Bought a 2017 today

sweeeeet!

 

You'll want to check into pre-conditioning in the winter; a wonderful feature. Electrical heater use can use a lot of energy especially if the driver habitually "cranks the temp up" in the morning like my wife does. Pre-heating the cabin with wall power and using electric seats during the drive are much more efficient and more comfortable too but you'll need 240v to supply enough power to keep the battery full otherwise the car will draw on the battery to make up for using slower 120v.

 

The heated seats do work pretty nice in the Gen 1 Volt if you had that option in it. A heated steering wheel would've helped immensely too, so that'll come in very handy when it gets colder.

On some days where it wasn't bitterly cold, I'd just crack the driver window and rear passenger window to create a little airflow to prevent the windshield from fogging up if I was going to attempt to drive without heat.

Then I concluded that burning some gas in winter and using the heat is a much better option than freezing.

 

pip has the charge schedule thing too, very handy.

 

love it! really looks sharp. i dislike the uv myself.

 

what's the tint law there? did you get 3m?

 

nice. i should look into that.

 

Thumbs up on a 50 amp service line into an external, NEMA 14-50 plug. Just I went with a JuiceBox Pro 40, box on the right, which comes with a WiFi link, the small antenna, that reaches back to their service through my home WiFi:

The picture reminds me I need to dress the cable. I needed a new utility service line so we upgraded from 100A to 200A service and added a transfer switch for a natural gas fired generator.

Their server allows web and smart phone access to historical records. On July 21-22, 4.76 kWh was used which in Huntsville costing $0.476. After the initial charge, around 5 AM, pre-conditioning cooled down the cabin. The BMW i3-REx has a liquid cooled battery and actively maintains the battery temperature for optimum performance. This "overhead" is part of the price of an EV and separate from the miles per kilowatt hour or MPGe:


Here is another web interface report:
Again showing the normal recharging at the end of the day and on the right, pre-conditioning.

One other aspect is called the I**R losses:

Again from the web interface:

• 30.1 amps
• 7.224 kW rate of charge
• 41 C (104 F) - North Alabama
• 240 VAC - 50 A wiring minimizes the voltage drop

There will always be electrical losses that an undersized wiring will increase. Traditional circuit breakers use a heating element to trip. The thickness of the wire also defines the running resistance. We pay for these losses, small as they may be, but a cost never the less.

Bob Wilson

 

you need to clean that up bob, looks a little like india.

 

we always fill up in jersey and s.c.

 

I fill up in NJ now and then, too.

 

if i lived there, i'd be driving a gas guzzler. you go, chris christy!