Oooohhh nice!!!

<3

It has two options for charging, AC (type2) and DC (CCS/Combo). The onboard AC charger handles 11kW on threephase (240Vx3x16A) and 6.6kW on one phase (240x32A). This setup is rather unique, and only beaten by Tesla and Reneault (both offering 22kW charging on AC). Normal on Tesla is 11kW though (22kW is a rather expencive option)

The issue with AC is that it has to be converted to DC, a process that requires some expensive and heavy stuff, though price and weight has gone down so much that they could equip with 11kW converter, while the common before was 3.3kW (still what is used in VW's electrics and the default option on LEAF, 6.6kW costs 700USD more)

As this stuff is not needed with DC, the DC port can accept a lot more. Then the external charger is a lot bigger. The chargers on the picture are such chargers. There are 3 main standards for DC charging. Chademo (used by Japanese and most other asian cars) and CCS (used by most European and US makers). The third one being Teslas "non standard" charger. Tesla supports 120kW, while Chademo and CCS supports 100+kW, though most chargers only give 50kW, as that is the max that a car can pull (the SoulEV and the Ioniq being the few that can handle more, though only for a short time (as the batteries are not that big, you can not push 100kW into it for a very long time). Only Tesla can charge at Tesla chargers, though a Tesla can use Chademo (with an adapter). Most other DC chargers are "dual standards" with both Chademo and CCS connectors. As they share the AC->DC circuits, only one car can charge at the time. The chargers shown on the pic are such chargers. 4 DC chargers with both connectors, providing up to 50kW. On the same location are 4 AC chargers providing up to 22kW, and 20 (!!!) Tesla chargers, providing up to 120kW (but only 10 will provide max, as they actually share capasity between pairs of chargers)

The i3 pulls around 45kW from a DC charger.

The i3 has a 33kWh battery, but only 30kWh is usable. You can then do the math.
30kWh / 45kW = 0,67 hours = 40 minutes.

As you rarely start on 0%, and rarely charge to 100% (the last 5% takes a long time, as the speed has to be reduce in order to not damage the battery), you rarely charge more than 30 mins, most often 20-25 min. You don't eat too much dinner in this time frame.

At home I have a max 8A outlet, giving then 8A * 240V = 1,9kW, meaning it will take a while to charge the battery. That's quite ok, I can be in bed when that is done. A lot of shopping centers offer charging, from 3,3kW to 22kW, some even have a couple of 50kW DC chargers, so you can charge while shop. Chargers are coming at McDonalds, road side diners, gas stations, etc. The slowest charge points are often free to use, the others cost a little.

On one charge you can drive anywhere between 100 miles to 140 miles, depending on speed and road conditions. Going on a 400 mile drive is absolutely no problem, and given the "on trip" breaks that we take anyway, does not take a lot more time than with gas car.

Hope that answers your question! :)

Awesome car!

Thanks! :D

I also wonder how long it takes to fully charge and on a full charge how many miles can you go to empty??

See my comment to roxton further up :)

Are you guys going to compliment it with an i8? :P

Hahaha, no. XD At that insane price, we'd rather get a Tesla model X, which is about half as expensive as the i8. :P

I like the color. ^^ But I am not the biggest fan of BMW. :D

If you told us a year ago that we would be BMW owners, we would laugh.

This car is in many ways unique. 80% of the buyers have never ever owned a BMW before. It can be said to be a "gateway drug" like no other BMW.

I personally promised myself I would never ever buy any other car than Toyota. They are just so dang durable compared to all other cars. But then came electrics. And Toyota says "nope!". Other than a few "compliance cars".

This car is probably the most unique car I have ever driven. So fun, and SO simple to drive. It's not really a car. It's a driveable gadget.

Nice!

Thanks! :)

Love the shade of blue on this Tesla.

It's actually not a Tesla, but a BMW i3. (We cancelled our Tesla Model 3 reservation to get this instead.) :)

Thanks for the correction. Also, I hope you will enjoy your new BMW for years to come.

Love the i3s! I got to see one in person when I wrote a BMW feature. Definitely excited to see how it does for you guys :>

Thanks! It's working out wonderfully for us so far! :)

cute car ^^

Thanks! :)

Honestly, I was never really a fan of BMW because their high-performance sedans are fairly ugly imo. That and it always seemed like rude people with more money than common sense drove them, the same went for Audi's. But after seeing this thing I would definitely reconsider, I don't know what it is, but for a BMW it actually looks kind of cute. I went on the site to build one for fun and the price was crazy. Though I added some extra "goodies" and chose the coppery Orange color. But I'm sure with a lot of the incentives for buying an electric vehicle the price goes down with more of the "deals" you take advantage of. That and I bet not having to change oil every so often is a big plus. :)

Yep, see Sayh's reply to Wolf-bold above. :) We were never fans of BMWs before, and didn't care much for the "Beemer" mentality/culture either. We never would have considered any of their other cars than this one, and at first, we didn't care much for this one either until we found out how much storage space it had with the seats laid down. But the overall look of it has really grown on us, and we love it now, lol. We opted for the stereo upgrade, the brighter headlights, and the "Lodge Interior". We could not have afforded this without the incentives Norway offers for electrics, plus the savings on never buying gas (unless we rent a car) or needing an oil change, being able to drive toll-free everywhere in Norway, rarely needing any maintenance work, and taxes and fees an everything car-related being cheaper as well. :)

Indeed. Other than giving it a bath and cleaning the interior I bet not having to buy lubricants is a plus. I have an old mini-van and as much as I love it I need to replace some rotted exhaust parts up near the front. Even on my previous vehicle it always seemed like the exhaust piping coming from the engine rotted the quickest. That and I need to put on new brake pads & rotors on the front. But, gas or electric, brakes need replacing on all vehicles so that's not a biggie. Aside from the i3's overall look I think the wooden dash was pretty cool. :)

Yep, also there's very little metal used on this car (just some internal parts), so very little that's prone to rust. Rust is a big problem here, since they have to salt the roads every winter.

