More Range Extender Details Uncovered At BMW i Dealer Training

BMW has been hosting i3 training events to get their client advisers up to speed and ready to sell the car. I'm very happy to hear they are doing this because I was really beginning to get concerned that they wouldn't properly prepare their sales staff for this unique vehicle. I even dedicated a post a few months ago to this very topic. I've now talked to a few client advisers that have done the training and they reported that they did indeed get a lot of useful information which will help them service their clients.

The i3's tiny fuel tank is seen here at right in front of the battery pack in the center of the car.  This is where the heat pump is located and why you cannot get the heat pump if you have an i3 REx

This week the latest round of training sessions are being held up at BMW headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ and details of what is being taught are starting to leak out from some of the client advisers that are there. A couple things of interest shared were details about the range extender the i3 will offer as an option.

First, it was learned that the range extender is automatically activated once the state of charge drops below 6.5%. At that moment, it turns on and it's function is to bring the state of charge back up to 6.5% and to maintain that level of charge. It will not charge the car much above 6.5%, and it will not run if the car is stopped, unless the state of charge is critically low. Therefore you can't it in a stationary i3 and wait for the state of charge to increase. I knew the automatic turn on point was around 5% to 6%, but now we have an exact level when it engages.

US i3 REx customers wish they had the European "hold" feature available

You cannot manually turn the range extender off. This is contrary to what I was told by an i3 product manager at the i3 debut in New York City last July. I remember asking this specific question by saying "What if I knew I'd make it home on electric, say I only had a mile or two to go and the REx was about to turn on, could I just turn it off so it's doesn't fire up?" I was told yes, there will be a setting that will allow you to turn it off before it engages, but that setting will reset once you turn the car off. The reason for that is so that the next time you get in the car you won't forget that you had turned off the REx and you may end up needing it. I would have definitely preferred to be able to turn it off manually, and honestly can't see why that isn't going to be allowed.

The range extender exhaust is tucked away under the car so you can't see the tailpipe unless you crawl underneath to look

We also found out that the client advisers have been told that while the range extender is in operation the speed of the car will be electronically limited to 70mph. I'm not buying that; I think they were misinformed. I really think there was a miscommunication on this one because I have had conversations with people at BMW that know a lot about this and even very recently they assured me that there isn't an electronically governed speed limit while the range extender is in operation. I believe the confusion about 70mph is based on the fact that 70mph is basically the top speed that the range extender can comfortably maintain the 6.5% state of charge at while driving on relatively flat ground. The people I've talked to in Europe that have i3's with the range extender say they can drive on the highway at just about 120 km/hr (75mph) and maintain the SOC, but anything higher and the SOC will gradually diminish. It's my contention that the people running the training sessions either aren't 100% clear on this, or they really meant for the client advisers to warn the customers that 70mph is really the fastest they should drive at if they need to drive for a long distance. In any event, I believe they got this one wrong and there isn't an electronic limit, we'll find out pretty soon since the US i3 launch should be in about two weeks.

The BMW i3 range extender is located next to the electric motor and power electronics, over the rear axle.

I saved the biggest news for last. It was learned that the US version of the i3 REx will have not have a 2.4 gallon gas tank as the European version does. Instead it will have only a 1.9 gallon gas tank. I'm going to pause for a moment to let everybody scream bloody murder now...... I know it's only half a gallon, but in the case of the i3, that just reduced the gas tank by 21%! For me this is a non-issue, but I know there are a lot of people that will not like this at all. 99% of the time I use the added range of the REx it will likely be for less than 40 miles. Yes, this does reduce the utility of long range trips even more, as you will now probably have to stop for gas every 40 or 50 miles. There was no reasons given for the smaller gas tank but as far as I can imagine, this comes down to one of two things. Since BMW wants needs the i3 REx to qualify as a BEVx and one of the qualifications of the BEVx is that the car has a smaller gasoline range than it does electric range, my thinking is that one of these two things led to the smaller gas tank:

1) The EPA rating for all electric range on the REx came out lower than they believed it would. If they used the 2.4 gallon gas tank, the gas range would be slightly longer than the all electric range, therefore causing it to be disqualified for the BEVx designation. The only simple way to make the gas range less than the electric range was to reduce the gas range by using a smaller gas tank.

