BMW i4

How much range do you need ?

I know that charging is possible, but I did 750km over the last two days, over 11 hrs in the car, so the less charging time the better as far as I’d be concerned.

The only cure for that is education and more and better public charging infrastructure. I always thought my last ICE would be my last twist for something sporty and petrol powered, collecting an M3 RWD today and I would have always thought I needed the long range but I will easily be able to live with the RWD range now I better understand the abilities of the car and also the prospective battery degradation over time, I think a big factor in people looking for the biggest battery is driven by that especially if they plan to keep the car for an extended period of time they want a car that is still fully usable 5-6 years later. But if you are changing every 3 years or so it’s not a critical decision point. We did a number of Irish road trips this summer and numerous times we saw large queues at a single HPCs at motorway services with plenty of pi$$ed off drivers with cars full of kids looking less than impressed and nobody wants to sign up for that. If the new applegreen in Ballymount is the template going forward buying for range will be much less of an issue.

The Range thing for most people is not an issue. As a Dublin dweller (like 33% of Irish people), I charge my car about once a week from 40 to 85% at home and thats it. Long trips are planned around fast chargers off the motorways. But adding more range to car really just makes them more expensive and heavier (some new mad battery tech allowing). Infrastructure is the issue. If the car can get from 20 to 70% on a fast chargerand can do 250 - 400km on a full charge in 15 minutes, that all anyone needs. ICE cars work for people not because the fuel tank are large, but because they can fill them most places easily.

It is coming, I can see that the ESB and others are pushing at the moment to get the chargers in place and hopefully replace the aweful 50kw CHadeom/CCS combo chargers with something better.

Oh I know but my wife’s first reaction to seeing the queues was you’re not getting an electric car if we have to Q like that, and I think she is probably a good yardstick for the troglodyte majority. I know when going any great distance it will be IONITY or Supercharger if at all possible.

Kids in an M50? Madness.

Wouldn't let them within 10 feet of the car 😂

And the circus that is BMW continues, contacted genius chat to get another update on car that was due last April. Recently it was due for production on 3rd Oct, then 23rd Oct and now they are telling me 19th December. They said it’s mainly down to BMW Germany and not dealer. Still at 111.

Very very frustrating, would love to know what criteria they are applying when deciding when or what to build.

I was told in May that the order book was closed for the year. I was able to pay a small deposit to go on a list to order as soon as the order book opens again. I'm not hopeful of it happening any time soon.

October 21, that’s bad…they must be completely neglecting the Irish market - if so, not sure why the main dealers are not making more of a fuss about it with BMW (Maybe they are in private).

Would actually love to tell them to shove it at this stage but options are limited. Not mad about Teslas; Taycan and gt etron too far a stretch for finances. Don’t really fancy overspending on a used ice.

Our problem now is that our second car is banjaxed, only good for scrapyard so will have to manage in the one car..Kids, work, family make it tricky to manage with one car as live rurally.

40 for me with most of all the add ons