That's good to know, especially with how pricey it is. :)

So beautiful and classy. I don't think I would try to customize it and would leave it as is. Just give it a coat of wax to keep it clean. OK, maybe a plushie inside. The guardian of the car.

Haha, we always have a car plushie, and plan to get one of Blu and maybe Jewel. (Our "Leafie" had a mallard duck plushie, to represent "Greenie", of course.) :D We'll see about the decals, but I really like the look of them. :)

Very nice! Wish we had more electric cars and recharging stations in this country.. USA is so far behind :(

Yeah, I know. :( Only the more progressive areas seem to have them. And even in Europe, several countries are still lagging far behind, forcing us to have to rent a gas car to be able to travel there. :P

Ohh, gratulations on that investment!


At the moment, I'm trying to get my car coop to include Zbee as an alternativ for those short trips inside the city. Swedish cars... Um... Swedish mopeds for the win!
http://cleanmotion.se/zbee/

Nice! :D I like that it seats three, but does it have options for doors? If not, then it's not very practical for Scandinavian weather conditions. Here I've seen several Twizys, which do have doors, but are only two-seaters. Even with doors though, it's not really insulated enough for our extreme winter temps. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twizy

That little scooter thing is neat. The maintenance workers for the college drive around something similar to this: http://www.polaris.com/en-us/gem-el.....custom-utility You see it zooming up and down the side walks. It'll even get into traffic with other cars if they need to go further down the road. It's pretty neat and makes absolutely no noise. :)

Very nifty! Love that it's customizable, can haul things, plus has a range-extender option. Doesn't seem fit for highway driving, but perfect for just getting around inside cities. :)

Ya, the college is inside the city, the roads split into a Y so it's usually seen zooming down the left road which goes down the middle of the college. It's essentially going back and forth from different spots on the campus. I don't know if it's this exact vehicle, but it looks almost similar and it's about the same size. I'll have to take a picture for you sometime so my description is easier to understand. :)

That's the sort of car I'd be getting if I were getting a car.

<3

Gratulations on the new car! Looking forward to see it (and a testdrive!) Our new car runs on biogas (Methane) made from foodwaste!

Awesome, and yep, you guys can try it out if you come to Cookiemeet, since that's probably the next time we'll see you. :)

Is this fully electric car? Has the car&connected technology?

Is there a option in future for semi or even fully autonomous version? I can't drive, so I'm often homebound because of that.

Yes, it's fully-electric, but not fully-autonomous. That is coming, though:

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/bmw-doubles-evs/
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0YO1YZ
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/08/12/.....-to-114-miles/

:)

Oh, congratulations to your new electric car !

Since you seem to live far north , I wonder how much realistic distance may remain if it's in the middle of a cold winter and you have to heat the car !


It's kind of ironic though that especially the german "premium" brands (outside the asian ones of course) invest so much money and effort into alternative engines , like electric cars or hydrogen, but then offer them to an either almost unaffordable price for the broad span of customers anyway.

And not to mention that Germany has still one of the most worse support for electric cars (like finding a charging station outside the big cities can be like a lottery) and the goverment isn't the most supportive either.

Plus that it's still a unsolved question where the electric energy is supposed to come from.
But if you live in a rather small community or low dense population region of europe, you can recharge them with solar or wind energy, of course.

Distance can be cut by 50% on the very coldest days. Fortunately there isn't TOO many of those. The i3 should have less distance slash than our LEAF did, and with larger battery, we should have no issues getting to our cabin, and that was the requirement.

electric energy will come from where you normally get electric energy from. since there is generally a big dip in electricity usage at night, there is overproduction of electricity in those times, a good time to recharge cars. People tend to think that the cars need way more power than they do, most people do not drive very far on a daily basis. And besides, production of gas requires a HUGE amount of electricity, so the issue is still the same there.

Germany has far to go on charge stations, but I think it will not be too long before it is sorted. Tank&Rast are setting up several. But you still are far behind NL and Denmark (and of course, Norway)

Also, most of Norway (and the speed chargers we use) is powered by hydro energy, not coal. :)

Now if only the states would get on board with electric car ports! I know of... 2, total that are even remotely nearby, both that can fit only 1 car, and both are always taken.

Blu is a beauty!

Yeah, there are lots of places there that still without any speed or semi-speed chargers nearby (normal outlets, maybe, but they have to be grounded). But I imagine they are coming in time, as more and more drivers switch to electrics and hybrids. And thanks! :)

Ironically I saw this car in the supermarket parking lot the other day. :o

Where was this? Being white, it could be one of the older models, or it could be new. Only the blue models are the new ones, but they also come in white. :)

This was at a supermarket in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA; it was the same type of car but I am not sure if it was the newest model.... maybe it could have been a model from a year or two years ago I'm assuming.

Oooh... I really like your car. :o