12-29-2021, 03:54 AM | #1 |
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Probably a dumb question…. any portable charging option ?
Greetings….I am from a bygone age, currently driving a G20 330i (which I love) on dinosaur juice in the UK.
The i4 interests me enormously as it appears to have a decent range (albeit 98% of my journeys are less than 50 miles) and a decent size boot (unlike the G20). Not that I have actually been able to see an i4 yet…..nor has my main dealer! The question I have is - I believe that charging can be achieved without a dedicated ‘wall box’ direct from a standard house supply but it is very slow…is there a portable charging option that say, for instance, I could use to recharge at a friends house that does not have a dedicated charging point? As you may have gathered I am new to the world of Ev, so please be gentle with me, I am a BMW driver so my ego is easily damaged… Thanks in anticipation…. |
12-29-2021, 08:53 AM | #2 | |
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The i4 comes with a portable charger that supports both 120V and 240V.
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12-29-2021, 10:14 AM | #3 | |
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12-29-2021, 01:05 PM | #4 | |
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Uk power outlets are generally on a 13amp breaker with things like electric ovens and hobs on separate 30amp breakers. If I understand correctly I can use a spare in the consumer unit, put a 30amp breaker in and use that via a dedicated outlet. Early stages of range anxiety for me I think |
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12-29-2021, 01:07 PM | #5 | |
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12-29-2021, 03:23 PM | #6 | |
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230volts x 30amps x .001 = 7.2kW charging
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12-31-2021, 11:23 AM | #7 |
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Presumably you need a dedicated circuit. so you need to determine if your friends have enough amps in their electrical systems to support the necessary dedicated circuit.
Here in the US, I had 200 amp capacity. My wife wanted to swim in the winter so I installed a heat pump at the pool; my electrician had to install a new ecu at 225 amps (I wanted 400 amps but he would have had to dig a tunnel in my front lawn to bring in another circuit from the street to do that). When I wanted to install a charger for my 530e phev, the electrician had to rearrange my ecu and squeezed out an extra 20 amps for a dedicated circuit. But that is all he said I could get without, again, tunneling under my lawn. So...do they have enough capacity to do that. |
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01-01-2022, 04:08 AM | #8 |
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Exciting times Andy.
The prospect of charging at a friends house to me assumes it's a casual charge using the supplied 3 pin cable. That will take some time to add any meaningful range. I'd think at least a full 24hrs+ of charging. At home of course in the U.K. you can charge at 7kw with a home charge (or add 3 phase to your supply and you can up to 22kw but there is little point, a nice overnight charge at 7kw is perfect t for your battery). For the U.K. the ideal seems to be:- Garage or driveway Home set up on decent EV tariff 7kw home charger box Charge overnight Most full BEV users then achieve their cars range 250-350 miles for about £7-12 depending upon tariff's. Good luck but for a casual stop at a friends you won't get much sorry from a few hours stop with a 3 pin 'granny charger' cable
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01-02-2022, 04:41 AM | #9 | |
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I have range anxiety and I don’t even have an EV yet As an aside, while not the prettiest thing this looks exciting,,,,EV with the addition of solar cover most of my journeys. https://sonomotors.com/en/sion/ |
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01-05-2022, 02:11 PM | #10 |
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If I couldn't charge overnight where I live, I would never own an EV. But if you do have that ability, it makes an EV extremely convenient for most cases since you never have to go to a gas station.
For longer trips, public fast charging is the only viable option. There is no way you will want to wait 6-8 hours to charge at a friend's house or anywhere else. This is where I am really not so sure with the i4. The Tesla Supercharger network is great, or at least good. For that reason, I don't get range anxiety with Tesla. I know the worst case is that I will be delayed for an hour to charge. I'm not sure that the charging network for non-Tesla EV's is good enough at this point. The i4 range is very adequate, but the lack of public charging stations and the complexity of finding them makes trip planning that much more difficult. I did a quick search in my area and I can find public charging stations.. with only 3 available fast chargers. Will one of them be open when I get there? I have no idea. |
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01-05-2022, 02:33 PM | #11 | |
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Or at least that what is claimed.
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01-05-2022, 03:03 PM | #12 | |
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On the last road trip I took (on I-5, I-58, and I-15), I stopped at every EA charge station to see if getting an i4 would be a mistake. With one exception, all were operational and not more than half were in use. That one exception was annoying to discover, but EVgo was also there, and with one of their currently rare 350KW chargers. FWIW, Tesla superchargers were frequently nearby, and around 50% of those were in use at any given time (though there were a lot more of them). |
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01-05-2022, 03:55 PM | #13 | |
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01-05-2022, 05:46 PM | #14 | |
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Every charging location I click on shows 2 or 3 CCS ports. With Tesla there are usually 12 or 20 or some much higher number. Maybe there aren't so many "other" EV's on the road so EA charging stations can get away with such few chargers per location? The local public chargers don't matter too much since I always charge at home. It's the longer routes where I would be looking for the charging infrastructure. Hopefully the BMW trip planner makes charging on the go as easy as Tesla. |
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01-05-2022, 06:11 PM | #15 | |
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The usefulness of the BMW trip planner is questionable at this time. For the i3/i8, it only showed EVgo, which BMW had a relationship with. EVgo is not present on major interstates like I-5. They're mostly in shopping centers not near highways, and they're usually limited to 50KW. They are set up to handle the plug-in hybrids and low range BEVs that dominated the market not so long ago. The i4/iX page on bmwusa.com used to promote EVgo as well (get $100 credit with purchase of a new car!), but that has been changed to "stay tuned." What that means remains to be seen. Hopefully, it means something involving Electrify America. But one huge advantage of EVgo over Electrify America is that they can tell you which chargers are in use, which are out of order, or how much power each charger can provide. EA does not. |
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01-05-2022, 07:51 PM | #16 | |
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01-05-2022, 08:11 PM | #17 | |
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01-07-2022, 04:18 AM | #18 |
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An interesting piece of trivia for all my friends in America - up until 1912 (or thereabouts) it was a requirement that as each ‘block’ in New York was built that electric car charging points had to be installed. Up until that time internal combustion, steam and electric powered cars were more or less equally popular, with electric cars being marketed mainly to the fairer sex as they did not require manly activities like hand cranking the engine or stoking the fire. ICE became the dominant force when Cadillac introduced the first reliable electric starter motor.
Interesting how the wheel has turned full circle! |
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01-07-2022, 12:28 PM | #19 |
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Hi Andy - have a play with https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ - it lets you play with routes and charge planning in the UK. It has the BMW i4 as alpha so not fully up to date, but you can use advanced mode to set consumption.
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01-07-2022, 06:22 PM | #20 |
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BMW is currently in the process of revamping their charging programs, so I hope that means 3 free years of charging on either EVGo or EA.
I've stopped by all of the stations I would normally use on my long road trips in Florida, they all are active, rarely used, so Happy to see that. I also have a city-based free 350kw charging station near me, and the EVgo is also 350kW near me in the even I need to fast charge.
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01-11-2022, 02:54 PM | #21 | |
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How would that work since you normally have to pay with an app or a credit card? Did they do that for the i8 or i3?
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01-11-2022, 03:48 PM | #22 | |
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From the EA ap, you can still view stats, and I believe even the "charge" $$ amount is shown on the ap, even though you aren't charged for it. I have to verify the last piece though, this was in passing from months ago when I was looking into EV vehicles and reached out to my bud with the ID.4. @Ken7 may be able to answer this better since he has a E-Tron and has EA experience.
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