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      09-17-2013, 05:44 PM   #1
tomegun
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i3 Motor Question

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I wrote a long post and it didn't work. Simply put, does the motor allow the owner to go from gas station to gas station. I am concerned that hot Vegas summers will result in less than 80 miles to a charge.

I am also concerned about this car being manly enough but that is a different subject.
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      09-17-2013, 06:31 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomegun View Post
I wrote a long post and it didn't work. Simply put, does the motor allow the owner to go from gas station to gas station. I am concerned that hot Vegas summers will result in less than 80 miles to a charge.

I am also concerned about this car being manly enough but that is a different subject.
Yes, you can keep driving by filling up the gas tank on the occasions that you need to.

As for the manliness of the car, that's your call on what you are comfortable with. It is fun to drive, I can assure you. Personally I could drive a pink smart car with eye lashes on the headlights and not give a rats a$$ what the guy next to me thinks.
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      09-17-2013, 08:55 PM   #3
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The on-board generator might have problems keeping up if you were climbing up a mountain and the battery had triggered the generator on. The size of the generator is such that it can maintain the battery voltage in 'normal' driving, but hauling ass up a mountain pass may not qualify! But, in real, normal driving, it should be able to maintain, since there are ups and downs most of the time! The way they get the battery life out of the thing is by both conditioning it (heating and cooling) AND limiting how far you can discharge it. No battery likes to be deeply discharged, and the range extender is intended to prevent that while keeping you moving, but not in extended, extreme conditions. FWIW, this is my take on this, and I have no insight in the actual vehicle other than what I've read.

Considering that the thing is intended as a city car with lots of stop and go in the normal mix, and no long highway treks, I think this is a reasonable compromise.
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      09-18-2013, 12:34 AM   #4
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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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      09-18-2013, 10:14 AM   #5
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I've heard that this situation is possible. Remember that the REX has a 2.5 gallon tank and a best case range of 80 miles per fill up though, and that's probably at slower than interstate speeds, so to cover 500 miles, you'd be doing a lot of stopping, say 150 miles on the first tank and battery, and then 60-70 miles with each fill up, making a 500 mile trip at least seven stops, assuming you are driving in congested enough areas that there are gas stations every seventy miles.

This reminds me of when I used to work in Germany and saw Smart For2's in the slow lane of the unlimited stretches of the Autobahn. Sure, you can do it, but do you really want to?
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      09-18-2013, 06:22 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomegun View Post
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.
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
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