[unfoundnemo]

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I actually planned to cancel this trip because I have been putting a lot of miles on my X7 recently (6000+ miles in 3 months), but getting the i4 2 weeks ago, I figured it was a good test trip to see how I feel about longer journeys in an EV. It was the Steelers first pre-season game, and I typically take the ~300 mile each way trip a few times a year to see them and/or my alma mater (Pitt) play. It's one of the longest trips I would still rather take by car.

My SOC was 100% after topping off on 110 at home overnight... I haven't been driving very efficiently, so that was showing around 220 miles of range available. As expected, once I got on the highway and set cruise control, I saw that number stay put for my first 50 miles or so. I ended up averaging about 3.1 mi/kWh round trip which included a few spirited sessions each way (to get out of some minor congestion, catch up to a 1M I wanted a better look at after it flew by me, etc.), along with having my cruise control set to 80-85 mph for a decent portion of the drive.

On a side note, our new to us (recently adopted) dog was extremely excited to be on her first road trip. She couldn't get comfortable at first and spent those first 50 miles with her paws on the armrest looking out the windshield while somehow sitting on the rear seat... she's a bit of a slobber-mouth, so it was nerve-racking for someone like me who like to keep their interior spotless:


I used the BMW navigation and was really happy with my route planning. It just had 1 scheduled stop right at about the halfway point near one of my typical stops for this trip anyway. This adjusted once or twice along my route based on my driving style, potentially stopping for a shorter time at the same spot, then a second time near my destination. I figured I would take advantage of my 30 free minutes on EA regardless and have it correct itself back to the original plan.

Quite amusingly, the Sheetz I had stopped at in State College with an EA station was having network issues inside the Sheetz. Luckily it wasn't affecting EA, but they had all the gasoline pumps taped off, their MTO system was offline, and they were only accepting cash inside. It was just fun to see EA not having issues while people were turned away from the gas pumps.

The amount of time I was going to spend charging on road trips like this was definitely an initial concern of mine, but in both directions I found the 30 minutes was not nearly enough time to take the dog for a walk, go to the bathroom, grab a drink/snack, etc. I actually stopped/restarted the charger to get an extra free 10 minutes on my way out while we were finishing up, though that trick proved to be more of a hassle than it was worth. The car wouldn't initialize when I plugged it back in because it was saying charging wasn't required as I was already over the original charging target (it didn't stop short, just wouldn't charge a second session). Of course now that I know this, I could just adjust the charging target when I stop, or end the navigation altogether.

I ended up at my destination with just under 50% charge. I had originally planned to park in a garage across from my hotel with free level 2 chargers available, but back-to-back event parking meant I couldn't stay overnight, so I just parked at my hotel and made a quick stop at an EVgo station on my way out of town to make sure I could make it back to the same EA spot half-way (as the charging plan through BMW nav suggested anyway).

Overall, I'm very happy with how the car felt on the trip, how efficient it was without trying too hard, and how little charging effected my route and overall time. More importantly, the pup was able to figure out how to get comfortable in the car just before our first charging stop, and quickly went to this position upon entering the car thereafter:

[Raille]

Great write up, if I can get my e40 in before year end I'm hoping to test it out for a work trip. We have a terrier (might be part Corgi) that props herself up on the console so she can see out the windows a lot. I don't think I'd let our dogs into the i4, but cool to see yours got comfortable, so I might revisit this.

[falconey]

Really nice dawg and write up! But also no way!!!! Lol, just can't imagine not putting a blanket down or something to protect the interior.

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by falconey

Really nice dawg and write up! But also no way!!!! Lol, just can't imagine not putting a blanket down or something to protect the interior.

Ha, she's got one down under her somewhere. I have much more delicate leather in my house that she jumps on with no issues, along with the merino in my X7, though, so I didn't think twice about letting her romp around in the i4. The drool all over the armrest and carbon trim... that's a little different... I had some detailing supplies in my trunk in case she got sick, so a microfiber towel and some interior cleaner certainly moved their way into the cabin after that first stop.

