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The heart of any electric vehicle is its battery. This BMW i3 cutaway shows the battery removed from drive module.  When it comes to electric cars, it’s all about the battery. Well, it’s not quite that simple, but given how important the battery is to the cost, range and performance of the vehicle, it’s pretty close. When someone is considering purchasing their first electric car, they will certainly have a lot of questions.   The one question that seems to be on nearly everyone’s list is: “How long will the battery last?” The problem is, it’s been very hard to answer that question authoritatively because we just haven’t had enough data.   That’s because modern electric cars that are powered by high-voltage lithium ion battery packs have been on sale for less than ten years, and long term testing results simply weren’t available.   In fact, the Nissan LEAF was the first high-volume all-electric car brought to market, and that model has only been on ...

With the i3 REx, Reduced Power can occur if the operator continues to use more energy than the REx engine can produce. Examples of this would be continued high speed (over 70 mph) driving or long, sustained hill climbing. However this new problem that has plagued some i3 owners isn't caused by over-taxing the REx.  Someone once said, "You could always tell the pioneers by the arrows in their back."  A recent software bug has cropped up that seems to be affecting many of the early build and higher mileage i3s that are mostly driven by the early adopters. The problem causes the car to go into reduced power mode, or in some cases shut down without warning when the display shows about 5% - 6% battery remaining. In mid 2016, BMW released a software update, (version 16-07-501) that was supposed to correct the issue, but for some unknown reason it didn't work on all of the vehicles. They then sent out letters to the early buyers to inform that they need a software update. Re...

Do you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and drive a BMW i3, i8, X540e, 330e or 740e? If so, would you like to get paid to participate in BMW i's award winning ChargeForward initiative, while helping to shape the future of electric vehicle charging? BMW is seeking 250 individuals to participate in the second phase of the ChargeForward initiative, which will last approximately 24 months. The first phase of the program is now complete, and volunteers are needed for the second phase, which begins in January, 2017. This phase includes vehicle to grid managed charging, and stationary energy storage systems which utilize repurposed MINI-E battery packs. Back in 2015, this program won the ESNA Innovation Award for EV Battery 2nd Life Energy Storage System. From the ChargeForward website: The second phase of ChargeForward, from January 2017 through December 2018, is expected to demonstrate expanded benefits of charging optimization through management of both current and projected future c...

Yesterday at EVS29 in Montreal, BMW announced an energy storage system which uses BMW i3 battery packs. The system can utilize a used i3 pack, or it will be able to be purchased with a brand new battery pack. Perhaps the best aspect of the program is the fact that if you own an i3, you can have your old battery pack built into the system when you upgrade your car with a new pack. I've been waiting for this announcement for a while now. I can remember talking with one of BMW's top program managers from Munich three years ago. We were discussing my home solar system, and how I'd been powering my MINI-E and ActiveE electric cars with clean, renewable energy from the system for many years at that point. He then asked me the question, "What do you think will happen to your EV's battery once it has reached its end of life?" I answered that I would imagine it would probably be taken apart and recycled, with the lithium being used for new batteries. To which he said, ...

The 2017 i3's 33.4 kWh battery pack is the same physical size as the current 21.6 kWh pack. BMW purposely designed the battery tray this way, so that future battery upgrades would be possible. Allowing the i3's battery to be upgraded was always BMW's plan. The concept of upgrading an electric vehicle's battery pack is certainly not a new one. In fact, it's something that many EV owners have been vocal about wanting to see offered. So the news that BMW will begin a battery upgrade program for their current i3 owners is good indeed, even if it may be something that isn't really necessary, or practical - yet. The big news in BMW i's May 2nd press release was, as expected, that BMW would be upgrading the i3's battery cells from 60 Ah to 94 Ah. This means the 2017 i3 will have an EPA range of 114 miles, up from the current 81 miles per charge. These new battery cells are physically the same size as the currently used cells, but can hold 50% more energy and ar...

A Samsung employee shows of one of the new 94Ah battery cells which I predict the 2017 i3 will boast Ever since last October when  BMW CEO Harold Krueger stated that the 2017 i3 would have an increased electric range, there's been speculation on how they would accomplish it. While BMW hasn't made any official  announcements yet, it's widely believed that BMW will be using the new Samsung 94Ah battery cells for the 2017 i3, which I first speculated here, back in November.  The current i3 uses 96 Samsung 60Ah battery cells which are 3.75v ea. This adds up to a total of 21.6kWh (96 x 60 x 3.75= 21.6). The new 94Ah cells are the same physical size and voltage so an upgrade to these cells would mean BMW could use the same modules and battery tray, greatly reducing the cost as compared to engineering all new packaging for the new cells. Therefore, the new pack should increase from 21.6kWh to 33.8kWh (96 x 94 x 3.75 = 33.8). If the weight of the cells is the same, that should in...

Believe it or not, this was an i3. Unlike the 328i that was also destroyed in the fire, it's difficult to tell that this pile of burnt material was once a car. One of two things usually happens when people see an image of an electric vehicle on fire or the remnants of an electric vehicle that had been on fire. If you're an EV supporter, you probably hold your breath and grimace a bit until you can read the article to learn what caused the fire and if anyone was hurt. But for many people who are unfamiliar with electric vehicles, they likely question the safety of EVs. They don't even have to read the article; they just see "EV and fire" together and the unfortunate and uninformed speculation begins. Luckily, since the recent electric vehicle movement began roughly 6 years ago, there have been very few cases of EV fires, and to my knowledge no one involved has suffered an injury. Other than a couple of incidents involving the defunct Fisker Karma, the causes of EV ...

Might these new 94 Ah cells from Samsung SDI make their way into the 2017 BMW i3? About a month ago BMW CEO Harold Krueger surprised the EV world by casually mentioning in an interview with Die Zeit that in 2016 the i3 would have increased range. That of course sparked a lot of online speculation as to how would BMW accomplish this. Did they figure out a way to squeeze in more of the same 60 Ah Samsung battery cells that the i3 currently uses? Might they have sourced higher energy density battery cells from another supplier? Could Samsung have made the new 94 Ah cells available to BMW now? According to Samsung's Battery Technology Roadmap it didn't look like they would have those cells available for at least another year. From the Samsung SDI website. The 94 Ah cells aren't even listed as available (click to enlarge) According to some well connected insiders, it is beginning to look like BMW will indeed use Samsung's now 94 Ah battery cells in the 2017 i3 which will b...