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i4 for Dummies

14K views 74 replies 30 participants last post by  Inside 
#1 ·
Dear Bimmers,

This forum is an incredible mine of information, I started to copy/paste the best information in a Google Doc.

I'm mostly interested in the technical data, but there is a lot to say: from iDrive8 to the aesthetics of the rims and adaptive suspensions.
 
#3 ·
Re: WLTP

Sorry I dont get this!

City Highway
415km / 300km (-10°C)
520km /340km (+10°C)
470km / 335km (+30°C)

That means abouve 10°C the M50 only drives 340km from 100% to 0% at which speed (100km/h?). So since you probbaly never drive down the battery less then 15% it would make only about 300km?

Then you actually never charge 100% because the last 20% take much longer? Which means next distance untill charging is only about 70% of capacity which equals about 240km ?

My next concern is that in Germany you actually drive at 160 - 170 km/h at least on some roads, even in France or Italy I tend to drive close to 150.
So thats another -20 till -30% ?

So after that calculation that means not that much more then 200km distance at arround 160km/h on a highway?
Which means about 4 x 35 minute stops, if you are lucky and get a fast charging station if you want to drive 1000km ?

So thats 2h idealy.

If you are not lucky? What does that mean 3-4h ?

This seams not that practically to me.

Of cause with a combustion car I stop about 4 Times too, but then I jog arround the Gas Sation 5 Minutes and eat and drink and get patrol once, that not that much abouve 1h.
 
#5 ·
Re: WLTP

Sorry I dont get this!

City Highway
415km / 300km (-10°C)
520km /340km (+10°C)
470km / 335km (+30°C)

That means abouve 10°C the M50 only drives 340km from 100% to 0% at which speed (100km/h?). So since you probbaly never drive down the battery less then 15% it would make only about 300km?

Then you actually never charge 100% because the last 20% take much longer? Which means next distance untill charging is only about 70% of capacity which equals about 240km ?

My next concern is that in Germany you actually drive at 160 - 170 km/h at least on some roads, even in France or Italy I tend to drive close to 150.
So thats another -20 till -30% ?

So after that calculation that means not that much more then 200km distance at arround 160km/h on a highway?
Which means about 4 x 35 minute stops, if you are lucky and get a fast charging station if you want to drive 1000km ?

So thats 2h idealy.

If you are not lucky? What does that mean 3-4h ?

This seams not that practically to me.

Of cause with a combustion car I stop about 4 Times too, but then I jog arround the Gas Sation 5 Minutes and eat and drink and get patrol once, that not that much abouve 1h.
Well, that's part of driving an EV.
To get a better range, you need to apply an other driving style compared to driving and ICE.
 
#8 ·
I think stacking everything on top of each other isn't realistic or fair. If you know you are travelling far, of course you'll charge to 100%, and if you are concerned about range, just charge to 90% or even 100% on the fast charger. If you're not, charge to 80% and know you're being as nice as you can to your battery. Going down to 5% is fine, I'm so used to driving E-Golfs and whatever, and their 50% is our 15%. They also have some safety margin, I drove 5km on "0km" with a Tesla :D
Most people drive routes that they know reasonably well, so after driving somewhere once, you know how far it is, when it's nice to stop, etc, and it'll be super easy the next time. It just takes a little bit getting used to.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Looking at how teslabjorn is doing the 1000km tests. Atleast the ones that i watched, it seems like doing many short stops is the way to go. This makes 100% sense because the car also charges faster at low battery%.

As the charger network gets better in continental europe it will be safer and safer to do this without worrying about if and when you reach a charger at all..

If you wanna do a big 1000km trip in one day you will ofcourse start at 100%, then you will make sure to stop for dinner somewhere your car can be topped to 80-100% meanwhile, and fill in the rest with 3-4 10 to 15min stops.

Scroll down on this article to see a sheet with charged km pr 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - full for alot of different cars. Most of it should be readable by non norwegians.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Old buildings here (70%) have IT systems here ,neutral is isolated and is not brought forward, 230v between the phases. The rest of Europe afaik use systems where the neutral is connected to ground, so you have 3 phases and neutral, with 400v between the phases. It’s really quite quirky, but has some safety benefits.
afaik only some Tesla can charge 11kW from this type of system, i4 cannot.
 
#18 ·
I think as EV adoption increases, there will start to be problems with home supply limits being reached. Most people do not have a clue about loading limits on house power circuits. Take my house for example. I have a 100 amp main fuse. If I have the underfloor heating running on it's heating up phase, the cooker going, a kettle on AND I start the car charging, that 100 amp fuse is going to be under serious strain and will probably blow.
 
#20 ·
How can it do that? If you have an analogue meter you’d need some inductive amp meters installed. Here we have digital meters with a ‘console’ out which you can connect equipment to (HAN port).
Some chargers have load balancing between chargers of the same brand to support several on one circuit, but it can’t know the current passing through other parts of your system.
 
#26 ·
How can it do that? If you have an analogue meter you’d need some inductive amp meters installed. Here we have digital meters with a ‘console’ out which you can connect equipment to (HAN port).
Some chargers have load balancing between chargers of the same brand to support several on one circuit, but it can’t know the current passing through other parts of your system.
It's done with inductive clamps that report back to the EV charger yes. Here, good qualified installers are using cable like EV Ultra which has data and power in the same armoured run, then they use that to link clamps in the consumer unit (area with all of the RCDs) so that it can read the draw the house is using.

