Quote:
Originally Posted by tomegun
I was really kidding about the manliness of the car. However, I took my wife's hybrid in for service today and they gave me a 3-series hybrid. Quick backstory: I sold my 1-Series earlier this year to save some money and pay off a rental property. I had a 2007 335 before that. I currently drive a 2008 Civic...as you can imagine, I miss my BMWs and I have some will power.
To be clear, you are both saying the i3 could travel say 500 miles as long as the driver keeps filling up with gas along the way? I understand the gas motor extends/doubles the range, but I want to know if the motor will allow several fill ups without plugging in.
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The range extender's goal is to keep the vehicle at 20% state of charge and allow it to keep driving along. It's maximum output is 25kW. The i3 cruising along the highway at 65mph will likely consume a steady ~15kW. Under this condition you could continue to drive as long as you want, provided you stop for gas when needed.
The problem arises only if you are driving under extreme conditions and the car is consistently consuming more than 25kW's. The 20% buffer will certainly allow you to drive under these strenuous conditions for a good while, but if you were driving up a 8% grade at 75mph for a ling time you would eventually use more than the car could supply and you would have reduced power.
An experienced driver will have no problem avoiding this and simply slow down or not plan to climb Pikes Peak once their battery has depleted under 20% and the REx came on. However for normal driving, yes, you can simply drive it as long as you need to by refilling the tiny gas tank.
It's not the best vehicle for 500 mile drives and it's not good to tow your 35 foot boat either. Horses for courses
