Range extender or Not?

[i3atl]

OK, now I am confused. I went to http://www.plugshare.com/ and zoomed out to the greater LA area and filtered for just "DC Fast Chargers" and filtered out Tesla, too. It shows 38 chargers. Are you saying that most all of these are not BMW i3 compatible?

Correct - the i3 can't take advantage of the existing CHAdeMO units until someone comes up with an adapter for CHAdeMO to CCS (or the CHAdeMO units are modified to accommodate CCS charging - not sure how feasible this is). Until then, the i3 will be limited to CCS locations for L3 or using L2/L1 units.

 

[MarkN]

I have a rex on order but am concerned about drives into the mountains - a common day trip for people here in Colorado.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one worried about this. After doing some calculations on the power and energy requirements of mountain driving I've decided that the rex without a hill-hold mode equivalent will be pretty useless for crossing the continental divide here in Colorado. This probably isn't a deal breaker because we only take both cars into the mountains once or twice a year so renting on those occasions is reasonable.

I'm anxious to find out whether the rex can sustain the car at something approaching I-25's 75 MPH speed limit. I won't want an i3 if it can't make the round trip from our home in Fort Collins to the Denver Airport.

 

[DHP]

I'm anxious to find out whether the rex can sustain the car at something approaching I-25's 75 MPH speed limit. I won't want an i3 if it can't make the round trip from our home in Fort Collins to the Denver Airport.

I don't have any personal data but on a flat road, which is pretty much the trip from Ft. Collins to DIA, I would think you will be ok driving on the rex at 70 to 75 mph from what I've read from others

 

[stumbledotcom]

I've opted for the BEV. Plan to make the i3 our daily vehicle. Live and work in SF. Rarely leave the city limits. Assigned, indoor parking at home and office. I think the pure EV will be much more suited to our usage patterns. Average about 500 miles a month. Current 328i was bought new in Sept 2009, still under 23K miles. Will keep 3-series for the occasional jaunts to wine country, Monterey, LA, etc.