I am tempted. They seem like fun cars especially since the 2023 ones don’t have the battery issue. Would it be safe to buy from Hertz? They are labeled as a rental, but the mileage seems to be under 20k for most.

So Califonia law allows a resident to have their landlord put in charging stations if:

·         EV Charging stations dont already exist

·         Parking is provided as part of the lease agreement

·         There are not fewer than five parking spaces

·         The unit is not subject to rent control

·         The building is not over the limit for electrical capacity

·         The renter has 1MM Liability Policy on Renter Insurance

·         The renter has to remove it after if the landlord requests

I live in a building with about 50 parking spots, is condo’s and has an HOA. Can I still force my landlord to let me pay for the installation of the charging station? I have two spots actually. The big thing is how would this work with an HOA. Would I have to convince the HOA to let me or because of the law would I be allowed to install chargers regardless of the HOA if it meets the criteria. I have a friend who owns an electric company and said he would send out his electricians to do an assessment of costs and such. My question is how would the HOA react and could they stop it from happening. Does the law supersede anything the HOA can do?

For the type of charger looks like level 1 is allowed, level 2 would be more questionable :

“For purposes of this section, “electric vehicle charging station” or “charging station” means any level of electric vehicle supply equipment station that is designed and built in compliance with Article 625 of the California Electrical Code, as it reads on the effective date of this section, and delivers electricity from a source outside an electric vehicle into a plug-in electric vehicle.”

Based on my reading of Article 625 of the California Electrical Code, Tesla's level 1 portable charger absolutely complies. There's no requirement that it must be hardwired or 240v or separately metered.

So do I need to worry about HOA’s in a unit that has 5 floors with about 20 apartments each floor and has 50+ parking spaces.

Has anyone had experience of driving through France and charging in the wild? A mate is getting married near Grenoble in what I believe is the arse end of nowhere and I'm planning to drive from Bristol, channel tunnel and down through France. We will be going at the end of June, not school holidays. My cars range is 250 miles on a good day (warm weather etc.)

Does anyone know whether there is a good supply of fast chargers around on the main roads?

Thanks

I've seen a lot of press on the sales downturn of EVs.

Yet I haven't seen the reason why I'm waiting. I believe that the solid state batteries are game changing and I'd hate to be left with old tech.

Hey folks!

I'm on a quest for insights and advice.

1. Positions Available: Are you an Electric Powertrain Engineer, Battery Systems Specialist, or Simulation Wizard? Share your role and what makes it exciting!

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Let's spark a conversation that drives innovation in electric powertrains. Drop your thoughts below!

Quick question for everyone…. Getting my first EV tomorrow, and debating my charge options (car doesn’t come with its own L1, which would have been my first plan).

Considering just installing a legit L2 in my garage (50A circuit is already in place), but have a question about connectors and charge standards. My understanding is that the Tesla connector is or will soon be the US standard, is that correct? And that is different than the J1772 that the Niro I’m getting ready to lease uses?

I am just wondering if it makes sense to install a Grizzl-e or similar for my Niro and have it be basically obsolete after my 24 month lease is up. Or will it still be fine and usable for future cars also, even with the new standards?

My other choice for now is a cheaper, portable, L1/mild2 unit, just to get me through these two years.

Any help or feedback is appreciated. I know with rapid tech evolvement, nothing is a hundred percent future proof; I just don’t want to install something that’s literally obsolete the day I plug it in.

I recently had a discussion with a colleague who was excited about the possibility and potential of self-driving cars, but who was also simultaneously opposed to EVs and who told me "no one was going to pry his gasoline car out of his hands and force him to go electric.

I did something of a quick survey in my mind at it seems to me that all the leading companies building self-driving cars from Waymo and Cruise to Tesla are all doing so on EV platforms. Which makes sense when you think about it. Because if you are going to operate a car "by wire" it makes more sense for it to be electric in the first place.

So it seems to me that self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles should really be seen as EVs version 3.0 or 4.0. And not some separate category of vehicles that are independent of the method of propulsion.

Do you all agree with this assessment? Will self-driving vehicles just be a subset of EVs or future evolution of EVs? Or are they something separate and are we going to see fully autonomous self-driving technology commonly rolled out on gas powered cars as well?

So to give you some context, my car history goes something along the lines of... a selection of Ford Fiesta's in my late teens and early 20's, a Mercedes C Class Coupe, my first foray into EV's with a VW ID.3, and now onto a BMW i4 which I've had a few weeks. I spend quite a lot of my life driving, so I get to know the inside of my cars pretty quickly.

With what I've seen so far, the BMW is clearly a significant step up from my previous EV (and on the deals I've had, good or bad, not a great deal more money than the ID.3 either). I absolutely love the car, and won't be changing it any time soon, but really just in case someone from the BMW EV department happens to frequent these pages, and just to vent I suppose, I thought I'd put a little list together of the 25 things I would change. Please do let me know what you think (they're all really minor anyway!):

1. Give me somewhere to put my right foot when on cruise control. With the accelerator in the absolute corner of the footwell, I either have to raise my leg and put my foot flat on the floor, or tuck my foot behind the brake (not a good idea!)

