jadnashuanh said:
Unless you code your car when sold in the USA, you can't turn the REx on manually, which means you'll be skirting with potentially not having all of the power needed. If your speeds are kept lower, the REx can keep up.
Unless CARB is giving credits for BMW i3-REx sold in non-CARB states, BMW really should offer two variants. It is not that hard to tract vehicle versions. True enough, I coded the car before I left the dealer lot and didn't know if it worked until I'd gotten out of the Charlotte beltway.
I am an 11 year, Prius owner who recently gave our first, 2003 Prius to our house keeper. We still have a 2010 Prius and I'm seriously looking at replacing it with the i3-REx. Other car makers have differentiated a CARB compliant versus non-CARB car. BMW could do the same thing. Just I'm used to the 65-70 mph being the threshold between 52 MPG and 39 MPG @75 mph.
One of my suggestions to Prius owners who want higher mileage is to use semi-trailer trucks as a pacing vehicle. By following far enough to avoid road debris, over-taking traffic will ignore the Prius and smoothly pass the semi-trailer. Without the truck as 'cover', over-taking traffic will tailgate the Prius. In fact some trucking companies are reliable 65 mph cover.
jadnashuanh said:
. . . The motor is 170hp, and then the electronics and cabin conditioning all take power. The REx is 34hp...cruising on the level below 70mph, the REx can keep up. THrow in a hill or a big headwind, and it probably can't. Depends on how long your power need exceeds what the REx can provide (that comes out of the battery, lowering the SOC)...if you get the battery SOC too low, things will abruptly slow down. If you stop, it will slowly build back up. If your load doesn't exceed the REx output, you can drive as long as you have fuel in the tank. Things are a little less traumatic as delivered elsewhere, since you can try to keep the battery well within the range where you can use all of the power you want, at least for most situations.
The coding worked perfectly on my drive home. Charlotte is 710 ft and the highest pass on I40 is +2800 ft. I recently measured a 4% drop in SOC for 500 ft at 20 mph. So the climb alone would taken about 20-25% of the SOC but I would have made it even without the code. The reason is I learned in the Prius to follow semi-trailer trucks in the climb lane and that is exactly what I did even with the range extender running. I was keeping up with traffic ... the semi-trailer traffic.
The rest of the trip was unremarkable with the expected number of fuel stops. The CARB credits should not hobble a car that is licensed outside of a CARB state. The current situation encourages 'independent' coding instead of what is needed, CARB state, specific enforcement.
In my first week, I learned the BMW i3-REx is excellent for joining 'the leaders of the pack' on local, cross town roads. It is fun but I don't feel comfortable having to deal with cop-paranoia on a regular basis. My Prius habits are lower stress and the BMW i3-REx excels with those loads.
Bob Wilson