Can I Make a 120 Mile Road Trip with Just 70 Miles of EV Range and 2 Gallons of Gas? 

And to all a goodnight

Did u jus stop and refill the tank?or ev charge as well?

@@goldenstatew2399 I did a couple charge stops, but it was mostly refilling the tank. The charge stops were a good opportunity for me and my dog to relax and take a walk.

@@JuiceBoxScott awesome, owe fillup how many miles would u say I were able to achieve

@@goldenstatew2399 not a lot, 100 miles give or take.

@@JuiceBoxScott that is not bad at all enuff to get u to the next pump if need, how's maintenance? I'm really leaning toward a 2017 i3 rex vs a bolt

Unfortunately, they were shocked at how ugly it is.

Came to the comments for this! Made a massive difference. Being able to turn on the REX when you want is incredible.

@@rdougan Totally agree with you Robert. I think that the REX option on the BMW i3 is one of the best idea's. Especially when you have the option of turning it on and off when ever you need to use it. Absolutely love my i3, such a great car !!

Gotta agree. Having a ‘14 myself, my favorite 2 things were coding larger fuel tank capacity and HSOC.

One bonus is to not beat up your battery by running it down to low level when you know you're going to be using Rex anyway

GM was so stupid to stop making the Volt ...

@@sking2173 GM is generally stupid. starting with that ding ding ding noise.

i thought car with v8 would be a great car to see America in lol gas is cheap here and voltage is low, 110v?

Kyle from out of spec on youtube drove it from rocky mount nc to Colorado . He had the range extender coded to get the max mikes and filled up a lot. He did charge it 2 times on the trip because he drives too fast for the range extender

@@markfitzpatrick6692 I drive to fast for the rex but time my eating and sleeping around dc fast charging so I do charge 3-4 times omw from ca to co. I'm also going 80-85, and filling up is the worst part but I have dogs that like to get out and walk anyways. 100,000 problem free miles.

That's interesting. Will there be any potential costly repair if getting a used one? I can only see some pure ev ones 15 model around. Heard the coolant pump may go out some time.

@@RuijieZhou I did end up having to spend around $4700 on repair for the rear motor mounts as they were the older ABS design not the new or metal design. That was the costliest repair I had but otherwise I did not have many repairs just little things like backup camera and he did see that were covered under warranty. I also drove the car roughly 3 miles A-day on dirt roads so it handled it's serious work schedule pretty well.

@@kristianmurin3696 thanks for the info. These are reason I m not fully into it now. Looks so interesting but the repair,,

How much more range would that get 🤔

@@dominicmillstrunnell2805 Hey Dominic. I don't know if I can properly explain, what I mean, but I'll try. If you can use the Hold State of Charge feature, you can conserve more of your battery (the rex will hold the battery at a desired level, say 60%), while using the rex. Adding fuel more often to Tommy's rex, is much easier than adding electricity to the car, while on longer excursions. It kind of defeats the purpose of using electric, but it add quick range to the car. I hope that kinda explains what I was saying. Thanks Dominic

Thanks Ron! Merry christmas to you too!

You too Joseph! -Tommy

@@TFLnow yes Merry Christmas to you and Everyone at TFL! Let me know when you want to sell this one. I'd be interested. Have you looked at converting to the larger European gas tank? Is there a hack to use heat from the REX motor yet?

At least do a price comparo between dealer with warranty, I warranty came in handy, the DC fast charger plug got loose and a dashboard panel needed replacing.

🤣🤣🤣

Merry Christmas to you too!

Yeah, but I am sure Tommy knows all about coding the i3 to European specs to get the SOC Hold mode on the i3.. The challenge in this video was to drive until the battery was near empty and allow the REx to turn its self on.. Also, the challenge included hill climbing, which is suppose to allegedly render the i3 REx useless, of course Tommy just proved quite the opposite. It is very possible to do a long freeway/hwy road trip in a 22kwh battery i3 REx (imagine the possibilities if this i3 had the CCS charging option).

in theory it could, but it's not a big engine so it probably wouldn't make enough heat to warm the cabin by itself if the weather is really cold

Different i3.. Out of Spec has DC Fast Charging in their i3 and their car is coded to European specs, this is how he was able to drive from North Carolina to Colorado right beside the Tesla Model 3.

@@mamadouaziza2536 cool. Thanks! I know Kyle drove on gas before going to electric so that threw me off some. It needs to be changeable from little motor to battery at the turn of a switch in my opinion.

