BMW i4

rocky

Whatever about the perceived interior quality, I'd be slightly upset if my "M" EV, with an advertised 544HP, was power limited in warm weather to less than 200hp and barely able to overtake a classic Ioniq, in my 8k km trip this summer, including Germany in 35 degrees. German premium indeed.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479633#Comment_119479633

Have you any link to that? I presume the i4 has liquid battery cooling (and heating), there shouldn't be any need for limiting power like that under any circumstance.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479667#Comment_119479667

I haven’t heard that either myself. The only thing I heard was limited in the i4 was the charging speed similar to LeafGate.

rocky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479815#Comment_119479815

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479667#Comment_119479667

I posted a link before, granted to a 9h live stream, here it is again, timestamped for rapidgating:

https://youtu.be/BAwAeNmJaMw?t=12844

Then 2 minutes later, while getting on the motorway, power limited:

https://youtu.be/BAwAeNmJaMw?t=12995

This pattern repeated itself for the following charges that day, taking up to 24mins for the boost to come back after charging (presumably battery cooling down sufficiently)

unkel

Pretty bad, but you must remember BMW had to start from scratch again with battery electric cars after their excellent team from 10 years ago was bullied away. This problem likely can be fixed by a software update to more aggressively cool the battery in hot weather or after very hard driving. Or even less belt and braces BMS settings. I presume the i4 has over the air software updates?

KCross

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119480367#Comment_119480367

You're being a bit too easy on BMW there, imo. The levels of hysteria against Nissan when it was shown to rapid gate back in 2018 was huge at the time. This is even worse than that as the car seems to have no poke at all to overtake.... bordering on dangerous by the look of it.

Its a rookie mistake. And this is in 2022! There's no excuse for it.

BMW should be ridiculed for this.

Fitz II

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119480465#Comment_119480465

"BMW should be ridiculed for this." - hey look their ICE cars go into limp mode if you look at them sideways too. ICE owners ridicule EV's for this sort of thing but the EV owner is a little more kind. As Unkle states at least with and EV this is likely a software update thing rather than the usual ICE thing of faulty injectors, throttle bodies and all the other cheapskate moves BMW has made over the years.

I think this sort of thing and certainly for anyone that knows their BMW history and owned a few of their performance cars that makes its almost comical the notion of it being somehow of superior quality

Gumbo

So my father in laws eNiro has more power than an i4 M50……..albeit for a small amount of time in certain circumstances 🤣🤣🤣

Nissan we’re berated for this a few years back.

SD_DRACULA

Only reason people are more forgiving nowadays is simple, EV wait times/shortage/supply & demand = dealers couldn't care less, they have enough business, take it or leave it sort of attitude which is disgusting ofc but that's where we are at this point in time.

Would love to tell the dealer to GFT and go to the next one to put an order there but seems like those days are gone.

Old diesel

I know the rapidgate in charging terms is more widespread on the i4.

But the power limit while driving - I've only seen that reported with Bjorns test car.

So does that specific car have an additional fault with the cooling that's making the issue worse.

My suspicion is that the car probably needs to start cooling much better before it gets to the charger in hot weather.

Old diesel

Good read here.....

https://www.i4talk.com/threads/help-really-slow-charging-at-fast-chargers.3948/page-4

key points

1) people on the thread had no power limit while driving unlike Bjorn. Just the reduced charging speed.

2) Bjorn according to the thread got full speed on his last charge stop. This is contrary to the experience of the posters on the forum.

The forum posters reckon that once you get the charging speed throttled - you are stuck with it for the journey.

BMW will need to fix this and it will be interesting to see what the fix ends up being.

SD_DRACULA

Who cares if it happens at 30+ degrees, look outside, a non-issue in these neck of the woods 🤣

Let's not forget the brutal "fast charger" infrastructure.

Sure it'll be grand, 99% will charge at home anyway

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119481440#Comment_119481440

Exactly the same as LeafGate in my opinion. You had to be fast charging 2 or 3 times a day on that car to experience it.

