMENAL, work well beyond any I've ever had, and use probably 10% of the power that the cabin heat does.

I wish I had the 153 mile battery. That would take the edge off my trips to Charlottesville and WV. But I've done these many times without issue.
 
My 2019 I3S ( 22k) in warm weather comes off the charger with typically 175-180 (sometimes 186) miles and then this drops to about 150 on the freeway at 65. I don't use either the heater or the air most of the time. But in cold weather say below 55 I am typically about 145 off the charger and it drops rapidly from freeway driving. So compared to my car, if you are not using heat or any electric feature, your battery sounds a bit low. There are ways to test the kappa or capacity through the secret menu and you can learn about that here. Good luck.
 
jgpapillon said:
My car is a full electric vehicle not a REX.
If it doesn't include a heat pump which was an extra-cost option for 2019 U.S. i3's, its efficiency when the cabin heater is on would be no better than a REx.
 
Back
Top