My 2017 BMW i3-REx is technically not a pure EV because of the 25 kW, two cylinder, modified motor cycle gas generator. But I delivered it to brother Will, 4 of 5, in Arizona and he called Wednesday, "This is the first car that pays for itself in 3 years!"
Will called me, brother 1 of 5, on Wednesday totally frustrated by new car dealers in Tucson. His commuting pickup truck was under repair after blowing the head gasket. But the new car dealers were in polite terms, vicious. So I told him, 'I'll loan you my 2017 BMW i3-REx and be on the way tomorrow.'
I loaded a home L2 charger (OpenEVSE upgraded to JuiceBox 40 Pro), my emergency back pack, a pound of peanuts and cashews, meds, and left the next day for Arizona:
Benchmarks three years ago:
- EV - 108 miles
- 28 kWh, 50 kW fast DC charging, 45 minutes to full charge
- Range Extender - 88 miles
- 2.3 gallons, 89 octane (mid grade), 2-3 minutes to full tank
- coded to enable at 75% battery State Of Charge (SOC)
To drive long distances, the first 22 miles, 25% of the battery, are electric and then manually enable the Range Extender to start it running. Holding the cruise control speed to 68 mph preserves the battery SOC with some variability climbing, descending, accelerating, and regeneration. So climbing a hill brings the SOC down that is recovered on the backside. In similar fashion, hard acceleration draws down charge that is recovered when the car returns to a slower speed. This continues for the 1:15 hours until the gas tank needs to be filled.
This short refueling cycle, a maximum 1 hr and 15 minutes, also becomes a frequent biology break that keeps the driver fresh and alert for the 31 hour drive. There was one cat nap after breakfast, about an hour at a fast DC charger, halfway through the trip. The plan was to get a room in Las Cruces NM within a couple of hours drive of Will's home, sleep, shower, and deliver the car. Then God laughed.
Turns out it was Saturday evening, Prom weekend, and there were no rooms and the streets were full of young people in loud cars having a good time. Well Deming NM was only 100 miles away and when I got there, a two bed motel room was only $300! Ok, keep driving to Will's home.
Lordsburg NM was the next gas stop and I found a Flying J with a brand new, fast DC charger:
With a blanket, the BMW became a cat nap, bed room:
As the dawn light barely began in the East, I drove through a high desert, a two lane road to Will's home. It rained the week before and the flowers were out.There was a small herd of deer who were curious about this nearly silent car and I realized with a cup of deer corn and some rock salt, I could have 'tamed' them. A beautiful drive in God's chapel.
Arriving at breakfast time, Will fell in love with the car in 15 seconds. We drove around enough to make sure he knew how to add gas and general operational principles. Then I got a long nap while Will and his family had time to play with the car.
After a shower and change of clothes, we did a more extensive orientation drive and put a charge on the car using the portable charger. I discussed approaches to getting the home, L2 charger installed using existing wiring and then it was time to catch the train back to Alabama and God laughed again!
We just managed to catch the train at Lordsville NM (timezone magic) and the only problem was I would have to get an overnight room in New Orleans before catching the next train home. But then came the reality of passenger trains on freight train rails:
- Train crew swap delay - apparently a freight train had to change crews which would take 1-2 hours.
- Broken wheel - the new crew discovered a broken wheel on a freight car which would take 4-6 hours to fix.
- Re-order to remove broken car - this will only take 2 hours instead of 4-6.
- Automobile hit a rail road bridge - a bridge inspector has to make sure the train can cross, another 2 hours.
- Rail road bridge needs repair - so we back up to the last train station town to get on busses to reach New Orleans.
- Arriving in New Orleans 2 hours before my train trip to sweet home Alabama.
So two days ago, brother Will called, "This car pays for itself in 3 years!" He compared the virtually free charging at work to the gas cost of his broken, pickup truck. More importantly, he acknowledged the 'steep learning curve' but all of my brothers are clever.
Since I didn't have time to buy a 'trip gift' for my SO, he found a Native American jewelry maker and sent me this for my significant other:
Yes, those are dance jewelry.
The car valued at slightly over $8,000 by Edmunds, he paid me $9,000. Along with timely delivery, I had included the home and portable chargers, a tire inflation unit and sticky string kit. I also put all of my accumulated BMW i3 data here:
drive.google.com
Bob Wilson
