EVs are just superior

The battery capacity hasn't dimished a bit. So long for the perception Li-Ion will degrade after a significant mileage. On my side I still drive up and down canyon, explore the backcountry and drive long distance with the added satisfaction of instant torque, quietness and no vibration. Sadly a couple of months ago my driver side door was dinged by a city bus. After some research I found out the panel of the door is the easiest thing to change. In their teutonic wisdom BMW decided on making the i3 a lego car... simple to maintain (like ZERO maintenance) and easy to repair with simple plastic panels. It has more in common with a Humvee and its replaceable metal panels riveted together than a complex molded metal Lexus where a simple ding costs a fortune to repair. So far what would be a 2k job on another car is: - $300 driver side door plastic panel ordered OEM from the dealer. - 6 cans of primer at $6 bucks each - 4 cans of body paint matching my cars color ordered from

Big bad review of Model X. WTF! As I get close to 45k miles... zero problem, zero issues, flawless machine that gets me from A to B inside something expressed as a suitable vehicle for the 21st century, not the 20th, I cannot fail to not notice the war taking place against EVs. I don't even  have FAST DC, just level 2. I don't have access to Tesla's fast chargers and need to spend a cool 4 hrs charging up... but one adapts, and ultimately enjoys being able to charge up from anything like a 110v wall outlet plug to a shopping mall to their place of work. Indeed as the market reach of BEVs (pure electrics, not the poseurs half baked like plugins or "hybrids" which companies like GM want us to mix up with crossovers between SUVs and cars) gets close to the 1% mark, the fossil fuel lobby realizes the dreaded deadly danger they represent in ANY significant quantities. BEVs privileges are scaled down dramatically just as Elon Musk mentions the stupidity of doing it for

So there is it... 42k after 18 months. The battery still going strong and no degradation of performance. The best car I ever had let me do something else today... From 100% charge a 57 mile drive from the coast to beyond Julian, CA at 4800 ft, and then back to Ramona 27 miles away, with 10% to spare. This was due to the Santa Isabel chargers offline. I was at 12 % and decided to try my luck. Even that long after owning the car I have to admit it was quite the experience. The car went from 17.5% of charge at the top of the hill at 4800 ft in Harrison Park to 10% in Ramona at roughly 1400 ft. Yes I have NO FAST DC. And NO this is NOT a REX version. I hate gasoline and everything that goes with this noxious and toxic substance akin to heroin for the economy.

The battery is as strong as ever and my average is about 120-130 miles a day. There is exactly 0 issues with the car. And the new rear tires I installed a few months back which were the only item needed in more than a year will look like they will last more than the 25k of the factory ones. If there are any doubters about how advanced BMW i3's battery technology is here is proof in the pudding... a car driven relentlessly and very hard and the battery pack shows absolutely no sign of charging fatigue. I think this is where the i3 shines and is set apart.

And so the endless and pleasurable driving of the EV continues and I blew past the 30k mark before I even knew it. Several things that I learned: 1) One will adapt to the charging times and include them in any activity. 2) Switching to a lower carbon footprint means some rewarding changes 3) The battery capacity has not changed one bit... which makes me hopeful for the next 100k or so The i3 is definitely the best car I ever owned and embodies a disruption greater than Tesla's offerings, because of its tires and usage of space inside as well as the minimalistic consoles, all direct consequences of a lack of a large ICE engine in the front as well as the mechanical simplicity of a skateboard model where the flat batteries and the electric engine are at the bottom. Countless articles have been written on EVs but I doubt anyone has used one to such a degree as I did during a full year, especially considering I only have Level 2 charging possible on my model.

So 1 year of ownership and 28400 miles done! This means almost 80 miles a day on average. Given my average speed is 40 mph that means more than 700 hrs spent driving the car. About 6 MW of energy used. The fact is an electric vehicle makes you drive more and enjoy it ever more compared to a gasoline dirty, noisy and polluting contraption. And my i3 still smells like new! I have learned so many things and among them that BEVs are far superior to fossil fuel crappy cars. As ICE vehicle are inferior by the very design. Many more years of superior driving experience to come! For the financial part... I paid maybe $50 in electricity costs for the year vs. 4-5k in gas I would have paid assuming 80-100 fillups. On top of the 7.5k federal tax credit I got that means I was way positive cash flow this year as if I was paid to have the car and drove it for free. Not bad.