Driving on Gas only.. Can I drive 200 miles

[125mph]

I live in San Diego and need to drive to Orange County. Assuming a full charge, and full gas tank.. and stopping by the gas station to refill when gas is low, can I drive the i3 with range extender okay for 200 miles?

Most of the miles will be on freeway... Once the charge goes down, will the car have issues on the freeway with gas only?

 

[Pahaska]

I bought my 2019 in San Antonio, 85 miles away. Stopped 2 blocks from the dealer and coded Hold State of Charge (HSC). Arrived home with 70% battery and still had fuel in the REx tank. With coding, 200 miles would be easy, given gas stations enroute.

 

[125mph]

How does coding work. Do I just use BimemrCode and an adaptor like this:? https://www.amazon.com/Veepeak-OBDCheck-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Supports/dp/B073XKQQQW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1526924811&sr=1-3&keywords=veepeak+ble&dpID=41nXjrnYxGL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch&linkCode=sl1&tag=bimme0e-20&linkId=d91a90708997fb4d58403a356b82a4e8

Does it then talk to the car and let me code the hold state of charge?

Is BimmerCode free or will that cost money too?

 

[Fisher99]

I bought my 2014 i3/REX 850 miles away and drove it home at 70-75 mph all the way. Stopped every 60 miles or so to splash in some gas and hit the road again. The previous owner had already coded the car to allow me to fire up the REX (Hold State of Charge) at 75% of battery and also to allow use of the full 2.2 gallons of gas (only a limitation on earlier i3's).

Yes, with Bimmercode (you need the paid version) and an appropriate adapter you can make these and many other changes. According to my notes, to enable Hold State of Charge, in Bimmercode you:

1. Select the "Head Unit" module.
2. Select "Range Extender Menu".
3. Set to "Active".

 

[Pahaska]

After you code it, go to the page on your center display where you turn HSC on and off. Press and hold any preset button (most of us use preset #8). When the bar gets down to 75%, just touch that preset button to start the REx. Touch it again to stop the REx.

I seldom hear the REx when out on the road, but I usually turn it off in tight city spaces since it echoes from the buildings.

 

[rtanov]

As everybody else says with a HSC coded car this will be easy. However, if the car is not coded or you decide to let the ReX automatically kick in at ~6% this would be very risky. The ReX cannot consistently keep up with the battery discharge at highway speeds so the SOC can go down for some periods. At 6% this is risky. So, do invest in the coding app and dongle or find someone to code it for you before taking off.

 

[125mph]

Sounds good. Never knew about HSC until yesterday.

I just ordered the bluetooth OBD thing from amazon, comes tomorrow!

 

[Fisher99]

I don't remember what year BMW started allowing use of the full 2.4 gallons in the tank (2017?) but if yours is the earlier model with the 60 ah battery you should definitely code the car to allow full use of the tank. It's only a half gallon difference but that can be a big deal on a road trip.

Once you get Bimmercode working there are lots of other things you can "code". Auto fold/unfold of the mirrors on lock/unlock. Open and close windows from the keyfob. Auto start the i3 in Eco Pro mode. Automatic time setting for the clock. Tire pressure and temp on the i-Drive display. Just to name a few.

 

[eNate]

I know I'm answering a question you didn't ask, but are you familiar with the app ABRP ("A Better Route Planner")?

If you're driving a first or second gen i3 with the smallest 60Ah or the middle 94Ah battery, you can do this drive all-electric with one charging stop of less than 15 minutes

 

[Fisher99]

I know I'm answering a question you didn't ask, but are you familiar with the app ABRP ("A Better Route Planner")?

If you're driving a first or second gen i3 with the smallest 60Ah or the middle 94Ah battery, you can do this drive all-electric with one charging stop of less than 15 minutes

Hmmm... The OP says that his trip is 200 miles. My 2014 with the 60 ah battery would definitely not be able to do 200 miles with only one stop for charging...

 

[eNate]

I'm sure the OP can figure that out using the app, but generic distance SD to the OC is 82 mile, so I assume we're taking round trip mileage.

No matter, ABRP works pretty well.

 

[125mph]

This is strange.. I did the coding and everything seems fine.. But now I cant set the charge timer to 12AM.

It stays on charge immediately. When I try to change the setting and send to the vehicle, it fails. This never happened before. Anyone know whats up?

I messed around with it more and it seems like I cant set the departure time. Even when I go directly to the console, I cannot set the departure time so it wont let me set the low cost charging setting. I try to click the departure time checkbox , it will check it and then immediately uncheck it.

