Quote:
Originally Posted by Coastali8
I can’t figure out why anyone would give a rat’s ass about battery range. I can’t believe that BMW built this car thinking that anybody would buy it as an EV when it will only travel 15-20 miles on the battery alone. The EV range is a joke.
The battery and electric drive I believe were designed just to assist the tiny fuel efficient 3 cylinder engine. Enabling the car to perform like a less fuel efficient car with a much larger gas guzzling engine.
What BMW created was a relatively high performance sports car that is inexpensive to own and operate.
And a lot of fun to drive!
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I guess it depends the purpose of it - if commuting / as your only car, the range for my longer journeys means it's £1000 a year in fuel difference (12,000 miles) even after paying more tax (in the UK at least - the UK had a weird tax change that pre March 2017 models paid £0 tax).
If your typical journey between charges were < 15 miles or much more than >60 miles regularly it would make little to no difference. But if you're between this sweet spot you get a decent return using EV mode for these miles.
Again, for people using it for:
- A weekend drive only
- A minimal distance a year
- A 'super/sports car' experience
- A second car
- Super short journeys
- >60 miles journeys
Then the bigger battery is completely pointless. But as a main car, commuting range between these, it's pretty awesome. If I'm going to be cruising on the motorway for 30-60 minutes, why not do it for pennies? It's not especially enjoyable to me to be going insane speeds on a motorway.
On a weekend drive, it's a different scenario completely. If you saw a nice fun road, you'd be mad to keep it in EV mode. These cars are 100% meant to be enjoyed in sports mode! I have a rule - if I see a fun road, I
HAVE to enjoy myself. If you just used EV mode on these roads, you've just bought yourself a £120,000 Nissan Leaf.
But for cruising for miles on straight commuting road, EV mode has many benefits and few drawbacks.