Why the BMW i3-REx

This is easy, bought in May 2016:

• 2014 BMW i3-REx, end of lease, $28k, 6k mi., now has 34k mi.
• Tesla Model 3 was unavailable.

Best of all, it can go from Colorado to Carlsbad and back without batting an eye. Broken charger, no problem. All occupied, no problem. Trip planning is trivial.

Bob Wilson

 

I owe you an apology for my snarky comment. Eventually I watched the video and he pretty well nailed the differences and similarities. The only thing he missed is the seat height which for my elderly wife is important. I call the BMW i3 a microVan or SUV-lite as it has the VW MicroBus spirit if not the internal volume.

We just passed 34k miles on the BMW and the Prime is approaching 13k miles. For efficiency, the Prime is great for utility and the BMW excels in weather extremes. Individually they each have features similar to the long range Model 3 ... and their short comings can be tolerated. Oh well, dogs to walk.

Later,
Bob Wilson

 

• $18.80 - EV cost
  • $4.40 - (est) Blink, 7.626 kWh, 1 h 25 min
  • $13.65 - EVgo, 16.35 kWh, 39 min
  • $0.75 - home, 7.487 kWh, 1h 37 min
• $6.15 - Costco, 2.252 gal (premium) 5 min, 106 miles
  • ~6 mi EV, to visit Tesla Store, top off tank, late lunch
• Shelbyville Blink charger broken and no maintenance contract. Continued to very nice Nissan dealer for a free charge. Estimated the cost, $4.40, for 1h 25m (85 min) at a working Blink charger.

FACEBOOK POSTING

I repeated my EV drive to Nashville and return on gas to visit the Tesla Store in Brentwood a southern suburb. A shorter distance, the L2 (208-240 VAC) Blink charger in Shelbyville TN was down so my fallback was the Nissan dealer five miles down the road.

Open business hours, Nissan let me charge the car while in their customer lounge. In 85 minutes the 24A charger gave just enough, 7.626 kWh, to reach the fast DC charger at Brentwood WMCA with a 10 mile reserve. There it took 39 minutes, 16.35 kWh at a cost of $13.65 including pre-cooling the cabin. Enough to reach the Tesla Store.

The Tesla Store lot was full of Teslas with a small staff of 6-8 training new owners on their car. This attention to quality reduces future problems but means turnover, completing sales, takes longer. So I asked, 'If I wanted one, would I have to order it over the web?'

The Tesla rep said, 'We could get you one of our standard configurations in about four weeks." Those are committed cars in the lot, undelivered inventory. Tesla chose quality over quantity so they are slow to move out. Next door, the Lexus dealer had four salesmen sitting in lawn chairs waiting for customers.

The gas drive back burned $6.25, 2.252 gal of premium, with a 1 mile reserve. So $18.80 EV and ~5 hrs outbound versus $6.15 gas ~2 hrs to return.

Bob Wilson

 

It was a dark and rainy night when I got to the fast DC charger and plugged in. Leaving the car ON, I had heat and accessed the City WiFi network. Sad to say, there was a news SUV parked in the second parking place but I was warm and dry. With 12 minutes left at 81% SOC, a Leaf showed up.

He parked behind the SUV and came up to look at the BMW and I invited him to the passenger side. For the next 12 minutes we chatted about the BMW i3-REx and I gave him one of my 'handout' sheets. We also went over my driving experiments from Huntsville-to-Nashville on EV, L2 and CCS, and back using gas.

Sad to say, he was disappointed in his Leaf with just over 80 mile range and no support or sympathy from the dealer. His other CHAdeMO option is the Nissan dealer 35 miles away and now closed in Decatur. With my Rex, I could have left secure in the knowledge I would get home except I was in EV mode. If he'd offered $3 for a gallon of gas, I would have moved on BUT neither of us brought it up and I enjoyed talking about our BMW i3-REx.

Charging ended with 91.5% SOC and I drove to the L2 charger two miles away at Propst. I bought groceries and got my flu shot at StarMarket, part of the Propst business group. The rain intensified so I went to 1892 restaurant while the rain relented. Remotely, I turned on preconditioning to warm the cabin and left for home with 100% SOC.

Bob Wilson