I broke down in 2015 no cell phone nobody stopped I was out in the country ended up walking 2 hrs to a friend's house threw fields and woods in the winter Lol long day!!
@@MrKillswitch88 I just happened to forget mine being in a hurry when I realized I'd left it I was like I'll be fine Lol But when I go in-stores or running errands I leave in my truck I hate carrying it all day on me in stores
@@frankm8533 Keep a cheap old previously used phone in the car because you can still call 9/11 in the middle of nowhere without a monthly renewal cellphone plan for that particular phone. Thats creepy how nobody bothered to stop to help in the winter, nobody bothered to help me rescue a elderly mugging victim in front of a plaza on a busy afternoon with lots of traffic that was visibly able to see the elderly mugging victim on the ground while 3 young punks stood around him as 1 of them was yelling and holding a mountainbike in the air over his head as he was raging and motioning to throw the bike onto his victim. Even my older brother stayed in his minivan as jumped out after asking him 4 times to stop his minivan, and when i returned, he called me an idiot rather than local hero.
@@truetech4158 people don't care man for real! I had a flat couple years ago nobody stopped I didn't have a spare I called a tire shop two miles away that was open on a Saturday they wouldn't come get me. So I put my spare on a furniture cart I had in my truck and pulled it about 2 miles in the snow nobody stopped! They put a used tire on for me then I pulled it back still snowing to my truck put it back on then went home cause i got fired cause I had to call saying I was going to be late I had a flat.
That was an amazing journey Randy. $200 for a 3000 mile trip is an accomplishment. Especially with all the idle time due to gridlock. I don't believe I would have left so much to chance. A spare 2 gallons of gas and keeping the gas tank filled would have been a much safer option. I know those roads and the scarcity of charging stations currently ieaves one to question the wisdom of not taking precautions. Hats off to you for your intestional fortitude. Keep her safe and stay out of the ditches.
I can totally relate to this video. 2014 BMW i3 rex with 154,000 miles. Road trip to San Felipe Mexico from San Diego...no charge stations and few gas stations after crossing the border. 2 gas cans in the frunk to enable me to make it to my vacation home. What an experience...anything but boring !!
@@BrandonKippelectric motors have far less parts. No fluids. Ultra low maintenance. These EVs can make one millions effortlessly with good maintenance!
I used to drive an i3 with a range extender used to drive it from county Kerry to Dublin City often.. I had to plan my stops and stop by 1 charging station in the middle of the trip which was fine by me so I could stretch my legs and move around I did not mind that mind you.. Ireland is very small in comparison to US so it makes sense that these cars are often used here. I did eventually try out Renault Zoe, and Peugeot E208 also Hyundai Kona Electric... Far superior better range and far more comfy cars and longer range with proper driving I managed to get them going in 1 charge. If I could buy a car now I will 100% get a Peugeot E208 I loved that car not only that it looks normal and blends in it's fun to drive and I had the best experience in it, when I drove the I3 it gathered a lot of attention.. that's also one of the reasons why I prefer the E208 people ignored it which is a + for me. (I know I know people say Tesla is the best and superior but I will never endorse a company that doesn't support rights to repair yet promotes sustainability) EV is not the future, this is just temporary.
I agree that is a problem with a Tesla. You seem very knowledgeable on electric cars and I think for the distance you drive they make sense. My brother just got a Ford Escape Hybrid and around town he gets 55 mpg and out on the highway around 45 mpg. Which is far better then what is said on the internet........Hhhmmm.
@@mamadouaziza2536 in full charge the renault zoe I drove did 230 miles I3 with range extender did around same-ish. mind you Zoe did not require any fuel at all it's a full electric car took around half an hour to fully charge with fast charger same as I3. also i my opinion car looks nicer far nicer than I3 I also liked the seats was very comfy car although I am more sold on the Peugeot.. I did not like the cheap feel of the I3 interior and the i3 is not fun in tight turning roads like any SUV was a meh handling car it doesn't help that I prefer hatchbacks too. I cannot say it's the best EV since I did not try many other brands but it's definitely one of my personal faves.
