How often do you charge?

[panamamike]

Just recently bought a Rex 2015 with about 60 miles of range. Thought this would go farther, but seems real world range is closer to 50 miles when preconditioning and having the car sit overnight.

Would like to know others charging requirements experience.

 

[Fisher99]

My 2014 i3/REX gives 50-60 miles when the temps are in the 20's and 30's (with battery pre-conditioning), and 70+ miles in warm weather. In the winter I charge every night. Sometimes even during the middle of the day if I have been running around a lot and know that I will need to run around more. In the warmer weather I may charge at night and may not, depending upon my driving for the day. Overall, with about 8 months experience with the i3, my motto has become "if in doubt, charge". But since I have the REX as a backup, I am sometimes a bit cavalier about that.

 

[panamamike]

Wondering if this would be any better with a 94 Ah car. How much more range would I get real world? Would I be able to skip a day.

 

[derekgates]

Wondering if this would be any better with a 94 Ah car. How much more range would I get real world? Would I be able to skip a day.

My 2018 i3s REX, with the 94 Ah battery achieves 110miles every day for me. I charge nightly as the 110 miles is my route to work and back. If I absolutely baby the accelerator I can achieve 115-120miles.

 

[panamamike]

Wondering if this would be any better with a 94 Ah car. How much more range would I get real world? Would I be able to skip a day.

My 2018 i3s REX, with the 94 Ah battery achieves 110miles every day for me. I charge nightly as the 110 miles is my route to work and back. If I absolutely baby the accelerator I can achieve 115-120miles.

That's impressive. Do you loose any range at work sitting idle, or do you have preconditioning off?

 

[derekgates]

Wondering if this would be any better with a 94 Ah car. How much more range would I get real world? Would I be able to skip a day.

My 2018 i3s REX, with the 94 Ah battery achieves 110miles every day for me. I charge nightly as the 110 miles is my route to work and back. If I absolutely baby the accelerator I can achieve 115-120miles.

That's impressive. Do you loose any range at work sitting idle, or do you have preconditioning off?

I precondition in the morning before heading to work, while plugged in. I do not precondition at work as I cannot plug in the car (and do not want to lose range).

During these mild winter months in Florida I am starting to have 20-30 miles left over on the 'guess o meter'. In summer I was getting real close to completely empty and sometimes I had 5-10 mile range. AC is a killer.

These metrics are with Eco Pro mode enabled and the HVAC Eco Pro mode enabled (reducing the compressor energy). I also drive the speed limit when possible and keep speed under 67mph to reduce drag.

 

[DaJemster]

Charge Sun thru Fri. I skip Saturdays as there's sufficient charge for Saturday and Sunday errands.

I bought it for the wife and her commute to work and she has been consistently getting an estimated range of 142 to 144. She has always gotten better MPG than me in all our other cars. When I get hold of the i3, I only get the estimated 115, but realistically, I get probably 90.

 

[thrifty3]

If I am at home, the i3 is always plugged in, either charging or waiting for "time of use" period to start charging. Our electricity provider has the least expensive rate between midnight and 3pm, so the charging is limited to that time.

I use roughly 30% of the capacity of our 2017 Rex on my daily 50 mile round trip commute as I have learned the most efficient routes plus it's nearly always heavily congested. It's extremely consistent at using up about 30% of charge, and estimating roughly 150 miles of range on battery alone. I really can't complain. Not worried about charging it to the "top" all the time either as BMW has worked in a buffer both at the top and at the bottom, not allowing access to either far end of the battery capacity.

 

[3pete]

I follow the ABCs of charging; Always Be Charging. If my car is at home, I almost always plug it in to charge. I also have a 2014 (60ah) and my utility doesn't offer TOU rates, so I figure it's best to have a full battery as possible.

 

[Obioban]

Wondering if this would be any better with a 94 Ah car. How much more range would I get real world? Would I be able to skip a day.

new vs new, the 94aH car goes ~55% further than a 60aH car.

The earlier batteries seem to degrade faster (perhaps because for the same distance they go through more cycles), so as miles on the car grow that difference grows a bit with it.

We charge daily, drive 80-120 miles/day.

 

[Deutsch100]

My 2019 i3S would get roughly 130-150 miles on a full charge depending (of course) on outside temp and if I was doing mostly side street, freeway or canyon driving.

I would usually charge 2x a week.

 

[panamamike]

My 2019 i3S would get roughly 130-150 miles on a full charge depending (of course) on outside temp and if I was doing mostly side street, freeway or canyon driving.

I would usually charge 2x a week.

That's great!
I hope they will eventually offer a battery upgrade...

 

[jadnashuanh]

According to one source, charging from 90-100% ten times puts the same wear on the battery as once from 0-100%. So, why not just plug it in, have departure time use available to maximize your range, and the optional cabin conditioning without losing battery charge in the process?

Generally, when mine is home, it's plugged in.

If it's going to be cold out, you don't want the battery SOC to be sitting there at a low state or you could risk having a dead car in the morning, and potentially damaging the cells.