Pre-Conditioning Battery Option
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It's 4 in the morning @i4M50Guy , you should be asleep!
Unless they have a check for something like build data and only shows the button for later build dates I would guess they wouldn’t update .27 too .44. In that case I’d expect everyone to get it at some point and everyone will get that software version.
Probably not the update we all wanted…
RETAILER HUB
Regarding Manual Battery Preconditioning for DC Charging in BEVS.
2023-01-12
Author: Product Management
Date: 2023-01-12
Dear dealer colleagues,
The following is a clarification of the functionality of Manual Preconditioning for DC charging and its availability in different vehicle series
This includes the possibility of manually starting Battery preconditioning through a tile in the vehicle infotainment display, as well as proactive suggestions for starting the preconditioning at low SOCs.
After further carification with our colleogues in Munich, we can share and confirm the following information:
The functionality for manual preconditioning before DC charging is available exfactory for the i20, G26 BEV, U11 & G70.
From 22/11 production - i20, G26 BEV, U11, G70.
From 22/07 production - G70.
For vehicles produced before this the functionality is not available. We can also not for the time being confirm that this will be added through a future software update, as the technical prerequisites are still being investigated
We know that this wil undoubtedy be disappointing news to you and many of our customers, and sincerely apologize for any prior information indicating that this would become available through RSU for earlier production. As to our knowledge up until now, this was to be the case.
Thank you for your understanding, and regardless of the above, we wish you a great continued day.
Best regards
BWM Northern Europe Product Management
RETAILER HUB
Regarding Manual Battery Preconditioning for DC Charging in BEVS.
2023-01-12
Author: Product Management
Date: 2023-01-12
Dear dealer colleagues,
The following is a clarification of the functionality of Manual Preconditioning for DC charging and its availability in different vehicle series
This includes the possibility of manually starting Battery preconditioning through a tile in the vehicle infotainment display, as well as proactive suggestions for starting the preconditioning at low SOCs.
After further carification with our colleogues in Munich, we can share and confirm the following information:
The functionality for manual preconditioning before DC charging is available exfactory for the i20, G26 BEV, U11 & G70.
From 22/11 production - i20, G26 BEV, U11, G70.
From 22/07 production - G70.
For vehicles produced before this the functionality is not available. We can also not for the time being confirm that this will be added through a future software update, as the technical prerequisites are still being investigated
We know that this wil undoubtedy be disappointing news to you and many of our customers, and sincerely apologize for any prior information indicating that this would become available through RSU for earlier production. As to our knowledge up until now, this was to be the case.
Thank you for your understanding, and regardless of the above, we wish you a great continued day.
Best regards
BWM Northern Europe Product Management
Yeah that would suck, I was hoping BMW was changing their ways of artificially locking things out with software but this doesn't bode well. Especially sucks since the car is not suited for longer trips in the winter as it is now when you can only use about half the available chargers since there is no way to precondition the battery for the rest of them.
Thank you for your understanding????I won't
It's like when you are on telephone hold and you get the automated message saying "thank you for your patience" when you are absolutely fuming because you've been on hold for an hour and already been cut off twice 🤬
This "call is important to us" thing drives me round the bend. If it's that important, bloody well answer it!
I wonder whether BMW will find a way to monetise the battery preconditioning option.
It is funny that companies always find ways to piss you off, but for different reasons. With Tesla I was pissed off by their service being shit, I went in to have something fixed and they broke something else. Next time they made me wait 4 hours after the scheduled time before they even started and worked on the car for 20 minutes before saying they couldn't fix it properly and would have to reschedule...
BMW on the other hand withholds a software feature that would actually make the car usable for long trips in the winter for reason other than adding it as a plus to new built cars. I sent an email to BMW Northern Europe asking them how they expect me to use the car in the winter when they are withholding about 50% of the charging stations in the navigation as well as a way to manually pre-condition the battery for charging. Told them my review of the car to people that are interested will be "don't buy it if you want to drive it in the winter".
Honestly I am getting more pissed off at BMW for this than Tesla ever pissed me off since this actually makes it a lot more annoying to use my $86k car for winter trips. I even have to contemplate renting another EV for my winter trips because the expensive one I have can't pre-condition the battery. I honestly thought that wasn't possible on a 2022 vehicle, let alone a premium one like the BMW.
BMW on the other hand withholds a software feature that would actually make the car usable for long trips in the winter for reason other than adding it as a plus to new built cars. I sent an email to BMW Northern Europe asking them how they expect me to use the car in the winter when they are withholding about 50% of the charging stations in the navigation as well as a way to manually pre-condition the battery for charging. Told them my review of the car to people that are interested will be "don't buy it if you want to drive it in the winter".