@@jonsmith1259 Exactly! Those cars are really designed for short trips and city driving. They really make no financial sense. You pay a premium for them when they are new and when the battery pack fails as it will, you have spent a lot more than you would on a conventional car. The battery technology is improving but they still have a ways to go.
@@craigjorgensen4637 I'd guarantee you the Tempo would have made it, I wouldn't have the patience to sit around for 20 minutes for a charge every couple hundred miles!
Everyone is complaining but no one is seeing the bigger picture and the challenge he did. The i3 is meant for Urban cities where there are countless public chargers, the car was not designed for long freeway trips.. However, he managed to drive 1500 miles both coming and going, so of course he had obstacles but he overcame them.. Just imagine this car in the city.. The battery is warrant for 8 years and with most i3's there is very little battery degradation after 8 years... In 2019 BMW released a 42kwh battery version of this car (car in the video has a 33kwh battery). Also, the range extender version does not include a heat pump, so heating the cabin is less efficient. Only the BEV version has a heat pump. Imagine if BMW put in a 66kwh battery and EA added more public chargers.. Lets not blame or dog the car for a road trip it was really not designed for..
@@craigjorgensen4637 Imagine if your gas engine and transmission needs replacing? Battery replace costs about the same. With proper care, the battery should last 15 to 20 years before it needs replacing and who knows, batteries could be very inexpensive by that time..
This episode reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Kramer is driving a truck and the gas needle says its empty he keeps driving to see how far it can go?!
It was a challenge more than anything and an interesting whatch but here in the UK with our little diesels as much as they want to ban there is nothing more economical I had an 05 Rover 45 2.0l TDi (most people in US won't be familiar with the car) and dispite being a relative old car it would still do 50-55mpg US on the motorway
The funny thing is that the route he took has people misjudging their gas range all the time. You are going up in elevation from LA to Flagstaff, but people drive as if they are on flat ground. Every time I have driven in that area, I always see cars overheating or out of gas on the side of the road. Almost all of them have plates from flat states. I wasn’t surprised that Randy was running out of range just before Flagstaff.
Important thing to remember, the prices for electricity he is paying for is at the Fast DC chargers. One can only speculate that if that charging was at home it would have cost 1/2 or less!!!! I currently get 4.4 miles/kWh in my i3. Charging at my night time rate (0.095) and driving that distance would have only been $65.00
This series turned out great, very educational the feasibility of these types of vehicles would vary but as a daily driver, this wouldn't be that bad at all for scooting around town. This was the ultimate test for a long-range road trip. Keeping a few gallons of extra gas in the trunk would remove much of the stress but it was fun to see you push it to its limit. Good job thanks for doing this series.
We disagree on many things, Randy, but excellent shout on the trucker blocking the emergency lane/shoulder. Years ago I worked with Aeromed in Florida and saw first hand the devastation delays to emergency services can cause. And yes, we certainly need to thank truck and delivery drivers for their work during Covid, keeping us supplied with retail goods and the supermarkets stocked. But that guy is a professional driver, and he should know better. That i3 is a cool little car, and it was a very good exercise, but stress and anxiety, and the time wasted having to stop and charge it every 5 minutes, just does my head in. Of course, it's not a continental GT, and around town I expect it's brilliant, but I'll take a petrol engine every time! The large segments with no charging station show just how unprepared the infrastructure still is for EV.
I'm glad it's all went fine! We went on a road trip and friend of my had a lot of similar problems on he's iphone, was not getting signal half of the time.
You should have drafted behind that truck to get better range. Most cars when it says zero range you still have a little gas left to get you a little farther. Allot of gas cars can go atleast 40 miles after it says zero range.