Can you show me a L2 EV charger that does this?
I have a L2 charger I haven't gotten hardwired yet by an electrician but it will be hooked up to a 40amp circuit breaker and will monitor nothing coming into my house and definitely won't step down.
Maybe your thinking of a LDB Load Distribution Box but that does not come with an L2 EV charger AFAIK.
Sure, but it may be only available in certain countries, but for example the Andersen A2 offers "Adaptive Fuse" on chargers, Zappi offers "Dynamic Load Balancing" included as standard I believe, HyperVolt includes it as well I think but not sure what they call it.

For 22kW charging you generally need a 3 phase supply here where you might have 100A on each phase so much less of a problem anyway. This is probably mostly an issue for 7kW chargers going on single phase supplies that might be nearing their load limit.
 
#21 ·
Thanx for all the feedback.

I also found this


Wich helped alot.

So its all not that bad, but also not perfect 100kw/h with the same total car weight would be much better, when it would load to max withing 30 minutes, that would then be close to diesel comfort.
 
#23 ·
All the EV chargers sold here in Belgium have an option of "dynamic charge" or "load balancing". It monitors the consumption of the house and reduce/increase power for the car in real time.
Here, standard residential installations are single phase 40 amp. Increasing or upgrading to 3 phase is really expensive. But dynamic charge does the job (obviously we don't have electric heating)
 
#24 ·
That’s interesting, 40A is abysmal. Then you can charge your car and use one cooking plate.
I have 400V TN-C, but.. my measurement box is only 1 phase (cheap bastards), so I only get max 32A 230V (7.4kW). It should be sufficient for a car like this, but 16A will quickly become a pain.

I have 63 in my intake, and use reclaimed industrial heating for water and air temperature. Seems like 63 is the standard here, and then main fuse is 50.
 
#25 ·
That’s interesting, 40A is abysmal. Then you can charge your car and use one cooking plate.
I have 400V TN-C, but.. my measurement box is only 1 phase (cheap bastards), so I only get max 32A 230V (7.4kW). It should be sufficient for a car like this, but 16A will quickly become a pain.

I have 63 in my intake, and use reclaimed industrial heating for water and air temperature. Seems like 63 is the standard here, and then main fuse is 50.
It is rare to have more than 40A here, even more to have 3 phase. Unless you have specific equipment : a swimming pool, air conditioner, multiple EV, ...
But that match electricity usage for residential here.
 
#28 ·
I’ll be getting a Tibber Pulse unit, it’s from a national company that is also a power supplier. They will allow you to configure it to certain parameters around cost to only charge in the most inexpensive hours of the day. It’s integrated with the Easee charger, which is also Norwegian, though I believe they also sell a lot abroad.
Haven’t had load balancing at home before, it’s kind of funny to do it with these microscopic loads.
 
#30 ·
@Mycroft, this is a great idea. I think the data you yourself and others contributed to in thread Data Compilation / Technical Specs and About the secrets of i4 range should fill a few chapters. A lot of good information are also in threads including the phrase "Test Drive". Actually, this parallels the fact that in general Software documentation from the selling companies is so bad the whole "Dummies" series was created, and honestly, the BMW user's manual is just as bad. There must be something about bad technical writers that attract OEMs... Yes, I'd love to contribute.
 
#37 ·
So, for an M50, in real life, it's no more than -20% "Global Warning potential" @ 200'000km
Our objectives are -55% for 2030, -100% for 2050.

The European fiscal policy to encourage electric cars / kill ICE is a very bad joke.

Happy new year.
 
#38 ·
In most countries there is a push to add more renewable power generation to the grid, so by the time most of our cars reach 200k kms, the grid will be much cleaner. If you buy an ICE, CO2 generation will always be constant, but an EV will improve with more solar and wind added to the grid. EV drivers are also more likely to install solar panels, or to select electricity plans with renewable energy when there is a choice.

In a few years the M50 with more green energy added to the grid should be +50% cleaner than the 420i in the average country. Even when a M440i or even the M4 make a better comparison.
 
#42 ·
@Mycroft, any kind of transportation and most industries create CO2 due to their consumption of energy. So pushing vehicles to consume electrical energy and pushing the energy to come from renewable sources synergize to resolve the majority of the emissions from that whole chart. Even the mining industry release CO2 due to the vehicles and the energy used in the process, except for fossil fuel mining that releases methane and the fuel itself in accidents created from cost cutting at the expense of accident prevention. Again, the fossil fuel industry has been very effective pushing tons of data presented in various ways to prevent people to understand that all the different branches have a common root.

Re-look at the whole chart and tell me which candles generate CO2 not tied to their vehicular or energy use.
 
#45 ·
I agree with you, but leading by example is better than the chicken game we are doing today. If we don't take action until we negotiate for others to take action, we'll all be dead before anybody does anything, the negotiations in Glasgow could not be clearer. Reality is China and India don't have a choice because their cities are getting unlivable and their coastal regions are getting hammered, they just want to play tough to get money from the richer countries. So I think that Europe is doing the right thing by pushing to convert their car and trucks fleet to electric, and their energy grid as well, and I hope the US sees beyond its internal politics to follow them down the path.

As a private citizen, I'm doing my part, and that's all I can do...
 
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