Subj : Re: EVs To : Avon From : poindexter FORTRAN Date : Fri Oct 13 2023 02:03 pm -=> Avon wrote to All <=- Av> So I'm looking at getting an EV and have been learning a lot about Av> them, batteries etc. Wondering if anyone here is driving one? Has any Av> experience with them? I just bought a used 2018 BMW i3 with range extender, 14K miles. They're great little "city" cars perfectly capable of the occasional trip. It's small, but we have a SUV for snow and long/family trips. I work from home, so most of my driving lately is picking up kids from school, errands, weekend jaunts with my wife and the occasional 60 mile round trip to-from an office. The range extender is a nice way of easing into electric without knowing about the state of charge. I think my next car will be full electric, based on how ranges are increasing. Some of these insights are probably USA-only. 1. Battery life over time seems better than I'd heard based on owners of 2013-2014 experiences. 2. Mine has a range of approximately 120 miles, with a 80 mile "range extender". It's a 650cc scooter engine that acts as a generator to charge the battery. It doesn't power the car directly. Theoretically, you could drive till the battery is depleted, then keep going on the range extender by filling the 1.9 gallon tank every 80 miles until you find a charging station. 'range anxiety' is a thing. With my Prius, I could go 450 miles on a tank and fill up anywhere. You don't realize how many gas stations there are in the US until you don't need to stop at them. :) 3. There are several competing DC charger networks out there, I'm trying them all. I do most of my charging at home, though. Electrify America is big, but their chargers are not always 100% functional. Apparently EA is one of Volkswagen of America's penances for Dieselgate and they were ordered to pay to set up an EV network - but not so much to maintain it. 4. I did a kitchen remodel 3 years ago and had my floors pulled up. While they were doing that, I had them run an electrical line from my breaker box to my car port. Unfortunately, they pulled 10 gauge wire, not 8 gauge. With 10 gauge wire, I can support a 20 amp circuit, but a 40 amp circuit would have required 8. You're only supposed to run 75% of the rated capacity, so my car charges at 16 amps instead of 32. I'm assuming NZ is 220/240v, so you're halfway there to charging. A 220/240 20 amp circuit isn't as rare as it is here, where we run 110. I mostly charge overnight, it takes around 6 or 7 hours, so not a big deal. 5. I got a EV utility plan at home - my price per kwh is roughly half of peak pricing between 12am and 3pm. Definitly worth looking into if you get an EV. I had to provide a VIN to apply for the plan. 6. Maintenance is less frequent, as there are much fewer moving parts. I walked through an auto parts store and was amazed at how many fluids and spare parts were for sale to keep cars running. By way of comparison, I have a simple maintenance schedule - a yearly oil change for the range extender, replace the brake fluid and plugs once every 2 years. i3s have an oddball tire size, and there's only one manufacturer of them. They're around 225 a tire here. 7. Idiots in diesel trucks love to get in front and "roll coal" - flooring it so you get swamped in diesel smoke. Idiots. They like to park their trucks to block public chargers, too. 8. There are a ton of apps that let you find charging stations and compare costs. My car has an app that lets you send info to the in-car nav, and it has the ability to look up charging stations. 9. EV drivers are a friendly lot. I end up striking up a conversation with other EV owners when I charge at a public charger. Tesla drivers are the exception - they usually use their own network, and sit in their cars while charging. 10. BMW i3s are "hackable", with an app called Bimmercode and a Bluetooth OBD sensor, you can change all sorts of defaults with the displays, the car's behavior and the lighting. I used it to fold down my mirrors when I park and to control when the range extender kicks in and add the "sport mode" option from the S model. 11. The speakers in the base audio system are rubbish. I replaced them with a BMW-specific 4" 2-way speaker in around 30 minutes and the sound is much better. 12. They accelerate QUICKLY. After years of feather-footing it when merging onto freeways, I can boot it and pass cars on the freeway before fully merging. There's no gearbox and no torque curve with an electric motor. It's all there, all the time. .... The tape is now the music --- MultiMail/Win v0.52 * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122) .