[note46]

Sounds like it was a trouble free trip. Do you remember how fast the car was charging and what SOC the battery was when you plugged into EA. Also was it 150kw or 350kw?

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by note46

Sounds like it was a trouble free trip. Do you remember how fast the car was charging and what SOC the battery was when you plugged into EA. Also was it 150kw or 350kw?

SOC was 34% to start on the way out at my midway charge, not sure how fast it was going to start, maybe around 190 or so? I remember seeing a fairly high number, but nothing out of the ordinary. It really doesn’t mean much for a longer charge since it slows down pretty quickly as you go. I pulled 43kWh in my first 30 min there, so averaged 86.

On the way back I used the same exact port, SOC was 24% and I pulled 50kWh in the same 30 min, averaging 100 which makes since starting a bit lower.

In both cases I used the same 350 since I was fairly low. I find that I won’t see over 150 if I start above 50 or so, so I try not to hog the spots for the 350 since I’m the limiting factor at that point. The fastest I have seen so far at EA has been 244 starting at 10%.

[Kenny C]

244? I thought 205 was the max? That's great news

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by Kenny C

244? I thought 205 was the max? That's great news

That was coming from the EA app, so I suppose possible I was hitting the max at the car with some loss along the way? Or just a typical BMW understatement. It looks like I hit that 244.0 kW max speed fairly often going back through my history, I just noticed it live that one time I suppose.

[mlanes01]

Did my first long trip today out to Springfield. Averaging 4.4 mi/kwh in my e40. Surprisingly good range, I likely could have gotten home without charging but since I was close to an EA I figured why not. Acc and auto steer work pretty well in dapp. No scary near misses like with the Tesla but definitely lost the lanes a couple times in construction

[cruzer666]

25 kWh delivered in ~20 minutes = 75kW average. It could be an anomaly with the EA app (short spike measured incorrectly).

People swear there is no difference in charging speed between the 150kW and 350kW chargers when it comes to charging the i4. Especially in the summer, temperature works against you.

[Kenny C]

Love the first picture where the dogs head is superimposed on your body.

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by cruzer666

25 kWh delivered in ~20 minutes = 75kW average. It could be an anomaly with the EA app (short spike measured incorrectly).

People swear there is no difference in charging speed between the 150kW and 350kW chargers when it comes to charging the i4. Specially in the summer, temperature works against you.

Yeah, that’s what I was saying further above. I haven’t seen an average of more than like 100 or so myself so far. I suppose if I charged for like 5 minutes starting pretty low it could make a difference, but not one that’s going to get me very far anyway. We’ll need solid state batteries for the difference to matter, and at least the 350s exist when we get there.

[cruzer666]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

Yeah, that’s what I was saying further above. I haven’t seen an average of more than like 100 or so myself so far. I suppose if I charged for like 5 minutes starting pretty low it could make a difference, but not one that’s going to get me very far anyway. We’ll need solid state batteries for the difference to matter, and at least the 350s exist when when we get there.

What I wonder is why in states like California they're building gas stations without EV chargers. There's a beautiful 76 gas station being built by me and a 7-Eleven too, no EV chargers. It seems short sighted.

[scLA]

Originally Posted by cruzer666

What I wonder is why in states like California they're building gas stations without EV chargers. There's a beautiful 76 gas station being built by me and a 7-Eleven too, no EV chargers. It seems short sighted.

Completely agree. One analyst on CNBC was commenting that oil companies should be fine through a big EV revolution as gas station properties are great spots for EV chargers. Surprising that any new gas station is being built without them now.

[cruzer666]

Originally Posted by slazLA

Completely agree. One analyst on CNBC was commenting that oil companies should be fine through a big EV revolution as gas station properties are great spots for EV chargers. Surprising that any new gas station is being built without them now.

The 76 gas station which is picture worthy by the way, even has two restaurants built in, it would be a perfect place for somebody to grab a bite to eat and a 30 minute charge at the same time. Double stream of revenue.

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by Kenny C

Love the first picture where the dogs head is superimposed on your body.

No photoshop needed either, she’s just that invasive.

[cruzer666]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

No photoshop needed either, she’s just that invasive.

It seemed like the puppy was driving.

