[jad03060]

The average commute in the USA is about 30-miles. The 50e's approximately 40-miles leaves a buffer for most. Giving them the option to go all electric, or use the ICE for longer trips. The 50e has a bigger buffer than the 45e, so that's good and makes it more useful to more people.

IMHO, it is what it is. Bigger batteries weigh more, which means lots of things need to be heavier duty to handle it, which means that your energy use will go up as it takes more energy to move the thing up to speed, and regeneration can never recover as much as goes in to move it in the first place.

There's a lot of good reasons for more range on a BEV, but it's more of a decreasing benefit on a PHEV. But even on a BEV, there's a place for thigs like a smaller vehicle with enough range for a bit more of a city car. I'd have kept my i3 and ICE, but when my 45e got more range, my normal uses were easily covered by that on electricity, and since the ICE rarely got driven, it made more sense to swap them out for the PHEV.

Not everyone's use case will be the same. If you can do your normal stuff day-to-day with the available battery capacity, with the PHEV is a good choice today. That is, unless your electric costs are sky high like they are some places. THen, maybe some solar panels might make some sense!

[Zion5]

The issue is, we’re not even getting the 25.7 kWh advertised.

[MoralFiber]

Originally Posted by Zion5

The issue is, we’re not even getting the 25.7 kWh advertised.

The 50e model is getting 20 kW, prior to I believe 17kW with the 45e model. So there is an increase.

Potentially you can unlock more battery capacity in the future with programming or modding

[Zion5]

Interesting, I’m going to have to do more research on how that’s done. Because I need about 45 miles for my daily commute.

[fr_tz]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

there was a guy either here or the 45e FB group that brought that up when I showcased my load-sharing setup a few months ago. he received an email from Enel X that he had to update to the new app by April this year, but he and many others on the went just complained how bad it was, so I never switched. my first JuiceBox went live Sept 2021, but I never received that email.

when I looked into those apps in the App Store, both show they were developed over 4y ago, so I’m not convinced the Enel X Way is ‘newer’, maybe just supported. plus, there’s reviews for it from 3y ago. when I went live in 2021, instructions stated to download EV Juicenet. you may want to use that instead; I believe it’s better (even though I never used Enel X Way)

https://support-emobility.enelx.com/...X-Way-App-FAQs

[nZtiZia]

fr_tz
thanks for the link. I spoke with Roman at Enel X. I was concerned about the JuiceNet home dashboard (online website) going away when the EV JuiceNet app is decommissioned. my load sharing group is set up through that dashboard, and from the feedback I got about the Enel X Way app a few months ago, the load sharing program was not yet ready on that platform (which was another reason I didn’t switch). Roman confirmed the lack of support. if I did switch, they would’ve moved me back, which is why EV JuiceNet remains active past the original April deadline to switch. the Enel X Way app developers don’t have a date when load sharing support will be ready, so until then, I stay with the EV JuiceNet app and JuiceNet home dashboard.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by akin67

Almost seems BMW is overly cautious for the US market. Using only 20kwh out of a 30kwh capacity battery. The non utilized portion is over 30%. If they utilized close to that published 80% of battery capacity, we should be able to get about 50 all-electric miles as opposed to 42 miles.

I’m not a 50e owner, but this drives me mad

[fr_tz]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

fr_tz
thanks for the link. I spoke with Roman at Enel X. I was concerned about the JuiceNet home dashboard (online website) going away when the EV JuiceNet app is decommissioned. my load sharing group is set up through that dashboard, and from the feedback I got about the Enel X Way app, the load sharing program is not yet ready on that platform which was another reason I didn’t switch. Roman confirmed this. if I did switch, they would’ve moved me back, which is why EV JuiceNet remains active past the original April deadline to switch. the Enel X Way app developers don’t have a date when load sharing support will be ready, so until then, I stay with the EV JuiceNet app and JuiceNet home dashboard.

Makes sense..I forgot about your load sharing set up.

[javapro]

So, another owner in my Facebook 50e group ran the BMW CarData report on his newly purchased 50e and confirmed that the usable battery capacity in the US is only 20 kWh! That’s only 68% of the net capacity (29.5 kWh) while 45e actually has it at 71%! Unbelievable! Hauling all this extra weight and not being able to use over 30% of it!

[akin67]

Originally Posted by jad03060

The average commute in the USA is about 30-miles. The 50e's approximately 40-miles leaves a buffer for most. Giving them the option to go all electric, or use the ICE for longer trips. The 50e has a bigger buffer than the 45e, so that's good and makes it more useful to more people.

IMHO, it is what it is. Bigger batteries weigh more, which means lots of things need to be heavier duty to handle it, which means that your energy use will go up as it takes more energy to move the thing up to speed, and regeneration can never recover as much as goes in to move it in the first place.

