Phillies8008 wrote

Where it matters is on the routes you frequently travel when taking a trip, and possibly at your destination. There could be 200 level 3 chargers within 10 miles of my home and it wouldn't matter – I'd never use them. But having enough of them on the route I take when we go to the beach, for example, is very helpful. Honestly, the only charging that really matters when you're not traveling is the charging in your garage (or whatever).

Efthreeoh wrote

No. Temporary situation.

On December 10, 2021, during the idiocracy, I paid $4.81 for Shell premium (adjusted for inflation). Yesterday, April 3, 2026, I paid $4.99 for Exxon premium. Same regional area.

freakystyly wrote

Seldom mentioned... every person/city/state/country is different but it's hard to totally skip over insurance premiums when considering an EV.

JeffinOregon wrote

The main advantage of a dedicated charger is speed. Particularly if your EV usage is limited range (local), the need for a dedicated charging setup is not as high. You can basically choose between a standard house outlet and a 240V type that’s often used for clothes dryers and refrigerators/freezers. The capability to power these outlets already exists in your home.

RockCrusher wrote

Talked to the complex manager. She said yeah I can have a 240VAC outlet installed. Up to me to arrange for it to be done.

So yesterday I leased a 2026 BMW i4 xDrive40. At some point in the process the salesman sent me a link to BMW's partnership for charger installation.

Later this AM I'll select someone to install the 240VAC outlet.

In the meantime I have Electrify America and Shell Recharge and 2 years (or 1000kw) of free charging at anyone of the 100,000 charging stations in the US and Canada. Have not tried it yet but I was told just drive up to a charging station and the car "negotiates" with the charger and then I just have to connect the cable the car.

After the Genius helped me get the Electrify America/Shell Recharge set up and a credit card linked to them he had the NAV system plot a route from my location -- Benton County AR -- to St. Louis MO. The route had charging stops highlighted and the time to spend at each one to at my destination have a 10% battery charge. I said 10% was too low and he quickly upped to 25% and a new route was plotted with a change in charging stops and times. Amazing.

I can also charge via a 120VAC outlet. The salesman said he used 120VAC to charge his i4 xDrive50. But since I can have a 240VAC outlet I'm going to go ahead and get one.

Phillies8008 wrote

I'm going to let you in on an unfortunate secret: Electrify America is revoltingly terrible. Like just dreadful. If you don't already have one, get a NACS adapter and use Tesla's stations. They work correctly, are fast, plentiful, and have a have a decent amount of chargers at each station. I promise you that your trip will be much, much better. Even at free EA is overpriced.

Congrats on the i4 – it's amazing and you're going to love it!

RockCrusher wrote

I managed to use the car's NAV system to find an Electrify America charging station about a mile from the dealer. A type 2 charger.

Got the car charging and let it charge for about 20 minutes. Mainly just to get a feel for the charging process. Of course the type 2 charger didn't raise the SOC of much. Consumed ~2kWh of electricity and was free.

Then yesterday evening charged the car at home via a 120VAC wall outlet in the garage.

Charged the car 6 hours 50 minutes. Raised SOC from 71% to 79%. Used 9kWh of electricity. Cost was ~$1.11.

In the process of getting a 240VAC wall outlet installed in the garage close to the breaker box with the socket about 3 feet off the floor and a few feet inside the large garage door.

I'm about ready to leave to run the dealer to pick up something I ordered yesterday. I'll ask about a Tesla adapter for my i4. Probably wouldn't hurt to have as many charging options as possible.

Phillies8008 wrote

And yeah, 120v charging is a cruel joke – 220v at home is where EVs absolutely shine.

jaffles wrote

Agree home charging is a sad joke and a bit of a feel good ploy on the dealers behalf for new buyers. But its a start for a newish tech and thinking.

In Aus the general purpose wall socket charger that comes with the car is 240v/2kW, but its capped at 2 amps not to overload the home circuit even though its 10amp. You can upgrade to 7kW if you have a 15 amp circuit but the charger is still capped at 4 amps, and so still slow. Its not until you install 3 phase power, or have it already you can have a 22kW charger pumping in 22kW.

At present its an extra cost, but builders or renovators will add it as standard over time. No different to solar, battery, pool, or shed so to speak. I look forward to the day multiple cars are charging at home but all being paid for by the sun. I'm almost there having 3 phase and 13kW solar. For work we just fitted a 22kW charger under a 20kW 3 phase solar system. So virtually no power bill to run the business and now moving to cars to absorb the excess energy the solar makes as the grid offers 2c/kW feed in. Go figure though, as we bought the system from the grid no interest 5 year payment plan. So you could say our whole energy/fuel bill is around 4K a year and the grid still gets a cut. Pretty good for a business with a few cars. Won't get that from fossil fuels plus we have shielded ourselves from Energy wars.

Phillies8008 wrote

If you're going to do any roadtrips whatsoever, I can't recommend the Tesla adapter strongly enough. I have no love of Tesla nor their cars, but their charging network is far better than anyone else's (in the US) and having access makes a world of difference. IMO, BMW should be including it with the car now that it's available. At the very least your CA or the Genius should've made you aware and strongly urged that you get it.

And yeah, 120v charging is a cruel joke – 220v at home is where EVs absolutely shine.

ShocknAwe wrote

That car was such a letdown. Needed about 100hp more tbh. Could have been such a hit.

vt100 wrote

To each their own I guess

I personally love mine and consider it a perfect beater. And it doesn’t need more power in my opinion, or it would defeat the whole purpose of the car otherwise.
Though there are original Honda SC one still could buy on eBay.

But it does need proper shocks though. Mine also has all poly suspension bushings which makes it lots of fun to drive (yes, slow, but there are quite a few other fun driving aspects ).

ShocknAwe wrote

That car with a K24...

ShocknAwe wrote

Can't argue with you at all. It's great as a beater. But it could have been a genre defining car instead.

Emily172013 wrote

Hell, I'm thinking even an electric lawnmower is't a bad idea. It takes a couple bucks in gas to mow the lawn now. LOL.

Janjohn wrote

The battle continues. 3 years ago I lived in Albuquerque NM where we had solar panels on our roof and it generated enough electricity to power everything inside and was able to solar heat our pool. for free. We “banked” surplus generated. That was when I seriously considered a plug in hybrid. Three years later, we’re now in an area where solar panels are not cost effective at all and we wouldn’t get tax rebates for the expensive installation. Here’s the rub: many municipalities have very high electrical rates. I’m not in one but with all the AI and data mining server farms, electricity prices will rise for homeowners as will charging their EVs.

I can buy fuel much faster at significantly more places than I can conveniently charge.

These things always look good on paper.

Phillies8008 wrote

Again, largely dependent upon your situation and use case. For a lot of people it's looked great in reality, not just on paper.

It's really hard to get people to understand that unless you're traveling long distance on a regular basis charging speed really doesn't matter at all. In the 2.5 years I've owned my i4 charging speed has actually mattered maybe 5% of the time. Likely less. For my every day use I don't care if it charges in an hour or in six hours because it's doing it in my garage while I'm sleeping. I never even get close to using all of my available range. It's a totally different mindset than gas that people don't seem to really grasp until they've had an EV.

Altamate wrote

I have a robot lawnmower, not only do I not have to buy gas, I watch the robot do it while sipping lemon aid and I have solar panels so the whole job is free. The robot is dead silent, only a light snipping sound as the blades of grass are cut, so I hear my stream, the birds and the bees while watch the lawnmower. It is so therapeutic watching “Bob the Lawnmower” work that I have him programmed to do it every second day.