This Video will keep you on the Edge of your seat. Took alot of Guts to do what you did Randy. Need more of the Walk arounds in different cities. Thank you for Amazing Content 👍👍
I had a BMW I3 Rex with the software unlocked to allow 2.4 gallons of gas and hold mode enabled for the electric battery. I admire your adventure on this long trip as it is possible and easier to do now in that car. Unfortunately people who are not familiar with EV's will think all electric vehicles are time consuming and bad for long distance driving which is not true anymore. Good video documentation though.
I just purchased the 2017 I3 range extender this past Thursday. Before getting the vehicle I was doing my research reading and watching RU-vid videos watching reviews but now that I have the vehicle now I'm looking for videos of people traveling just to see what they're reviews are and let me tell you I have bad anxiety so when you were making that exit I was there with you whole heartedly panicking and let me tell you when you pulled up to that Shell gas station I screamed in excitement. The Furthest that I'm going in my vehicle would be to Houston and to Austin luckily in Austin they have a bigger infrastructure. Honestly why would anyone need to go over 95 mi anyway so that's great. Thank you for this video it has come my anxiety down when it comes to range and traveling
Thanks for a great post. Here in England I drive about 200 miles a day for work all over the south east every day costs £22.00 ($28.00). plus £12.50 ($15.80) diesel charge for driving in London. This may have swayed me into thinking it will work well, and save ££. Definitely will get a Rex 2016 model if I take the plunge.
The real savings on EVs is when you charge at home and commute. I'll be the first to admit very long road trips are challenging and while comparatively inexpensive they are not as cheap as they can be. However my little i3 bev saves us massive amounts of money compared to our crossover SUV since we charge at home almost exclusively. Fabulous video btw, enjoyed the content a lot!
Wow the gas drama build up only to get to the gas station just in time lol. Only youtubers can come up with this kind of content on their own. Great job!
I do this drive (except i start in GA) many times a month and I've had my truck at 0 miles to empty with no fuel stations in sight pulling 14k pounds. It happens a LOT he just happened to capture what it feels like. You'll navigate to the next stop and something will come up or the gas station that has diesel will be closed. It's always something
I like watching you pick up cheap cars that are still real good and saving them from the junk yard. And giving someone a good car for inexpensive that they might really need.
When I first saw the BMW i3, I loved it immediately. I always said I would get one used. BMW is not making them anymore. I still want to get a used one. I used to do Uber for about 2 and a half years and I had the electric Hyundai Kona and Kia Niro. They way I charge is I would use the charge point and simply take a nice long nap. I would treat all recharging stops as rest stops. Instant torque is the most fun part of driving. I can tell deep down you hate truckers!! They say everything we uses comes off a truck but I had my own bad experiences with a select few of them tailgating and purposely putting high beams on
Hey Randy, love the video series. I'm a truck driver and as far as the trucks on the shoulder, they might have had to in order to satisfy their half hour break requirement or just ran out of hours completely. I know there's some drivers who will just park on the breakdown lane and be a jerk but that just may have been a case of bad government. You were one of my inspirations to start my own RU-vid drone channel 2 months ago so thank you.
My 2014 BEV with the smallest battery the i3 has, I drove from SF to LA and I had a similar experience. In the middle of the night, I was on this remote road, I was so close to running out of charge. I had 0 miles left and no gas backup. I coasted into the charging station. I nearly had a party it was so exciting to have made it. My overall trip time took almost 12 hours due to all the charging stops. I also had similar problems where certain charging stations did not work. Needless to say, it definitely involves a lot of thinking and sometimes a little too much excitement.
Looks like the Chevy Volt is a better use case for trip like this...total EV around town...using the Hold and mountain mode for highway gasoline runs. I've done 1,000 mile road trip in my 2012 Volt traveling to rural areas and with a 9 gallon tank and 40 plus mpg reduces range anxiety.