Yes, with the earlier models you can program the cars to turn on the climate controls via your smart phone. The car does not need to be plugged in, but it helps to preserve the battery if the car is plugged in when climate control is activated.

Yes, the REx will and can sustain 70mph on the freeway and hold the battery at whatever percent its currently at. However, the battery will slowly drain as you continue to climb hills and fastly maneuver on the freeway. The battery drain will be a lot slower with the REx on versus with it off. The key is to place the car in either Eco Pro or Eco Pro+ Mode and drive 56 to 66mph on the freeway and use as little A/C as possible, its better to just turn on the fan. If you need the power to overtake a car, you just press harder on the accelerator paddle and the i3 will temporarily move into a more powerful mode as you overtake a vehicle.

It depends on how steep the down hill is, yes it will recharge the battery going down hill, there is a gauge that registers all this.

Very little charge on a downhill, maybe 2%, more likely you'll just use zero battery.

Here you go: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WE9Ins5xVNU.html

They did that test already. I just tested an older i3 from 500 ft above sea level to 3000 feet above sea level all high hill climbing. Yes, the climbing will tax the range.

I m looking too, price is much higher now. Can't find any 13k i3. What's the mileage for this one?

It's losing power with the REX on unless you're almost home you want to drive conservatively.

In USA, government imposed speed regulations ensure police departments have revenue for high-tech harassment equipment

That's not true

In the USA lot of people normally drive 90 to 100mph while on the freeway not highway. A highway has intersections and traffic stops and lights, a freeway is a continuous multi lane road without traffic lights and the speed of traffic is usually 75mph legally. I'm from France and no one in around Paris is driving 100mph on the freeway.

@@mamadouaziza2536 Maybe he meant 90-110 KPH? When I was living in Montana, freeway (Or interstate highways) were 80 MPH speed limits And while yeah I'd cruise at 90-100 mph because there's typically maybe a handful of cars driving around at any given time it's relatively safe. But back in the 90's, Montana didn't have posted speed limits on the Interstate, and they had less accidents and more courteous drivers because people didn't play the left lane hog game because they knew someone could be doing 100+ coming up behind them. But here in Colorado going down I-25 some days you're doing 90, some days you're doing 45. Just depends how many people are out lol. But I don't think I've ever seen traffic anywhere across the US flow at 100 MPH. Sure, I've done 100 MPH through cities like St. Louis or Chicago with 3-4 other random cars trailing around the same speed weaving through traffic, but that's also pretty dangerous and it does typically end up in people getting pulled over lol.

I tend to get around 38mpg,

Turn by turn talking navigation takes a bigger hit on EV range than the A/C does. I went from 80 miles of range to 55 miles of range just by turn on the nav, I quickly turned it off and just used my mobile phone's Goggle nav. Radio and headlight do not drain the battery as much because some of the power comes from the battery in the front trunk.

You can get them as cheap as $10k but it will have over 60k miles and it may not have the REx and or many options on it.

@@mamadouaziza2536 it has to have the Rex because there aren't many charging stations around where I live and I would hate to confine it to just driving within say 30 miles. One thing I would also have to get is some kind of extended warranty as we know all BMWs are very trouble-prone and very expensive to fix especially when they get up in mileage. Thanks for your comment!

@@hoozthair6076 Some of these i3's have a range of 150 miles on just electricity and if it has a REx, you can squeeze another 100 miles out of the battery. 250 mile range.

But you buy according to your needs/lifestyle and budget. The i3 is an engineering marvel and if your daily commute is less than 50 miles roundtrip, I see no reason why you shouldn't consider an earlier model i3 especially if you can get a used one at $14k. The REx can be coded to manually turn on once the battery reaches 75% and you can drive for miles as long as you have gas in the REx. Yes, used Chevy Bolts with 230 miles of range are now going for $16k. However, the build quality in a Bolt is horrible compared to an i3. Hell, the earlier Model 3s build quality is less than an i3..

I have a short range i3 REX and a Fiat 500e. They're great for most of our needs, car budget was a big consideration. It's occasionally inconvenient but BMW gives us a free loaner for the rare long trips.

Yes we will. And no it won’t go up i70 at a reasonable speed. I learned that the hard way hahaha! but on everyday highways it does well

Yep. If you live in Colorada and go over 10,000ft passes at 70mph daily, it might disappoint. We live in hilly Seattle area, and 300 mile day trips over the Cascade Mountain passes (4000 ft) are no sweat.