There's a lot of good reasons for more range on a BEV, but it's more of a decreasing benefit on a PHEV. But even on a BEV, there's a place for thigs like a smaller vehicle with enough range for a bit more of a city car. I'd have kept my i3 and ICE, but when my 45e got more range, my normal uses were easily covered by that on electricity, and since the ICE rarely got driven, it made more sense to swap them out for the PHEV.

Not everyone's use case will be the same. If you can do your normal stuff day-to-day with the available battery capacity, with the PHEV is a good choice today. That is, unless your electric costs are sky high like they are some places. THen, maybe some solar panels might make some sense!

All good points. However, I am not proposing that they increase the size of the battery beyond what it is now. They have indicated that they need to reserve 20% of battery capacity as an unusable buffer to preserve battery life. Fine. So why are they allocating over 30 - 33% for this purpose?

As far as most people traveling 30 miles daily to work, that is definitely not the case around NYC, and I doubt that is the case near LA and many other metro areas. Many people around me travel 40 miles one way to get to work, so every extra mile you can get out of this battery is a big plus. Sticking to the 80% usable capacity target will increase electric only range another 8 - 9 miles per charge, getting us over 50 miles of electric only range.

[mobsync]

Originally Posted by Zion5

The issue is, we’re not even getting the 25.7 kWh advertised.

Can you post a link to where BMW says this?

[javapro]

Originally Posted by mobsync

Can you post a link to where BMW says this?

Look at the 50e specs at the bottom of the press release:

https://www.bmwusanews.com/newsrelease.do?id=4104&mid=

[kapsjt]

Originally Posted by javapro

Look at the 50e specs at the bottom of the press release:

https://www.bmwusanews.com/newsrelease.do?id=4104&mid=

It is certainly interesting that the official press release published a net rating of 25.7 kWh and current owners are capped at 20 kWh. Is there anything we can do about this? Hopefully there is a software update/correction.

[akin67]

I wish this board had a BMW official where we could get answers to questions like this directly from BMW rather than the members speculating on most of these matters.

[mobsync]

Originally Posted by kapsjt

It is certainly interesting that the official press release published a net rating of 25.7 kWh and current owners are capped at 20 kWh. Is there anything we can do about this? Hopefully there is a software update/correction.

The press release says "25.7 kwh of usable energy" so I wonder if the extra 5.7 is held in reserve for when the range goes to 0 there is still juice there for other the car's other needs such as cabin heating, boost, etc...

The press release also says "40 mile range." I usually average 1.9 to 2 miles per kwh when running in Electric Only mode so the advertised range of 40 miles would equate to a 20 kwh battery.

[javapro]

Originally Posted by mobsync

The press release says "25.7 kwh of usable energy" so I wonder if the extra 5.7 is held in reserve for when the range goes to 0 there is still juice there for other the car's other needs such as cabin heating, boost, etc...

The press release also says "40 mile range." I usually average 1.9 to 2 miles per kwh when running in Electric Only mode so the advertised range of 40 miles would equate to a 20 kwh battery.

No, in the specs section it says "Energy cap (gross / net) (kWh) 29.5 / 25.7"

So, 25.7 kWh is the advertised usable capacity. The CaraData report shows usable capacity - they can't hold back anything from it.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by kapsjt

It is certainly interesting that the official press release published a net rating of 25.7 kWh and current owners are capped at 20 kWh. Is there anything we can do about this? Hopefully there is a software update/correction.

someone mentioned class action suit

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by mobsync

The press release says "25.7 kwh of usable energy" so I wonder if the extra 5.7 is held in reserve for when the range goes to 0 there is still juice there for other the car's other needs such as cabin heating, boost, etc...


The press release also says "40 mile range." I usually average 1.9 to 2 miles per kwh when running in Electric Only mode so the advertised range of 40 miles would equate to a 20 kwh battery.

given our experience with the 45e and similar allocation of capacity (gross versus usable), the vehicle doesn’t “dip into the reserves”. the 45e behaves as if there’s no charge left, and I would expect the 50e to behave similarly (until proven otherwise). if the vehicle utilizes the unused/reserved capacity to maintain certain functions, then that means we have access to it thus making that “reserved” capacity usable capacity, but there is a clear distinction due to vehicle behavior when usable capacity is depleted.

[DaveDBD]

The 50e should have remote engine start if the battery is depleted, particularly since BMW deleted the charging via engine capability.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by DaveDBD

The 50e should have remote engine start if the battery is depleted, particularly since BMW deleted the charging via engine capability.

I can somewhat agree with this, but with the move to “greener” vehicles, idling the engine goes against that ideology. it’s actually illegal in many countries.

I don’t quite understand why BMW removed BATTERY CONTROL. “forcing” less use of fossil fuels seems they’re forcing an agenda

[Zion5]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

someone mentioned class action suit

If enough people threaten this, they will hopefully release a software update.

[DaveDBD]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

I can somewhat agree with this, but with the move to “greener” vehicles, idling the engine goes against that ideology. it’s actually illegal in many

Except the ICE 40 has remote engine start so there is no reason the 50e shouldn’t too.