CHAdeMO please.... on options from factory... like Japan.

[jsongster]

It would sure make sense for BMW to offer the CHAdeMO charger inlet as an option on this cool car. With all the CHAdeMO chargers currently installed even with a REX the longer trips are a pain if you reach the limit and have to wait more than 30 minutes to get going again.

Since it has already been engineered for the Japanese Market, and there are 3 SAE combo DCFC in the SF Bay Area and over 40 CHAdeMO already working in a 60 mile area around us it really makes sense to offer it as an option.

I'm sure it will help sales too.

Currently you are charging $700 to add an input for which there are few to no available chargers... for that same amount you could add a useful one.

 

[TomMoloughney]

It would sure make sense for BMW to offer the CHAdeMO charger inlet as an option on this cool car. With all the CHAdeMO chargers currently installed even with a REX the longer trips are a pain if you reach the limit and have to wait more than 30 minutes to get going again.

Since it has already been engineered for the Japanese Market, and there are 3 SAE combo DCFC in the SF Bay Area and over 40 CHAdeMO already working in a 60 mile area around us it really makes sense to offer it as an option.

I'm sure it will help sales too.

Currently you are charging $700 to add an input for which there are few to no available chargers... for that same amount you could add a useful one.

I'm not sure what you mean about "even with a REX the longer trips are a pain if you reach the limit and have to wait more than 30 minutes to get going again". You don't have to wait at all with the REx you just fill up with gas and keep going. With the quick charge you need to wait 30 minutes, not fill in cup the REx.

There is zero chance BMW will use CHAdeMO in the US, zero. When the LEAF went on sale there were zero CHAdeMO stations in the US too, so the CCS on the i3 is ahead of where CHAdeMO was when the LEAF launched here. I've had conversations with the BMW engineers and program managers about this and I can assure you you will not see CHAdeMO on an i3 here. The CCS stations will come, in fact probably at a greater pace than CHAdeMO did when the LEAF first came on the scene.

 

[Stevei3]

Hi guys,

/rant ON/ sorry to wander off topic: the most stupid thing BMW did was, IMHO, not to forgo on CHAdeMO, but to omit three phase charging.
Being an EU customer, where Type 2 is well established and growing (also due to EU endorsement of Type 2/CCS) and three phase electrics are quite common, this is sorely missed. And this is me voicing it mildly; I might even go so far as to state that this is a bigger issue for me than the battery capacity or Cda scores.
I know I'm not allowed to speak it's name here, but they should have ripped that page out of Zo*y's book. /rant OFF/
Let's just hope DC charging takes off.

On the connection side: it's VHS/Betamax all over...

Steven

 

[jsongster]

I'm not sure what you mean about "even with a REX the longer trips are a pain if you reach the limit and have to wait more than 30 minutes to get going again". You don't have to wait at all with the REx you just fill up with gas and keep going. With the quick charge you need to wait 30 minutes, not fill in cup the REx.

Well... I understood that if you let the battery completely die then you need to charge or be in a low power mode until you do... I do understand there is no direct to axle connection like the VOLT Psuedo Hybrid has when it runs down its battery. So... If battery goes nearly flat on long drive and gas runs out.... what happens? If you simply fill the gas tank does the generator have enough oomph for regular operation or is it restricted.

There is zero chance BMW will use CHAdeMO in the US, zero. When the LEAF went on sale there were zero CHAdeMO stations in the US too, so the CCS on the i3 is ahead of where CHAdeMO was when the LEAF launched here. I've had conversations with the BMW engineers and program managers about this and I can assure you you will not see CHAdeMO on an i3 here. The CCS stations will come, in fact probably at a greater pace than CHAdeMO did when the LEAF first came on the scene.[/quote]

Why would they take the odd stance of 'zero chance' when it would clearly instantly improve sales of their vehicle, they have already invested in the engineering of the CHAdeMO input for another pacific rim country. Are they so seriously invested in the success of the copycat with a Combo input that they can't see that?

 

[TomMoloughney]

I'm not sure what you mean about "even with a REX the longer trips are a pain if you reach the limit and have to wait more than 30 minutes to get going again". You don't have to wait at all with the REx you just fill up with gas and keep going. With the quick charge you need to wait 30 minutes, not fill in cup the REx.

Well... I understood that if you let the battery completely die then you need to charge or be in a low power mode until you do... I do understand there is no direct to axle connection like the VOLT Psuedo Hybrid has when it runs down its battery. So... If battery goes nearly flat on long drive and gas runs out.... what happens? If you simply fill the gas tank does the generator have enough oomph for regular operation or is it restricted.

There is zero chance BMW will use CHAdeMO in the US, zero. When the LEAF went on sale there were zero CHAdeMO stations in the US too, so the CCS on the i3 is ahead of where CHAdeMO was when the LEAF launched here. I've had conversations with the BMW engineers and program managers about this and I can assure you you will not see CHAdeMO on an i3 here. The CCS stations will come, in fact probably at a greater pace than CHAdeMO did when the LEAF first came on the scene.

Why would they take the odd stance of 'zero chance' when it would clearly instantly improve sales of their vehicle, they have already invested in the engineering of the CHAdeMO input for another pacific rim country. Are they so seriously invested in the success of the copycat with a Combo input that they can't see that?[/quote]

You can't let the battery completely die, the car won't let you with the REx on. It's more robust than people think and can very easily maintain the charge level so you can keep driving as long as you would like to. As long as you stop and keep filling the tiny gas than you can drive it cross country if you wanted to and as long as you kept it below 75mph you could basically drive as far as you want.

As for the CHAdeMO/CCS debate, BMW committed to the SAE standard, along with most other OEM's in the US and Europe. I've talked extensively with the top engineers at BMW about this and they said they wouldn't even consider using CHAdeMO and that the CCS is technically superior in many ways which is why they went with it. They are already testing CCS charging at 120+ kW's, something that CHAdeMO can't do. Higher charging rates like Tesla is doing is where the industry is going and CHAdeMO won't be capable of it. Anyway, I'm just letting you know what I've been told by the people at BMW making the decisions, I'm not here to argue the benefits of each.

Yes, for the immediate future (2-3 years) CHAdeMO will be more prevalent in the US but beyond that who knows? And for the CHAdeMO on the i3 that you've seen in the picture BMW made that specially for a presentation, it's not even determined if the i3 going to be available there. Even if they do, BMW will send very little i3's to Japan.

 

[jsongster]

Glad to hear that the 'Limit' I heard of was only to be forced to drive under 75... I could certainly live with that.

As far as the CHAdeMO is concerned though... Sure they hitched their wagon to GM to try to come up with a one connector for all charge modes beastie... but if, as the Japan demo validates, they know how to do a CHAdeMO implementation on their car why wouldn't they simply offer it in order to sell more cars now. Now that the demos of the working SAE Combo have occurred and no gains were realized so far over CHAdeMO functionality (other than common input opening). It simply makes sense to consider the offer of the option for folks who live in places like the West coastal states where CHAdeMO installs are already very common and useful.

They could have also struck an agreement with the Tesla folks to use their standards and connectors... but no... they chose the option that would require years to be useful and make some geopolitical point of superiority...

Sheesh... sure seems like an unnecessary diffusion of the efforts, if the real goal is to electrify autos.