Even with a gasoline vehicle, it can be a really big drain on a person doing these long distance drives, we just drove out to Denver Colorado, it was a twelve hour drive one way, we left Saturday night at 11, stopped in Lincoln nebraska to sleep, then drove the duration to Denver, left there, stopped in iowa to sleep, then drove another 3hours home, very exhausting to say the least, Liked the vid, BTW thank goodness at 20:00,, have you tried Comfort Inn? We did, and it was surprisingly really good, actually one of the best we've been to yet, full view, Liked and enjoyed
There's a programming change you can make to add the euro choice to the menu that lets you choose a higher % for the rex to kick in. That way you don't have to stress about mountain ranges and barely getting to the next charger. I think bimmercode and some others.
This is different than the extra gas capacity part. It allows you to set rex to kick in and maintain current level up to 75% instead of just the preset 6%. So it can start rex to maintain and kick in at 50% for example. It gives you an extra menu option on screen to control. I know your goal was to try to do the most without the gas, and that was interesting and entering to watch, but if you wanted to do another long range trip, this would make it less nail biting and could provide different content or a comparison. I would be interested to see the difference and the full long range potential of the car. TFLnow did the hack on their car, but didn't do a long range test/trip like you.
@@Sol-su2mi They will ban the sale of new ones...unless the politicians do a U turn. Cars (decent ones) last 15 years...so I see lots of hybrids...and folk trying to get EVs working. Right now they are just a curio
@@Sol-su2mi Well they can try...but Diesel fuel for lorrys/semi trucks is the same price as for cars. The French government tried to increase duty and the country rioted. Our country just gives you a tax break. Last August I sold my merc Clk270cdi. no space for a baby seat. beater with a heater. After 16 years it still had plenty of pep...used no oil and water...and easily and often did 56mpg. Once EVs match ICE for range and convenience sure. Today they an utter comprise
USE THIS TIP TO GAIN HIGHWAY RAINGE, IT WORKS!! I did a 1900 mile road trip in my 2018 i3, earlier this year to Colorado. I gained a significant amount of range by following the semi-trucks, it's a night and day difference. I was riding the slipstream, didn't have to follow too close, just a normal distance. I easily reduced my return trip by at least two hours. I could literally see my range increasing and mostly holding steady, via my info screen. And you're correct, I gained a ton of mileage cruising down the Colorado Rockies.
One thing of note is that if you only use an i3 for local journeys and can charge at home then your 12000 miles per year will be very cheap. In the UK I can run mine for 2p/mile by charging on a cheap rate electricity tariff which I get for 5 hours each evening. Say that's 3¢/mile, then 12000 miles will cost $360.
Another reason why I loved my ford c-maxyou never had to worry about range or running "out of power" it would just go like a regular car as long as gas was available and I could always top up the energi (literally the name) to get 20 miles of electric range for around town use then it became like a prius.
t randy i used to live in Chicago for years and well every wintertime a friend and me we always went on a road trip to get away from the cold i loved those American road trips.i did a few of those and drove from chicago to key west thats a great trip also stopping off everywhere on the way .i love America its a wonderful country
You should have used the range extender from the start. If you have used the 75% button you could have driven with a speed of 74.5 miles the entire trip (Mountens excluded) But great story!;-)
Hey Randy, love the channel. Long time follower! But when are gonna get back to wrenching man? Driving through Cali in a Beamer doesn’t suit your personality that well lol.
A great adventure Randy ! The BMW i3 hasn’t sold well in Britain but the Toyota Prius has, and now we have Teslas and the new VW iD3 & 4. I loved my test drive of the iD3 and the bigger SUV iD4 may suit you better ? Why not have a test drive and see if you like it ( it’s all electric ⚡️🙂 )? Rex.
The cool thing about this car is when you use it as it was intended... An in city errand runner/commuter car, you will most likely NEVER really need the REX. But its nice to have. People that have these cars usually say they haven't had to put gas in the car in months and only use it just to get rid of the gas so it wont go bad. If I had one I would make sure I only put Ethanol free fuel in it and might even put that Stabil additive in it so you can keep the fuel from varnishing in the tank. It think this car is cool. but I dont think I would buy one. I live in New Orleans and barely drive as it is. I Ride a scooter to work unless its raining or cold.