This car is not meant to climb steep 5000ft above sea level mountains. Any EV that has its battery at 6% charge will slow down and crawl going up a hill and may even stall on the hill (any EV including Tesla). The trick is to slow down and turn off the heater when going up steep hills if you only have 6% of battery left... I mean who the hell drives 75mph up a steep hill in an EV with only 6% of battery with all the creature comforts on, who? On a level road or a leveled freeway, the i3 retains FULL POWER while the REx is on and while the battery is at 6%. But keep in mind that the faster you drive the battery will start to drain quickly and the REx will not be able to generate enough electricity for the battery and your i3 will alert you to pull over and charge. Its best to always keep a steady speed of 60mph and put the car in one of the Economy Modes to preserve battery integrity even while the REx is engaged. You have to play around with the i3 to get the best out of it for your needs.

@@TFLnow Did you check your motor mounts and mount bolts yet? These early i3s are notorious for having plastic motor mounts that crack and break which allows the motor to drop.. Better to have the aluminum or steel mounts in place.

A little harsh, but mostly true

Not really. The challenge is to see how far one can go in a 22kwh battery i3 REx and let the REx automatically turn on at 6%. As you can clearly see in the video the i3 handled hill climbing with ease while the REx was on.. The dude from Out of Spec drove his i3 REx from North Carolina to Colorado because he coded the car to Euro specs and he added TJA self driving and his i3 has the CCS Fast Charging option. He made it easier on himself pertaining to long freeway driving. Tommy kept his i3 car unmodified and stayed true to NA specs. So, knowing an unmodified non CCS i3 REx can climb hills and not render itself motionless is great because one of the complaints was that while the i3 is in REx mode at 6% battery the car would lose power on the freeway and it certainly couldn't climb hills.

Bout tree fiddy

Its got 23k miles, no CCS, no ACC, no professional nav. I say about $10k to $12k.

It can but in the US you would need to code the car to enable 'hold state of charge'. When the battery is at 75% or below you enable hold mode and it uses the generator's heat for the cabin and it holds the battery's charge level.

No it cannot. The engine's heat is not used for any other car system in the i3.

@@youtubekill7868 True. The heat generated by the REx is not enough to heat a hot dog. If you must have heat, just use the heated seats or while the car is plugged in, just preheat the car while its charging. Also, these i3s are not meant for long distance driving and hill climbing to 4000+ feet above sea level, its nice that these i3s when pushed can achieve the feat.

He says in the video there are snow tires on the car.

How many different tire models do you need? Is at least 5 different models from 4 different brands somehow not enough?

@@youtubekill7868 Obviously not! Out of spec channel shows there are only 2 winter truly snow rated tire types from Continental and Nokian Hakkapeliitta. Tommy mentioned winter tires but never said which. In the video he was skidding driving uphill before regaining traction. Nokian brand never does skid.

@@nevco8774 You are wrong. There are at least 5 different winter tire types from 4 different brands available for the i3. There is also no such thing as a tire that never skids.

Mines arrives next week. I’m a college student flying down to my hometown to pick up this bad boy. I will be driving back w/ it. Traveling approximately 300 miles.. I’m nervous!!

I would not plan on driving off the Rex engine, it's time to look for charging when that kicks on or before that.

Only maintains the charge at which you turn it on or at which it comes on... There's a lot of miss information about this car... In this video some incorrect statements.... 1st of all you do not turn the heat on to warm the car up on only 110 as you will lose state of charge... Of course like everyone knows you can code the car so that you can turn the range extender on anytime below 75%... It's also a myth that you shouldn't use the range extender for any extended periods of time... Unfortunately one of the executives made an off hand comment and it's stuck But there's no truth to it and in fact it makes no logical sense... With the heat on at about 21 to 22ﾟ you will lose about 20 to 25% range... If you will also lose range on the range extender as well as it has to work harder... Always know when the range extender comes on as The display will go bright and the Battery display will go dim... Also as soon as the range extender comes on after about a minute it will do a warm up. In which it's revealed at 2500 rpm and you will hear that... After this it will settle down. Also you can't entirely disengage the traction control Unless you get into The Secret menu...

He would not have made it. He did the smart thing by using the heated seats and turned on the heat while the car was still plugged in. Remember its a 2015 22kwh battery i3, not a 2021 bigger battery version.