115 miles commute.

[Goguy]

Hi all,

My commute is 115 miles each direction , the first 10 is street and the rest is all freeway at 75mph. Will the i3 capable of such commute without stopping to recharge? I have access to level 2 charging at home and work.

Thanks

 

[alohart]

You should include your location in your user profile so that we could assess the type of weather you're likely to encounter, the local terrain, etc., which would affect your range.

A BEV would be stretched to drive that far at the speeds you've described. A REx would work, but you'd be burning some gasoline near the end of some drives, especially in colder weather or if your commute is hilly.

A 2019 BEV with a 120 Ah (~44 kWh) battery pack should be capable of that range. However, the Level 2 EVSE at work would need to output 30 A at 240 V to be certain of a full charge in 8 hours.

 

[theothertom]

A REx would work, but you'd be burning some gasoline near the end of some drives, especially in colder weather or if your commute is hilly.

Yes, but you'd have to code your car (easily done) to turn on the REx sooner than the preprogrammed 6%, otherwise you'd have to reduce your speed to around 60mph in order to keep the state of charge (SOC) up. The REx won't keep up with battery drain if you drive at 70 mph.

 

[spinball]

I think it could work, but IMO as someone that's owned two i3 REx's, this is completely the wrong car for your application. Driving 200 miles weekdays at highway speeds should have you choosing a comfortable highway cruiser, not a "city" car with narrow tires and darty steering characteristics.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to test drive one in this condition (preferably on a windy day at 75 mph) before you take the leap.

 

[sipabit]

+1, what he said.
Having said that though, I have a 90mi daily commute. Sometimes more if I have to run errands. 70 of that is freeway. I don't plan to be driving that long of a commute long term though. So just dealing with it for the time being. It's true that the i3 is a perfect City car. Not really designed for long high distance driving, but it's doable. I use about a 1/4 tank which is about 1/2 gallons and the entire battery. I precondition the battery in the morning which gets me to work w/more than half left. Takes more on the return trip home though b/c the traffic conditions are different and route is different.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Being designed as primarily a city car, when used as intended, it's really very good. I use mine nearly all of the time. But, pushing it at high speeds for distance, while it won't hurt the car, is not going to be optimal. Yes, you could do it. You may not like it. It would be more efficient than an ICE, but a different hybrid, if you want to be more economical than an ICE may work out better for you.

 

[GeorgeC1]

The new battery coming out in late 2018 should handle that commute. I don’t find the car that objectionable on the highway and with the adaptive cruise control it’s outstanding if things slow down. I have a 18 now and typical show 125 to 140 mile range in moderate temps.

 

[sipabit]

I assume the OP is talking about the 71 mi EV 2015 model being that those are the ones with the best value used currently. You dont' want to be charging DC daily as it's not good for the battery. Definitely don't plan on doing that at work. You'll want Level 2 charging which I assume you have since those are more readily available than the DC ones anyway.

 

[alohart]

You don't want to be charging DC daily as it's not good for the battery.

The heat generated during DC fast charging should not be a problem for an i3's temperature-controlled battery pack. A study of frequent DC fast charging of a Nissan Leaf whose battery pack has no temperature control showed no significant battery pack degradation compared with a Nissan Leaf charged only at AC Level 2.

50 kW @ 400 VDC is a 125 A maximum current. 125 A / 60 Ah = 2.1 C-rate for a 60 Ah battery pack and 125 A / 94 Ah = 1.3 C-rate for a 94 Ah battery pack. Are these C-rates potentially damaging for a Li-ion battery cell? The DC fast charging study on a Nissan battery pack suggests not.

I haven't read any warning from BMW to limit 50 kW DC fast charging. Do you know of such a warning?

 

[Jims5543]

Hi all,

My commute is 115 miles each direction , the first 10 is street and the rest is all freeway at 75mph. Will the i3 capable of such commute without stopping to recharge? I have access to level 2 charging at home and work.

Thanks

I think it could work, but IMO as someone that's owned two i3 REx's, this is completely the wrong car for your application. Driving 200 miles weekdays at highway speeds should have you choosing a comfortable highway cruiser, not a "city" car with narrow tires and darty steering characteristics.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to test drive one in this condition (preferably on a windy day at 75 mph) before you take the leap.

I have to agree, we are pushing the limits on our REX now, my wife has to drive 50 miles round trip to drop our son off to school in the morning. Then make the same trip 6 hours later to bring him home. She is purely on surface roads with speeds from 30-60 mph.

We have a stage 2 charger in the garage at home. She charges back up to 100% between trips on M-W-F on Tues and Thurs we have to lean on the REX to finish the day. We did hack in the Euro specs to the car for the larger gas tank and ability to hold charge on battery higher than 6%.

We noticed the REX keeps up fine on surface streets, running at 75 MPH it falls behind and we can watch the battery drain at highway speeds slowly even with the REX engaged. I also do not believe the i3 gets 45MPG on the REX alone especially at 75 MPH it seems more like 30MPG.

If I were driving 115 miles in one direction I would look into a hybrid like a Prius or Honda Hybrid, or a Diesel.

 

[viking79]

A Bolt EV would have the range you need. You really need at least 2x margin per charging opportunity to be on the safe side. Any other EV besides Tesla might be on the short side. 75 mph means you will cut 20 or 30% off the EPA range.

You could use the REx i3, but it isn't fuel efficient at those speeds, uses more expensive gas, and is limited at speeds. Driving my i3 back from CA I only averaged 33 mpg or less at slow speeds where my Volt would get closer to 40 mpg, and the Volt gen 1 isn't very good.

Prius or Ioniq hybrid would be fair choices as well.