I hast charged 4 times on my Leaf 24 driving from Glasgow to Dublin through Belfast one day, but no rapidgate on the old beasts 😎

Gumbo

This could get interesting though.

https://www.motor1.com/news/604409/electrified-bmw-m-models-will-make-you-say-i-didnt-see-that-coming/?fbclid=IwAR1hlqJGEj6rg1qYjvhgXsD9YAtm882SxrGgm5z0EQzpdUCmn2xY2BLUjw4&fs=e&s=cl

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119480367#Comment_119480367

The rapidgating and power limiting after a charge was hard enough to watch, but what was worse was the fact that you can't use the hvac in the i4 while rapid charging. Bjorn commented on "that b@stard in the tesla" having his car air conditioned while charging 🤣

unkel

You can never use air conditioning while rapid charging an i4, or just not because it was overheating? Again pretty bad, but a software update should fix it.

PaulJoseph22

Small issues but you will still be driving a prestige car and i’d rather be sitting in a BMW with its rich history with no AC than sitting in an inferior motor with full AC on while charging.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482266#Comment_119482266

Apparently the cooling is diverted to the battery while rapid charging, so you have to sit in the scorching hot car, or go outside.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482372#Comment_119482372

That's insane, what were they thinking? Might be more than a software fix can do there though, sounds like the system does not have powerful enough cooling under certain circumstances.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482300#Comment_119482300

LOL, sitting sweating like a pig in your "prestige" car. We'll leave you to it.

Old diesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482430#Comment_119482430

Its clear that Tesla are further down the road then the legacy makers.

Early evidence implies that Model 3s can still drive happily to 200 k miles and beyond on their original packs.

Bit of work for the legacy automakers to do - although Merc currently show promise*.

*barring any issues I've not heard of yet.

jordan191

Ha ha If I want to try some rich history I'll drive my classic e30 325i, but if I want some decent ev motoring with 250kw charging (with aircon) I will stick to my Tesla🤣🤣🌞

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482472#Comment_119482472

I can sit in my Leaf 24 at a rapid charger in the baking sun while being cooled by the lovely AC. Lets me have the radio on too 😋

I'm sure BMW will add "AC while rapid charging" to the optional extras list 😂

Beautiful car, but these are big issues for what is an expensive car.

MJohnston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119481798#Comment_119481798

They've kind of devalued the M marque a little bit recently, with how much they've been throwing it around on the EV model names. Like my iX has "M Sport" branding, but it's not really an M car.

unkel

They've been doing that for a long time, @MJohnston. M sport in some cases just meant different seats, a steering wheel and a few badges, not even factory sport suspension. And at some point they even started putting M badges on diesel cars. X6M diesel. Ridiculous. I'm glad that era is quickly coming to an end. I would really like to see BMW coming well out of the electric changeover.

Fitz II

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482300#Comment_119482300

LOL thats your best one yet. Rich history...bless.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482421#Comment_119482421

This is BMW lack of a dedicated platform coming back to bite them (despite the fact that on this thread people were claiming that it didnt matter). The 800 volt system Audi and Porsche have does a lot when it comes to thermal control especially when it comes to repeatable performance driving and repeatable fast charging. Tesla have it sussed with fine software control. Not being able to use your AC while fast charging is a disgrace.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119481798#Comment_119481798

Well they have a lot of technical issues to overcome before they can put a proper M badge on their EV. BMW know how to make a car drive well, but they have to sort out their sh1t in invest in a dedicated platform and over-engineer their cars like they used to in the times of their "rich history". I have owned 3 proper M cars and am a big M car fanboi, These are real BMW's and they better not screw it up. Got to be able to drive to a track, thrash it for 20 laps and then drive it back home.

Buddy Bubs

Jesus bmw are limping from problem to problem. The diesel timing chain issue, the lack of ev platform, the problems the poster here had and now the a/c issue. I have owned 6 of them out of 9 cars I've ever owned but no interest in them now. Design is subjective but I haven't seen anything decent looking in a while either, they used to be cracking looking cars, some are OK like the i4 but others are among the ugliest cars I've seen (ix, x7, 7 series).

Thumper Long

The ultimate prestigious sweatbox

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482711#Comment_119482711

MSport is different to an M car.

MSport is a trim level. Like MTEC was back in the 90’s. I’ve had too many to list but I’ve only have one M Car (E46 M3).

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119482300#Comment_119482300

Ohh sweet Jesus, did you swallow the bmw sales handbook 😭😭😭