[Erik-AA]

I was hoping that the BMW app would let me use my phone to tell the car to warm up both cabin and battery before I head to the parking lot.
Question: Will it do this if the car is not plugged in to a charger? If not I don't see why I would pay for a subscription. I can charge (for free) at work but I live in a complex where there are no chargers available.

Right now I can't get the car (2018 i3s) to warm up much at all unless I am in it. If I turn it on and then get out to brush off the snow, it shuts down the HVAC as soon as I close the door. WTF? On every gas car I have owned this was routine -- start the car and let the heater start to warm the windshield while scraping the snow. Is there some setting I need to change to enable this?

The freeway on-ramp is about a mile from my home. When it's like 5 degrees F, the acceleration is .... leisurely. And the top speed is .... low. Not a good thing when trying to merge onto I-94. Sure wish I could tell the car to warm up in advance! I can charge when I get to work so I don't care much that this takes some energy out of the battery.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[vreihen16]

Program departure times, and let the car figure everything out.....

[Erik-AA]

I tried and was unable to program departure times. Can I do it from the screen in the car? what is the trick?

[vreihen16]

On the iDrive screen in the car. Those of us with earlier model year cars no longer have remote app access since the 3G cellular system shutdown about a year ago.....

[35mphgolf]

As everyone said, you’ve got to set a departure time to precondition the battery and optionally, precondition the cabin.

[TwoLiterSoda]

If it isn’t charging you can still go out to car, start it, and select precondition which will keep it on when you get out of car.

[vreihen16]

I think that there was also an option in BimmerCode to turn one of the key fob buttons into a pre-condition button. I've been meaning to set it on my i3, but haven't got a round tuit yet.....

[vreihen16]

Instructions to program the diamond/panic button on your key fobs to pre-condition the i3, from another forum:

Bimmercode, Body Domain Controller module in expert mode and set 30D0->RC_DEFAULT_IDG_4TH_BUTTON_MID to Wert_07 (Auxiliary Cooling), that did the job (note that is wasn't working using button #3).

I did this to my 2015 i3 yesterday, and it appeared to work. I just wish that it would flash the lights for visual confirmation, but I'll take what they give us at this point since the 3G cellular system sunset.....