2. Maybe it's just my exact seat position, but the trim around the wing mirror reflects the road markings far too well, so in the daytime I have a constant flashing in the corner of my eye as each lane marking goes past

3. No grab handles over the doors. They're out the way, can't be expensive. Just... why?

4. Nowhere to put your sunglasses. Bit of a wish-list item, but with such tiny door pockets, and the central arm rest section not easy to get to whilst driving, an overhead compartment near the rear view mirror would be lovely.

5. All BMW's that I've been in really... the inside door handles are too close to the hinges. Imagine trying to open your kitchen door but the handle is 2 inches from the hinges. It's a) more difficult to open, and b) MUCH more difficult to get fine control over where it stops, especially important when cars are parked close by

6. When the wipers are in "Auto" there is no way of commanding just 1 wipe. Sometimes Auto is not perfect, and I don't expect it to be, I just want 1 more wipe of the blades without a full on windscreen wash. A quick pull back or tap for 1 wipe would be perfect.

7. Why are the AC and DC ports individually covered inside the charging port cover? It feels like just another thing for me to break when I try to close the main cover in the dark with the AC cover still open

8. Minor request to change the laws of physics here, but is there really no way of compensating for the polarisation of the HUD? I.e. could it be projected in more than one orientation so it doesn't go completely dark when wearing polarised sunglasses?

9. The indicators on BMW's are really fast (yes, jokes aside, I do use them!). Not an issue in itself, but it means than 3 clicks you get from tapping the stalk are over really quickly... too quickly for a lane change. Maybe 4 clicks or a slower tempo?

10. Maybe I need to go away and read the manual again, but how does one switch the wing mirror heat on and off? I'm assuming it works with the rear windscreen heat? Just a button on the screen would be great to be able to switch it independently

11. It's a saloon, so I know that means you don't get a rear wiper. But from years of driving I still don't understand that logic, it really needs one.

12. No indication of steering wheel heat being on or off, other than for a few seconds on the screen when you press the button. Just a little icon somewhere as a reminder?

13. Radio station scrolling via the steering wheel. I don't stick to one station. Why should it be so difficult to get from Virgin Radio back round to Absolute Radio? Just make the list scroll back round to the top when you get to the bottom, please.

14. Why are notifications only on either the main screen OR the HUD, why not both?

15. I get that it's not going to steer for me the whole time, nor should it. But the number of times I make a steering wheel input and I get the chime as it tells me it's not going to steer. Perhaps make the notification a little less invasive if there's actively an input on the wheel?

16. Another wishlist, but something the Mercedes did. It would be great to have an indication of what speed the car in front is doing. Coming up behind a car at night and trying to work out if it's going 69mph (not worth going past for now) or 65mph (probably worth it) would be great, without having to get so much closer or wait for my car to slow down to see what speed we settle at. Or maybe I'm just a terrible driver?

17. The door compartments again. Now they've got my sunglasses in especially, they're too small for even a small umbrella. British problems.

18. The void area under the bonnet where the engine used to be. It's an i4, we all know, I'll say no more.

19. The auto dimmed area on the wing and rear view mirrors for driving at night. Firstly, why doesn't it go all the way to the edge? Second, why isn't the passenger side mirror dimmed as well?

20. The boot release button on the driver door. Why do you push down to raise the boot, and pull up to lower it? It's the opposite way round to the window controls just a few inches away.

21. Putting shopping in the (massive!) boot, it's always going to fall over. Why doesn't it have loops on the sides like every other car (including other BMW's) to hook the bag onto?

22. When using the "home" screen with map taking up most of it, it would be great to be able to change the order and display of the side widgets. There's two I want to display, but they're not next to each other in the menu order so I can only have one or the other.

23. Auto Hold (P). I think BMW may be a relatively late comer to this function, seeing other peoples BMW's around without it. It's very violent on the i4. It will jam the brakes on when not quite stationary, and release them only when it's about to fire you at the back wall of your garage at 30mph. I do turn it off by default every time I put it in reverse, but I shouldn't have to.

24. HUD and Screen dimming on the one control. No. Should be separate, especially for night driving.

25. "RTTI" - Traffic information icon. When I press it, I really don't care about the temporary traffic lights on the road running parallel to me. Tell me about the traffic on my programmed route first!

Talk about first world problems, eh?

Hi,

I'm looking to lease either an EQE or a Q8 etron. I am in a rental house so I figure I will be doing the NEMA dryer plug charging hack instead of messing with the breaker panel. I have seen online that this works with Tesla's (and that it can charge much faster than the standard wall outlet).

My questions are:

1. Will this same trick work for the EQE or Q8 etron?

2. If so, is there a limit the car will accept from this charging method?

3. Will something like this work for both vehicles? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07THBGGMG?linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1&tag=sofferscom888-20

My hope is that I will be able to do a full charge overnight (~8 hrs) using this method.

Thanks

Ps: if you have any thoughts on the above two options, please share :)

https://twitter.com/itskyleconner/status/1788272404189372469?t=SkSyws7BOWHcOqiu7uFWyQ&s=19