This is a typical BMW with lots of gizmos that include parking assist to automatically park the car without assistance and to warn you if you get too close to objects at any time. The range for the battery is somewhere around 80 miles, and the range extender kicks in when only 6% of the charge remains, giving you another 80 miles. Of course there are also things like navigation, satellite radio, rain-sensing windshield wipers, cruise control, blue tooth and USB connectivity.
About 25% of the plastic is recycled, the body is a fiberglass/plastic composite, the chassis is aluminum. The tires are selected to maximize mileage.
Of course, air conditioning, heat, cold and hot weather will affect the charge on the battery, and I plan to make additional posts as I find both positive and negative points when driving an electric vehicle.
I was wary of driving the 100 miles from Phoenix to Prescott, so my advisor at Chapman BMW, RC Cashatt, drove it up for me. He had to resort to the range extender for the last part of the trip which limited his power and speed up the mountains, but he had no problems with the drive. Based on this, a drive down the "hill" to Phoenix would not be a problem.
Included in my lease was a free level-2 charging station (BMW i Charging Station) that can charge my battery in about 8 hours as compared to a standard AC connection that requires about 16 hours for a full charge. The charging station will need to be installed, and I'll include details and comments on this when it's put in.
Here are some pictures of my BMW i3:
I'm really excited about this car and look forward to adding more details over the next two years!
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