 

[Pahaska]

My 2019 is set to HSC and is usually set to charge from midnight to 6 AM. I can set it either in the car or remotely without problems. My itinerary changes constantly, so I set it quite often.

I think you want to set to something like 0:01 AM for the start.

 

[125mph]

This is so frustrating. It used to work but now I cannot set a departure time. It cannot be set vis the car or the app.

Since i cannot set departure time, i cannot set the car to low cost charging. This only happen after coding.

Anyone know what to do?

I basically coded the HSC and the increased fuel.

 

[125mph]

I fixed it!!!

Apparently after coding was done, my date/time setting was not set anymore... And the stupid computer wont let me set a departure time without the date/time.. I finally noticed when I turned on the car, it said please set date/time.. After setting the date and time, the departure time works again.. So now I can finally set the low cost charging.

I almost purchased a new EV charger with wifi capabilities to get around this issue lol.

 

[125mph]

I know I'm answering a question you didn't ask, but are you familiar with the app ABRP ("A Better Route Planner")?

If you're driving a first or second gen i3 with the smallest 60Ah or the middle 94Ah battery, you can do this drive all-electric with one charging stop of less than 15 minutes

I have the 94Ah battery. 200 mile as in round trip. We driving to OC, spending 2 hours, and then driving back. I just checked out the ABRP. Looks cool, but looks like we would need 2 stops. One there, and one back. Is there a way to use that to set a round trip?

I got around that by doing 30% at destination, and that will give me some room to charge again on the way back?

Also, looking at these public chargers.. The cost is around 0.43 /kWh... Isnt that more expensive than paying for gas itself? My off peak at home charging is only 0.09 / kWh

 

[agzand]

For long trips you definitely wan the hold state of charge. If you start the engine at 6% then you have to be very careful to refuel before the gas tank is empty. This could become tiring at every 70-80 miles. If you start the engine at 75% you can run the fuel to the last drop and then find the next gas station. You loose some EV range but there is no risk of being stranded since you have 60-70 miles of EV range in reserve.

 

[Geodude]

125mph wrote " have the 94Ah battery. 200 mile as in round trip. We driving to OC, spending 2 hours, and then driving back."

Hey 125mph,
I found the best way to to maximize your mileage on the i3 is to drive until your battery gets down to 75% then kick on the Range Extender "Hold State of Charge" (as agzand mentioned above) so you are now running on the REX and keeping the battery charged at a higher percentage. Use most of your gas in the tank and drive like 60-65 miles using the REX leaving like 10-15 miles of gas. Then switch it back to the EV battery and you will definitely be able to go 200 plus miles using the duel fuel option method. I've gone as far as 227 miles on one charge using this technique. If you think you might not make it, just stop at a gas station and get some more gas. You don't have to drain your battery down to 6.5 percent. Also, don't waste your time at a public charger either, it takes more time and more money. When BMW built the i3 with the REX using the duel fuel option is the smartest way to go, especially for longer trips. I don't use the REX as much as I used to, but it is awesome to know you have it and can use it whenever you need to. A lot of people who drive EV's have experience range anxiety, I never have with the i3. Hopes this helps :mrgreen:

 

[jadnashuanh]

The REx is somewhere between a 34-39Hp motor that is not directly connected to the drivetrain...it provides electricity to the motor or batteries, if there's excess being produced. At fairly normal speeds, that's enough power to maintain a decent cruise speed, but should you try to exceed that, you're back to whatever power the REx can provide which is a far cry form the 170Hp electric motor if it doesn't have any battery to feed it. SO, yes, you can just keep driving after the battery is depleted, but you might be disappointed if you're trying to climb a long grade at high speed. The good thing is coming back down, regen will start to put more power into the batteries as will the REx, depending on the SOC.

 

[alohart]

And the stupid computer wont let me set a departure time without the date/time..

Seems like a pretty smart computer to me because it warned you to set the date and time which you initially ignored. How could it have started charging at the time you specified without its date and time being set?

That said, it's inexcusable that an i3 can't automatically set the date and time just as smartphones and computers do. Some i3's seem to be able to do this. Whether this occurs might be a function of the system software version. I have changed some parameter values (a.k.a., coding) that seem to have enabled automatic date and time synchronization, but our time zone doesn't implement daylight saving time, so I don't know whether the time would have been automatically adjusted when daylight saving time begins and ends. However, the time doesn't gradually drift away from the actual time, so I think some synchronization is occurring.