New Shoes

Now that I've done exactly what I knew would eventually happen (falling-off the blog wagon) - Zippy demanded an update. He did this by finally chewing almost all the way through the Bridgestone Ecopias that came with the car at the time of purchase - 12,532 miles... abysmal tire lifetime by most standards. We do drive Zippy on a mountain gravel road about 3 miles per day - and log about 15 miles per day on a winding, paved mtn road... but honestly. The tires were literally bald - dangerous to drive with some careful attention. We were planning to install new tires but were trying to wait-out the inevitable snow so that we could transition straight to snow tires. The final straw was last week when Zippy could barely creep up our gravel road in the rain because the road was slightly slick - and the tires had no traction.

I found this blog post by Chuck Vossler quite helpful. We went with the Blizzaks mostly due to the fact that Zippy get about 20 highway miles per day and we wanted the additional durability of the Bridgestone tire. 

Next - I need to fine where to get these show chains. I've talked to our local BMW dealer and searched all over the web - to no avail.

Top End Consumption

When we began the drive down the mtn today we noticed that we had forgotten to plug-in Zippy overnight - so the battery was at about 75%. This is likely what allowed us to hit 99.9 mi/kWh on the consumption dashboard in the car as we exited the steepest part of the decent... and we still had 4 miles of gentle downhill to go. I suspect that the car charges differently depending on the battery level.

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 39 minutes
• Average Speed: 33.2 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 9
• Temps: 65

Whoa!

A great drive down the mtn today - and a new consumption record at the bottom of the descent of 86.3 mi/kWh... the car only goes to 99.9 and I don't think we will ever hit that. Perhaps this is the top-end.

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 43 minutes
• Average Speed: 31.5 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 8.4
• Temps: 65

Back and Forth

Quick update with the full stats from Monday - including the previous morning post. Had a short midday charge at Chautauqua while climbing. 

• Distance: 70 miles
• Duration: 2 hrs 31 minutes
• Average Speed: 28.8 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 4.9
• Temps: 60-90

Morning Commute in Ideal Temps

Just the standard drive to work this morning - but the temperatures, as previously mentioned, really seem to positively impact consumption - even better than Friday

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 39 minutes
• Average Speed: 32.9 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 8.3
• Temps: 60-65

Weekend Driving

First and foremost - new consumption record on Saturday morning 53.5 mi/kWh coming following the same route down the mtn that we do for work each day. It was in the low 70s.

Sunday we took Zippy up and down the mtn twice, all around Boulder and drove four people to Lyons for dinner - highway driving over rolling hills and windy roads. We did charge the car at home for about 2 hours mid-afternoon.

• Distance: 79 miles
• Duration: 2 hrs 56 min.
• Average Speed: 27.8 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 4.5
• Temps: 75-90

Ideal Temps?

I've read a fair number of accounts about the ideal temperature for EV operation and specifically the i3... I'm not an engineer like most of the folks who offer thoughts on this topic but my general impression is that there are a lot of factors.

For Zippy and the conditions under which we drive him, the mid-60s seems to be very ideal. As we reached the end of the long descent on our "to work" commute today, we had a new consumption record - 40.6 mi/kWh!

And the overall consumption by the time I reached work was 7.8 mi/kWh - well above the uppers 5s that I saw in the spring.

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 44 minutes
• Average Speed: 30.1 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 7.8
• Temps: 60-72

Nimble

So there we were - premier of Run Free - the moving and inspiring story of trail running legend Micah True - at the Dairy Center in Boulder where parking is limited... and people are choosing to park so lazily - leaving large spaces, but not large enough to fit another car.

Then there is Zippy - kapow!

 

Downpour

So it seems like the rain is never going to stop in Boulder... by the time I left the house today almost 1 inch had fallen since midnight. Zippy handled like a champ in the slippery mud, during the wet and windy decent of the mtn and through all of the standing water on the highway.

• Distance: 18 miles
• Duration: 32 minutes
• Average Speed: 35.5 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 5.4
• Temps: 35-42

Of note - had a new record for consumption while coming down the mtn last week - 33.7 mi/kWh!

Big, Big Day for Zippy

A fair bit of driving today - down the mtn, around town, back up the mtn:

• Distance: 64 miles
• Duration: 2 hrs 8 minutes
• Average Speed: 28.6 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 4.4

When we got home though... our PV solar power system had been generating power for it's first day of sunlight! Free dinner for Zippy. 28.54 kWh by 6pm is well more than enough to charge the car and power the house for a full day. Awesome!

just the stats

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 41 minutes
• Average Speed: 31.7 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 7.3

another day without a bath for Zippy

More rain... this car needs a cleaning inside and out SOOOO bad.

• Distance: 24 miles
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Average Speed: 25.5 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 5.9

Friday

• Distance: 21 miles
• Duration: 40 minutes
• Average Speed: 31.9 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 6.6 (according to the dashboard) / 6.1 (according to the app)
• Recuperation (mi/kWh): 8.9

new record - and those who must be punished

This'll be a quick post as duty calls today... but some excitement for sure.