[mlanes01]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

The amount of time I was going to spend charging on road trips like this was definitely an initial concern of mine, but in both directions I found the 30 minutes was not nearly enough time to take the dog for a walk, go to the bathroom, grab a drink/snack, etc. I actually stopped/restarted the charger to get an extra free 10 minutes on my way out while we were finishing up, though that trick proved to be more of a hassle than it was worth. The car wouldn't initialize when I plugged it back in because it was saying charging wasn't required as I was already over the original charging target (it didn't stop short, just wouldn't charge a second session). Of course now that I know this, I could just adjust the charging target when I stop, or end the navigation altogether.

I ended up at my destination with just under 50% charge. I had originally planned to park in a garage across from my hotel with free level 2 chargers available, but back-to-back event parking meant I couldn't stay overnight, so I just parked at my hotel and made a quick stop at an EVgo station on my way out of town to make sure I could make it back to the same EA spot half-way (as the charging plan through BMW nav suggested anyway).

The thing that takes a while to get used to and trust is that the car charges fastest the closer you are to empty, and that you are better off getting low, charging quickly for short periods of time than charging all the way up stopping and topping off to full again. Those dorks on out of spec reviews who for whatever reason seem to get sponsor money and press cars for making the most mediocre and boring videos (injecting my own personal opinion no one asked for here) have shown in their cannonball runs and head to heads that you need to figure out the charging curve and maximize your time at the max speed. Once you get that going, you spend way less time stressing/charging and more time driving. I just wish electrify america would put charging stations on the interstate like tesla, sucks to have to go to weird hidden corners of malls and wall marts to use their systems....

it's also nice seeing chargepoint step up their game and putting dc fast chargers up in more retail spots. It sucks to pay when you have free charging, but sometimes when the EA is really busy it's just so much easier to grab an evgo and watch the cheepskates duke it out.

[footie]

Nothing quite as extensive as your journey but I had a few business meeting at three places around the country one 63 miles away (according to SatNav) the next 26 miles, third 45 miles and finally a further 33 miles back home. We originally intended to take our normal car but felt I need to see just how close the i4M50 could get to it’s claimed range so last night I charged it fully which upon leaving home stated 246 miles at 100%, pretty much the norm I’m getting.

Drove the short 5 miles to work to collect my business partner and one of my managers, do parked up to go get a coffee and something to nibble for the journey the gauge read 242 miles so all good but when I started it up again I was a little disappointed to see my range had dropped to 229 miles, with about 170 miles I was a little concerned that if this trend continued I might have to call somewhere to do a quick charge.

The first journey was uneventful, mostly 60-70mph with not too much congestion, as I pulled up outside the place I was shocked to see 188 miles remaining on the display, so I had travelled 63 mile and only used 41 miles. Returning to the car about an hour later I pressed the blue start button and to my surprised this had only dropped 3 miles to 185, the next short trip was mostly uphill and involved a fair bit of heavy throttle overtaking to get past slow moving lorries so I wasn’t at all surprised to see this 26 mile journey cost me 41 miles on the range now showing 144. The third part of my round trip involved solely motorway driving so 70-80mph and closing in on my destination as I reached the 50% SOC you guessed it the range showed 123 miles, exactly half on my starting sum after charging last night, I ended up with 96 miles when I arrived.

The journey back home there along climb which hurt the range at the start, that 6 mile climb at 70-75mph cost me 10 miles on the range but over the remainder on the trip home I recouped this back and ended up pulling in to my driveway after a round trip of 167 miles my range ended up showing 74 miles.

I know an ICE car you don’t have to care as much on such things because it’s so quick and easy to fill up but knowing that what me i4 says on its display is almost exactly what I will get means I now know that I don’t have to worry about taking it further afield because I know I can get home again without having to look for a charging point.

[cfm56d7b]

The dog is equally excited about your i4 M50 - no doubt.

What's the interior color?

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

The dog is equally excited about your i4 M50 - no doubt.

What's the interior color?

It's the Tacora Red, definitely more of a burgundy looking color (far less of an "in your face" red compared to Fiona Red and Sakhir Orange).