2) The EPA rating for the MPG while in range extender mode came out higher than expected, creating the same problem cited above; a longer range in REx mode than in all electric mode. I've heard it gets anywhere from 36mpg to 46mpg from people driving REx's in Europe so this is a possibility. If the range extender got rated at 40mpg, and was using a 2.4 gallon gas tank, then the electric range would need to be 96 miles per charge, which is highly unlikely. If they cut the tank down to 1.9 gallons, then the electric range would only need to be greater than 79 miles per charge, which I believe is attainable, even considering that the REx version will have 6.5% less battery to use than the BEV i3 does, as this is held in reserve as a buffer.

So what do you think? Has any of these new revelations changed you mind about the REx?

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The BMW i3 Price is $41,350!

BMW North America sent out a press release at 3:00am this morning announcing the base MSRP for the i3 will be $41,350. With the mandatory destination and handling ($925) the final price before any options and tax incentives is $42,275. No surprises here except it will be available in the 2nd quarter of 2014. Most previous reports had the car being available in the US in early 2014 so it looks like we'll have a couple months extra to wait. If you read my last blog post I said I expect it to cost $42,000 and I was pretty much spot on. So after deducting for the federal tax credit an i3 can be had for $34,775 which in my opinion is good enough to give the i3 a real chance at volume sales here in the US. There is still a lot to find out like the EPA range rating and how the range extender works, and I expect to get a lot of those questions answered on the 29th(next Monday) when the official introduction of the i3 takes place so stay tuned. Here's the official Press release from BMW NA:

US Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price just $41,350

The Ultimate Driving Machine® in a new era of sustainability

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – 3:00 am EDT/12:00 am PDT July 22, 2013…  BMW today announced pricing for the ground-breaking BMW i3 electric vehicle. The Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (without Destination & Handling) in the US will be $41,350, before any federal or state incentives.  The Destination & Handling fee in the US is currently $925.

 “The BMW i3 heralds the dawn of a new era for individual mobility and for the BMW Group. True to a genuine BMW, the BMW i3 has strong emotional appeal, outstanding product substance and a guarantee of sheer driving pleasure,” said Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management, Sales and Marketing BMW. “With this leading-edge vehicle and attractive price, we will provide customers with a compelling offer for electromobility.”

The BMW i3’s 170 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque hybrid-synchronous electric motor, developed and produced by BMW, is electrified by a 22-kWh lithium-ion battery, good for 80-100 miles of emission-free driving. Designed from the ground up to be an electric car, the BMW i3 uses the Industry’s first mass produced carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) passenger cell mounted on an aluminum chassis.

The BMW i3 will offer interior space comparable to the legendary BMW 3 Series on a shorter overall body. Its 32.3-foot turning circle and a relatively long wheelbase make it agile and engaging to drive, yet ideally suited to driving in dense urban areas.

Quick and convenient charging is possible either with the home charging station supplied by BMW i or at any public charging station that uses a Level 2 SAE J1772 charging system. DC fast charging, using the SAE DC Combo-Fast Charger, will be available as an option. From a public fast-charging station, it will provide an 80 percent charge from a fully depleted battery in just 20 minutes.

BMW i’s commitment to sustainable urban mobility encompasses the i3 production facilities, where hydro-electric, wind and solar power are used to power the CFRP production facilities in Moses Lake, Washington and the Leipzig, Germany assembly line. Sustainable materials are also used for the BMW i3 interior upholstery and trim.

The BMW i3 will make its world debut at three simultaneous events in New York, London and Beijing on Monday, July 29. It will arrive in US showrooms in the second quarter of 2014.

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World's First BMW's i3 Test Drive: I Get The Honor!

It may not be the color I'd choose, but I can say I'm the first person outside of BMW to drive an i3!

It had to be somebody. There can only be one person who gets to be the first person to do something. BMW's first production electric vehicle, the highly anticipated 2014 i3 has had a couple of journalist "ride alongs" where they were passengers in test mule cars, but nobody outside of BMW had been given the keys to a pre-production i3 and been allowed to drive it. Until yesterday.