First - yesterday. I headed into Boulder for a midday climb above the Chautauqua Meadow. One of the awesome aspects of traveling to this locale with Zippy - they have an EV charging station which is "free." Actually, it is paid for with the EXTRA fee that I pay to register an EV in Colorado. Seriously - we pay an extra $50, not less for a lower impact car - more. Sometimes the station at this location isn't available - there are a lot of EVs in Boulder... including this one I guess. What you aren't appreciating is that this pickup truck must be electric, hence feeling entitled to park in this spot... and since it doesn't need the power cord, it must be the first vehicle on the planet to support inductive charging... or this person is an asshole.

As for this morning's drive - a new consumption record coming down the mtn - 35.7 mi/kWh! The warmer temp must have something to do with this.

• Distance: 27 miles
• Duration: 62 minutes
• Average Speed: 27.5 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 6.8 (according to the dashboard) / 6.1 (according to the app)
• Recuperation (mi/kWh): 15.5
• Temperature: 54

Not all CK

L was at the helm for the start of the drive today - after the gym Ana and I brought Zippy out to work.

• Distance: 23 miles
• Duration: 50 minutes
• Average Speed: 28.8 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 6.2 (according to the dashboard) / 6.1 (according to the app)
• Recuperation (mi/kWh): 10.4

And on the way down the mtn - we had a curious onlooker!

Statistics

For such a progressive company - and even more progressive vehicle in the i3... BMW really needs to up there game when it comes to capturing and accessing statistics on the car.

Today's morning drive:

• Distance: 21.1 miles
• Duration: 39 minutes
• Average Speed: 32.5 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 6.8 (according to the dashboard) / 6.1 (according to the app)
• Recuperation (mi/kWh): 10.4

The iRemote app tells me that our consumption for all trips is now 5.0 mi/kWh with the community way down at 3.8 (heck yeah Zippy)... interestingly the dashboard in the car reports that we are at 3.8 overall.

Alas.

Just the AM stats

• Distance: 21 miles
• Average Speed: 31.1 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 6.5
• Recuperation: 10.4 mi/kWh
• Time: 41 minutes
• Temperature: 27 degrees

Irony?

And then I did exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do in the very first post on Mountain i3... got out of the habit. Perhaps this will be my re-introduction. Just a few interesting notes today:

• I have been trying like crazy to find these - http://bmwi3.blogspot.com/2014/11/bmw-i3-tires-get-ready-for-winter.html - I have contacted my local BMW dealer, they pointed me to the actual manufacturer of all BMW-branded chains... no luck so far.
• Last week Zippy (with my assistance) achieved his most efficient consumption rating to-date during our drive down the mountain - 31.7 mi/kWh
• And here's the really exciting one - my EV (full disclosure - REX - it does have a small gas engine for regeneration) - smells like gas... because I bought a small can of gas for our chainsaw and dumped it all over the backseat! Ugh... I am testing a clean-up procedure involving the spread of coffee grounds all over the carpeting in the backseat which will be vacuumed off after two days.

I'm resolving myself to post more diligently... and a big announcement coming from Zippy in the next few weeks!

Zippy in exile

Well - Zippy has been hanging-out in downtown Boulder for a full week due to the drifts of snow up at our house in the mtns. As I've documented, the i3 handles very well in snowy and slippery conditions... but it is understandably incapable of pushing through 24 inches of snow - especially up steeper inclines.

After sitting for seven days in temperatures ranging from -4 to 30 F the battery had only decreased from 80% to 75% - awesome.

Just a short drive this AM:

• Distance: 11.6 miles
• Average Speed: 40.3 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 3.0
• Time: 16 minutes

The real test will be making it up the snowy driveway tonight - power-up Zippy.

After the snow

I was definitely out in the driveway last night from 10-11pm shoveling snow as we needed to drive both cars today and, though a winter champion, Zippy doesn't deal well with 14 inches of heavy snow. Thankfully it didn't snow after my shoveling, so things were looking pretty good for the descent this AM.

The drive into town for my AM workout as excellent - and I think a might bit easier in the i3 than in our Xterra despite the slippery conditions. I was curious to see how the return trip would be as I needed to be back at the house for some AM appts before heading back down to the office. The climb went great despite the snow covered (plowed) and sanded road that was quite slippery.

The main event was the final climb up the driveway. Though I shoveled, the passage was narrow and the surface covered in fine snow - like sand on the beach. I came at the driveway doing about 25mph and sailed right up - around the curves and into the garage! Now Zippy is having a nice drink before we head back down for a day in-town.

• Distance: 26 miles
• Average Speed: 21.9 mph
• Consumption (mi/kWh): 3.1
• Time: 1hr 15min
• Temperature: 8-22 degrees