Honestly I am getting more pissed off at BMW for this than Tesla ever pissed me off since this actually makes it a lot more annoying to use my $86k car for winter trips. I even have to contemplate renting another EV for my winter trips because the expensive one I have can't pre-condition the battery. I honestly thought that wasn't possible on a 2022 vehicle, let alone a premium one like the BMW.
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Perhaps, we're being a bit too harsh / impatient 
I know it's easy for me to say since I already have the feature. But, even software updates do take time to create, thoroughly test and implement. It's been barely 2 months with a few shutdown weeks in between. Companies also often won't roll out an update for a single bug unless it's a mission critical item (security hack for example) – they'll fix bugs according to some priority list and will only roll out an actual update that fixes a significant enough batch of issues. Imagine incurring testing and other costs for every single bug. It's not sustainable.
They may well have already fixed it in the next version for everyone but it isn't yet ready for rollout. I'm sure everyone will have it soon since it does not make sense to withhold a software button.
I know it's easy for me to say since I already have the feature. But, even software updates do take time to create, thoroughly test and implement. It's been barely 2 months with a few shutdown weeks in between. Companies also often won't roll out an update for a single bug unless it's a mission critical item (security hack for example) – they'll fix bugs according to some priority list and will only roll out an actual update that fixes a significant enough batch of issues. Imagine incurring testing and other costs for every single bug. It's not sustainable.They may well have already fixed it in the next version for everyone but it isn't yet ready for rollout. I'm sure everyone will have it soon since it does not make sense to withhold a software button.
Reminds me a carplay difference between two M2C built a few months apart. The latest build had full screen carplay support while the earlier one didn't. Despite having exactly the same hardware.
Even 2 years after, still no official update. It had to be flashed by a 3rd party to support it, without issues of course.
Lets hope this doesn't happen to this battery pre-condition option. BMW really needs to update their software development and update rollout practices.
I had high hopes with the direction iDrive 8 took, but this doesn't help.
Even 2 years after, still no official update. It had to be flashed by a 3rd party to support it, without issues of course.
Lets hope this doesn't happen to this battery pre-condition option. BMW really needs to update their software development and update rollout practices.
I had high hopes with the direction iDrive 8 took, but this doesn't help.
Well I sent quite a confrontational email to BMW Northern Europe asking them why they think it is acceptable to not inform customers before purchase that they will have to rent another EV if they want to drive an EV for longer trips in the winter. Honestly thinking about making a claim through the consumer protection agency here because of this because there were no information about this.
If they would have been up front about the i4 not being fit for winter travel and that they will actively hinder one of the solutions to it (like their statement posted in this thread indicates) I probably wouldn't have bought it. Living in Sweden this is a dealbreaker issue for me, doesn't matter if the quality of the interior is nice and all if you get stuck at chargers because the battery is too cold.
One of the reasons I chose the i4 over a Tesla (S or 3) was that it had a foldable rear middle seat so you could easily fit skis and 4 people but that point doesn't really matter if you can't charge the car at an acceptable speed on the way to the ski resorts and have to take another car instead.
Back then you had to get the iStep updates done at the dealership (or yourself unofficially), so they knew most cars wouldn’t get updates unless there was an issue it was in at the dealership for.
Now they claim all new models are fully updatable OTA so they should expect all cars to get an update. This justifies spending time developing updates for older builds far more vs the old days.
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6 Posts
Please share the emailPerhaps, we're being a bit too harsh / impatient
They may well have already fixed it in the next version for everyone but it isn't yet ready for rollout. I'm sure everyone will have it soon since it does not make sense to withhold a software button.
Care to share the email add? I have some comments I´d like to make myself.
I just went to the Swedish BMW page and pressed "Kontakt" (contact) and apparently who you contact then is called "BMW Northern Europe".
I'm going to post my complaint once I have written it, probably tomorrow as it will take 2-3 hours to write and get the wording exactly correct. I don't think of it as a template but it may give people some ideas for their own complaints. BMW aren't entirely stupid, if people take the time to write individualised complaints, they are going to take more notice of them than complaints that are clearly from a template.
The other thing I was wondering about was if anybody had any auto-journalist contacts? Bad press is always going to be more affective than individual complaints.
The other thing I was wondering about was if anybody had any auto-journalist contacts? Bad press is always going to be more affective than individual complaints.
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