BMW's North American Headquarters

I spent most of last week at the NY Auto Show and a good deal of the time there at the BMW display. I had the opportunity to speak with many of the top BMW executives as well as many of the BMW i program managers. It's no secret that BMW's US headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ has had half a dozen pre-production i3's for a few months now. In fact, BMW recently announced they have made a few hundred pre-production i3's rfor final validation. While at the show, I had been asking every person I spoke to one question: "So when do I get to drive an i3?" I think I must have asked that 20 times. My persistence paid off big time. On Thursday Jacob Harb the Head of Electric Vehicle Operations and Strategy for BMW of North America came up and and asked me, "What are you doing Sunday?" "Sunday? Sunday's Easter so I'll be at my parents' house with the rest of my family, but...aaa... what do you have in mind?" I replied. He then went on to tell me if I wanted to drive a pre-production i3, I could. The only thing is I had to do it 8:00am Sunday morning. The entire BMW campus in Woodcliff Lake would be closed and no employees would be there so they could control the whole event. I would have one half hour to drive the car all over the campus (which is very large with huge empty parking lots) and could drive the car as spirited as I wanted to. Needless to say, I accepted!

My security badge

My parents live in Fairfield, NJ which is only about 25 minutes from the Woodcliff Lake Campus so this was easy to arrange and really didn't impact any family plans because it was so early. The rules were I would be allowed to take one picture of me with the car and it couldn't show any of the interior which was completely production-ready. I was given a one day security badge to allow my access to the campus and there would be one employee there to ride along with me. I had to sign some documents that would restrict me from revealing very specific functions and details, but other than that I was free to write or say whatever I wanted to. The Woodcliff Lake Campus is really perfect for this as it's in a rural area surrounded by trees and security booths at all the entrances. Nobody could see what we were doing or take pictures of us.

I arrived at the campus at 7:45am and followed the directions to the technical center where the car was to be. When I arrived there was a familiar face waiting for me. It was Dave Mustac, the technical coordinator for the ActiveE and Electric Vehicle Aftersales Specialist. I kind of felt bad that he had to come here for this on Easter Sunday, but he said he lived close and really didn't mind. I hope that was the case. The car was inside so we had to go in and get it. When we got to the room where it was, I was stunned to see six i3's all gathered together in there. Three of them had the blue swirly camouflage that we've been seeing and three others were painted bright yellow. Not exactly the color I would choose, but for this I didn't care what color it was. I assumed I would be regulated to one of the camouflaged ones, but the first car in line was a yellow one and Dave walked over to it as I followed.  The bright yellow color kind of reminded me of a crash test car, but these obviously aren't being used for that.

It was a BEV i3 although there were three with the range extender option also. He handed me the keys and smiled saying, "I know you've waited for this for a while now," and he was right. I pulled out and the first thing I did was drive on the main road that circles the campus. There were long straight-aways and I could really see how much punch it had. It didn't disappoint! It's definitely much faster than the ActiveE, obviously the result of it having the same power while being nearly 1,300lbs lighter. After circling the campus I pulled off into one of the large parking lots which was completely empty and I did some autocross-like maneuvers. It has remarkable poise even with the thin tires on 20" non-production wheels. They held tight on even the tightest turns and barely even squealed as I pushed the car to the limit. 

After about 40 minutes Dave reminded me we did have to wrap things up. I noticed I used 30% of the charge but didn't look at the mileage when I started (I was too excited) so that's not much help with the expected range. The instruments - which I can't really talk about were very impressive and I think will be well received. Please ask questions below and I'll answer whatever I can but remember there are a lot of things I can't comment about. Special thanks to Dave for taking time out of his Easter Sunday to come and make sure I didn't leave the campus with it! I can't wait till I get the next opportunity to take one for a longer (and maybe unsupervised) drive!

UPDATE: For those that haven't figured it yet, this was an April Fools joke. Unfortunately I haven't had the privilege to test drive an i3...yet. Hopefully I'll get to be one of the first that does, but we'll have to wait to see... Special thanks to follower Chris Llana who did the photoshop work for the picture above. I know he spent a while on it and it definitely tricked a good amount of people. I even got emails from some people asking if I could tell them info on the car!

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