@@mamadouaziza2536 electric cars do the exact same thing because making batteries and electricity is very toxic for the environment you mean hydrogen is better not EVs
There is an Obrist generator zero vibration engine and configuration that you can install on basicaly any vehicle but it's perfect for the i3 since they allready made an i3 with that configuration. You can go up to 1500 kilometers. Pretty sweet.
In germany going long distance in an i3 is easy, I got the smaller battery in mine, as soon as i can i just turn on the REX and just drive, the most part is just getting floored at topspeed, there are many costructions and traffic jams and it’s easy, when im at my aunts/grandparents house and i charge with this small house outlet thingy. And for you, the eu specs (idk if the americans do that): if you open the trunk and press the brake padel 3 times and press start the rex turns on and generates electricity
A Toyota Prius Prime could about equal what was done with the BMW I3 w/REX depending on what you paid for gas over those miles ($3.40/gal) because it can get over 50+ MPG. For those times stuck in traffic, the battery could keep you comfortable for up to 7-8 hrs at a time if they were full at the time you needed it. Still impressive for the little BMW to do this.
Yes Randy in my 2 weeks of owning a ‘21 i3 it’s a blast to drive, will never own another ICE and fun learning to maximize it as you said. Like people complain about the strong regenerative breaking but you get to learn how much to ease off the “accelerator” to reduce or increase the regeneration and braking
At 33:00 , you're right, I guess it is correct to not block the shoulder. I always thought it was fine to be there, and thought it was a good idea, but now that you talked about the emergency vehicles, I see what you mean.
I really enjoyed the video. I'm buying a 2015 i3 which I'll have in a couple of days. The annual savings would be a lot more than you calculated because you assumed paying for fast charging for the whole year. In reality, 90% of the charging will probably be plugging in at home which is a lot less expensive than the fast charges. Even so, with paying for fast charging on a trip, you showed that it's a significant savings over gas. Thanks
Something just clicked to me. This was a drive along old Route 66. If someone were to go buy a lot of the closed old gas stations along it, they could turn them into EV charge stations and turn it back into the Mother Road to take advantage of the tourists wanting to experience classic Route 66. Exploring the small towns of historic Route 66 would give people something to do while their cars charge up. We are living in a time where EV infrastructure is new enough that you are forced to drive the speed and range of the time before freeways. The adventure is out there. We just have to be willing to slow down and experience it.
The way those hotels work is, say they have 200 rooms. 25 of them might be available for walk-ins and the rest are contracted out to those booking websites that guarantee rooms. So you might have been able to go online to a place like hotels . com and book a room for the night. but I'm not sure you can even book for the same day after a certain time. like 11am. so at 2am you would be booking for 11am that morning. weird right. But they make their money off those booking sites so they dont care if you can't get a room. I can assure you they had open rooms that night. you just didn't have a reservation.
That car would be good for local travel in a state with a lot of charging stations but I would not want to go cross country without at least 500-mile in battery range. I do not need all that stress from a range of anaxity
I'm liking the video (because I like your channel) and I REALLY appreciate your going through this experiment to total up the cost of electricity and gas and I ran the numbers on a Kia Soul (or any similar car) getting 32 MPG Hwy and 3000 miles would use 93+ gallons of gas. At $2.70 per gallon (the local price for 87 here), it would cost $253 to make the same trip. $53 over your cost, without having to turn off the heat and other comfort features, trying to make it to the next charging station. I'll pay the extra $53 - $60 on a trip of that distance to drive in comfort and greater security, knowing the nearest gas station is a lot closer than the nearest charging station. For driving around town to and from work, etc. grocery store, etc. and charging at home, an electric car is definitely an option but for road trips, gas is still the way to go IMHO. Thanks again for doing this long distance test drive and sharing it with us.
