banned google

We stopped at the Big Moose Deli in New York for some coffee. It's about ten miles from the Vermont border.  Perhaps the most discussed topic of the BMW i3 is the implementation of the range extender for the North American market. In an effort to have the vehicle qualify for the California Air Resource Board BMW set restrictions on how and when the range extender can turn on, effectively reducing the utility of the REx. These restrictions are most apparent when attempting to use the car for long journeys which include drastic increases in elevation. This topic has been covered here and on every other EV site extensively, and recently it was announced that BMW is working on a software update that will allow, under certain conditions,  the range extender to come on much earlier than the 6.5% threshold it currently uses. I am actually beta testing that software for BMW now, having had it installed on my i3 just last week. The new software also includes some other updates that wil...

When activated, the ACC displays an icon of a car on the road ahead of you. That means you are locked onto a vehicle in your path. One of the coolest features on the i3 is the Active Cruise Control. The Parking Assistant is cool tech also, but honestly I can't see myself ever using it except to show it off to friends. I can park the car just fine on my own, and faster than the Parking Assistant can. The ACC on the other hand is not only really cool, but very useful. Whether I'm stuck in slow moving traffic or driving long distance on the highway I'm finding myself using the ACC more and more. It's kind of like locking onto the car in front of you with a tractor beam from some sci-fi show and letting it pull you along. However there is one thing that needs to be improved upon with the i3's ACC. It will occasionally disengage by itself without warning. Yes, it does post a notice on the center display screen that it has deactivated, but unfortunately that is already af...

It seems that nearly every day now there are new short video clips of i3 reviews posted on YouTube. When I come across one that I feel is done very well, I'll post it here. Such is the case with the above video made by Grant Thomas from the UK. Grant maintains a blog called "The Grant Thomas Blog: Sustainability, Electric Cars & Technology News and Comment" where he posted this i3 video review. Grant owns a Nissan LEAF so he is an experienced electric vehicle owner and in my opinion that gives his review a little more credibility than some others done by journalists with very little real life electric vehicle experience. The video is about a half hour long and he does manage to cover a lot so pour yourself a nice cup of coffee (or a glass of wine), and kick back and enjoy!