Improving range as the weeks pass ...

[ME2SC]

Seems that Rita and I are getting to know each other and settling in quite well. After a month of ownership, increasing the tire pressure (r=47, f=40), learning the ins & outs of regen braking and throttle control, and refraining from running AC all the time I clocked 77 miles on this last charge.

If I can achieve consistent 65 mile legs with 8-10% remaining at pull-in, this will make my 1,200 mile trip next week come in at approximately 30 hours of drive/charge time. I've logged hundreds of thousands of miles of motorcycle touring on various Beemers over the past 40 years, so I am used to LONG tours with MANY frequent stops--every 150 miles, give or take. The benefit of the i3 charging stops is that I can put on my noise cancelling headphones and grab a 15-20 minute nap while "tanking up."

I'll be leaving at the crack of 0500 from Upstate SC on Wednesday July 10th ... and hoping to comfortably arrive on the Maine coast by Thursday evening (hopefully not *too* late).

BTW: Something I am wondering; is there a log in the iDrive system for each charging session that I can pull data from?

Prost!

 

[eNate]

Unfortunately the only charging data I've seen is via the app, where it's logged in a month-by-month, session-by-session format, including % SOC beginning and end, start & stop times, odometer, location, total kWh, and even a cost estimator based on user-inputted rates. It even logs what time the car was unplugged. There's also a monthly summary that allows easy comparison to the prior month.

It's too bad this same data can't be included in-car, because any i3 owner with the old 3G hardware is missing out on a potentially valuable resource.

 

[ME2SC]

Unfortunately the only charging data I've seen is via the app, where it's logged in a month-by-month, session-by-session format, including % SOC beginning and end, start & stop times, odometer, location, total kWh, and even a cost estimator based on user-inputted rates. It even logs what time the car was unplugged. There's also a monthly summary that allows easy comparison to the prior month.

It's too bad this same data can't be included in-car, because any i3 owner with the old 3G hardware is missing out on a potentially valuable resource.

This is literally everything I am wanting to get from the car ... I wonder if there is a dongle connection that can feed the data in some format? The whole 3G thing really does seem to be the burr in the wool with these cars.

 

[eNate]

This is literally everything I am wanting to get from the car ... I wonder if there is a dongle connection that can feed the data in some format? The whole 3G thing really does seem to be the burr in the wool with these cars.

I do wonder if the data in the app is all calculated on the back end based on what the car is communicating real time. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the car doesn't store any of this.

 

[robthebold]

I do wonder if the data in the app is all calculated on the back end based on what the car is communicating real time. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that the car doesn't store any of this.

Correct. The app polls the appropriate BMW server (China, North America, or Rest of World depending on your location) which caches the latest stats from the car, so the only available data in the case of the remaining fuel, mileage, state of charge, electric range, fuel range, etc., etc. is the most recent value for each. When the car is moving, the most recent data point is only updated at the end of a trip (or "journey" if you like the dashboard's wording). When parked, you can get state of charge and related data (range, time to charge done, etc.) as often as every 10 minutes if the value has changed during that time.

If you want to do some DIY playing around with this data the BMW Connected Drive integration for Home Assistant can expose the raw info for you. If you wanna go really DIY you can use the BimmerConnected project (which is the backend of the Home Assistant Connected Drive integration) on github and get your hands dirty in Python.