derBayerische January/February 2023 - 30

2 0 2 3 B M W i 4 G R A N C O U P E
■ ((Above from Left) Still can't figure out the instrument panel. Better have some time in your hands...
By the way, if you go to car
events in Monterey, it's worth the
300-mile round trip to visit BMW of
San Luis Obispo. You'll be amazed
at their selection of very desirable M
vehicles, both new and pre-owned.
The major drawback with the i4
EV charging stations in California)
took the complaints we made about
the unreliability of their charging network
outside Silicon Valley during
our MINI Cooper EV evaluation to
heart. During this weeklong, 1,200mile
evaluation throughout Silicon
Valley, the Sacramento area and
Monterey, we did not encounter a
single inoperable EVgo charger. The
central California coast, however,
was another story.
That locale had many EV chargers,
but they all were the Level 1
chargers. Being at 39% charge that
was an issue, especially seeing as
how the sole EVgo charger in the
area was inoperable. After four hours
of Level 1 charging, we were at 42%;
which translates to a 160-mile range
for our 190-mile return trip.
We then had the epiphany to
contact the local BMW dealer (BMW
of San Luis Obispo) and they gladly
allowed us to use their " fast charger "
to get us to 80% charge! Thank you,
folks!
30
is the same with any electric vehicle-the
charging time. Perhaps we
became accustomed to the relatively
short charging times from our time in
the 100-mile range MINI Cooper EV;
but the larger battery pack in the i4
takes considerably longer to fully
charge. We were surprised that it
took over an hour to charge from a
little under half charge to full charge.
The other surprise was that the
operation of most of the public EVgo
chargers stops after an hour.
By extrapolation, the charging time
from near fully discharged to fully
charged is easily over 90 minutes.
Since they use the same size battery
pack, the charging times for the i4 50
are the same - though the dual motor
i4 50 will have a shorter range than
the single motor i4 40.
The average charging cost was
around $18.00 - with a processing
fee that ranged from 99 cents to
$2.99.
The charging time and the lack
of chargers (outside of Silicon
Valley) gives one the urge to stop
whenever seeing a charger available.
Apps such as " PlugShare " are also
quite helpful for locating available
public EV chargers; the majority of
which are the Level 1 " ChargePoint "
car around a computer, while the
BMW approach was to design an
Ultimate Driving Machine with an EV
power/drivetrain. Were it not for the
i4's instrument panel and it's uncomplicated
operation (there is no
tachometer) and the regenerative
braking feel, driving an i4 is just like
driving an internal combustion
engine 4 Series Gran Coupe. Teslas,
on the other hand, have the ride quality
of a race car.
EVgo (which runs a network of
chargers. These are ideal for " topping
off " from 85% to fully charged,
but a majority of the chargers we
found were inoperable. Perhaps if we
owned an EV and had a Level 2
charger installed at home, we'd act
differently.
However, this long charging
time proved to be useful. Several
times, we were approached by fellow
" chargers " , asking about the i4.
Many were curious about the vehicle,
admitting that once the lease on their
current EV expired, they planned to
try the BMW (yep, we were in San
Francisco). We also learned of the
rather robust public EV charging
network within San Francisco. One
location with several chargers was
also the charging location for the
fleet of Waymo autonomous vehicles.
The BMW i4 40 is an EV worthy
of the BMW name. It has the driving
characteristic of the 4 Gran Coupe
40, but with a much quieter ride. It is
the Ultimate EV Driving Machine.
Due to the charging times, you will
need to change your driving habits.
If you plan on driving a long distance
and are time constrained, don't let
your battery pack be close to fully
discharged before you find a charging
station. Before you consider
buying or leasing one, do some
research on the local Level 2 public
charging network.
As BMW and the rest of the
OEMs offer very attractive EVs,
our nation and the utility companies
need to step up and significantly
improve the reliability the capacity of
the national power grid. The ONLY
practical solution is nuclear. This is
worth repeating - THE ONLY PRACTICAL
SOLUTION IS NUCLEAR.
Despite the declarations from
the league of Elon Musk haters
(frankly, I'm loving how he's toying
with the Twitter snowflakes), the i4
Gran Coupe does NOT spell the end
of the Tesla dominance in the EV
market. Since Tesla developed an
exclusive ecosystem and have
developed a loyal following, they are
the " Apple " of the EV market.
However, the i4 and the iX will give
loyal BMW fans an attractive EV
alternative.
The two car companies that
went all-in with the Jack Welch way
of doing business-GM and
Ford-have decided to go " all-in " on
electric vehicles. Even a casual look
at their past business practices
shows these two companies never do
their homework and still operate with
an arrogant " 800-pound gorilla, they
buy what we build " attitude. Even
their current self-inflicted " lean, justin-time
supply chain management "
semiconductor shortage has not
convinced either to revamp their
culture. With a very slow and
extremely unpredictable auto market
acceptance of EVs, don't be
surprised, in ten years, if neither of
these two legacy auto companies
exists. This should be the final nail in
the coffin of Jack Welch's legacy.
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derBayerische January/February 2023

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