Using this car on this journey is a bit like trying to fly from New York to London in a Cessna. It's a city/runaround car or 2nd car. Our primary car is a Honda crv 1.6 dtec that averages 67 mpg on the open road, we've never owned an electric car but I think the bimmer i3 would be high on the list if we needed to purchase a 2nd car.
Yeah. I think Rex is the key to switching a lot of cases for people trying to switch to electric. Gas stations are so plentiful and faster to deal with… full, broken stations. Or even lack there of… Ofc you are making it hard on yourself by passing up gas stations because of your experiment. But for most people they just need to keep the gas tank full and then try their best to use just chargers from there. I’m hoping people will do this (unlike with phev where most people with them only use gas without plugging them in). But I feel like Rex makes it more obvious when you’re not on electric hopefully motivating people to charge and truly only use gas for safe range extending. One can hope.
Loved the trip coverage. And props for taking what was designed to be just a city runabout and stretching it to make this kind of road trip. Got a little bit of an issue with you saying people will save $240 in a year in fuel costs if someone drives 12k miles a year; that's actually far too low. I know you were doing quick math, but you were doing math based on ONLY using charge stations (and even gas for your REx unit), because that's all you had available. Most people driving 12k a year will do so over the course of an entire year, and will do the vast bulk of their charging at home where it is far, FAR cheaper. I did a little math based on my actual EV ('19 e-Niro) and your hypothetical 35 MPG car, based on the costs of fuels where I live (10.1 cents/KWh for electricity, 3.35/gal for regular unleaded) and came back with $802 in savings over 12k miles for the EV. And as you also alluded to, that is just the savings for fuel. Maintenance costs also open that gap even further.
One additional thought. I wonder how much it would cost if you did the same trip on the summer where you need the Air Conditioner. You may have much different results. Cold is one thing 110 degrees in AZ and NV might be a different story. Can you stand the heat, or will you get out of the kitchen?
Nice car, would like one for around town and short trips ONLY. $60 saved... what about down time charging, stressing about making it to the next stop, ....not for me....give me the gas....it refills in minutes....good informative content but life is too short to go through that for $60...take it from the geezer.
Some Hotels offer free charging for guests of the hotel. You could download the Plugshare app which will allow you to find free charging from people willing to share their chargers.
Thumbs up randy. We watch because your video's are extremely entertaining. So in the end is the time spent charging worth the time not moving? I can make the trip from lincoln ca 1632 miles one way in 22:45 ish. With no delays of course. Let us know your feeling on it.
I really enjoyed this little series! It was very informative and entertaining. Keep up the great content. Ive been watching you since you had that yellow convertible mustang. 4-ish years I think.
Randy, remember that the 12k is over a year doing short trips and charging up at home. That is a lot cheaper than doing 4x 3k trips. EV'S are not designed for long-distance interstate travel even though they can do it. They are at their best travelling between AAC1 and AAC2 and return forty times a year.
There is a bigger battery version out and a version with the bigger battery and a more stable suspension with fatter tires.. Randy could have just held the battery at 75% indefinitely as long as he had gas in the tank but he wanted to challenge the car... People have driven i3s from Miami to California by just holding the battery..
About arriving late at the hotels: trying to check in a hotel (without a reservation) late after midnight means quite some extra administrative work for the guy at the front desk. Which is very annoying at 3-4AM. I had that situation quite often in my years at the reception of a hotel. Depending on mood and the manner of the guy, unless there's absolutely no alternative (or a heavy tip) I'd rather turn away a guy who did not bother to make a reservation than having to do over an hour worth of work again I did earlyer. I know it sucks, but this is how it works.
There s a bit of extra range in the Battery that the EV's don't tell you about, i've managed to drive a Nissan e-NV200 for 3km back to HQ at previous workplace with 0km range left Not that you should use that extra range but it's there xD
So evey recharge takes roughly 35 minutes, 200 miles per charge, you have to stop 15 times to drive 3000 miles. So you roughly spend 8 hours recharging. Definitely a city only car.
