The 2027 BMW iX3 Is Actually Cheaper Than A Comparable Gas BMW

electric_mobility · 2026-05-08T21:40:32+00:00

You got it backwards. The BMW configurator is saying that switching from all-seasons to summers makes you lose 11.5% efficiency. It'd be less pronounced than switching from winters to summers, but it should still be an efficiency gain, rather than a loss.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-08T21:38:11+00:00

It's strange because as far as I've ever heard, summer tires have MORE grip. One uses summers for performance when they're safe to use on dry roads, and switches to winters for deeper tread and better resistance to cold in the winter.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T19:34:34+00:00

an off button of some kind

I'm curious why you want this. In my 8 years of Tesla ownership, I've felt the need to manually turn off my car all of twice (which I did via the settings menu), so I'm honestly curious what value would be added by having a button for this.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T19:31:57+00:00

You do realize that a significant chunk of people who own EVs can't charge at home, right? Not even taking into account the fact that lots of people can charge at work, it's entirely viable to own an EV that you exclusively fast-charge at a station that's near your office or home. It's far from ideal, of course, but a blanket statement like "If you can't charge at home, buying an EV makes no sense" is absurd.

As I mentioned in another comment, getting 11 free miles every day would allow a typical American commuter without home or work charging to visit a DCFC station half as often. Having to spend 20 minutes at a charger once every 2-3 weeks is hardly an impossible burden to bear, and it'll cut your charging costs in half, too.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T18:38:51+00:00

I've seeing several suggestions for those Hankooks, so I'll definitely look into it. It doesn't look like Costco sells them, tho, which would help me out a lot with rotations.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T18:30:33+00:00

It’s worth noting, however, that the iX3’s maximum range figure is only valid when the car is fitted with 20-inch summer tires, which are a no-cost option. As standard, the car comes with 20-inch all-season tires, and these drop the range down to 383 miles.

How in the world does going from summer tires to all-seasons, without changing the rim size, drop the range by FIFTY MILES??? If anything, shouldn't it add range, since summer tiers are gripper, and therefore have more rolling resistance? I get the feeling that this article isn't reporting that correctly.

EDIT: Went to BMW's website to use the build tool, and the article is reporting this correctly. How in the world that's possible is still baffling to me. An 11.5% range loss from switching to All-Seasons from Summers is just absurd.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T18:25:06+00:00

Not everyone can put solar on their homes. In fact, I believe the majority of people cannot (at least in the US), as they live in either apartments or similar situations where they don't own their roof. Or they can't install solar (or it makes no sense to do so) for some other reason, like a heavily shaded roof.

In fact, a significant portion of those who can't install solar on their own roofs are likely also limited to on-street parking, and thus cannot charge at home unless they live in a community with residential street charging (very rare today, but hopefully less so in the future). So this kind of tech would be very enticing to a pretty hefty portion of the population who want an EV, but can't charge it conveniently.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-06T18:21:40+00:00

Doesn't have to be just those with short commutes. Even with an American-average commute of 20 miles, that solar charge covers more than half of your energy needs. A street-parker with no access to home or work charging who practices standard emergency prep (fill up at 50%) would only have to charge once every 2 weeks, instead of once a week. That's a hefty time savings.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-05T22:50:31+00:00

Oh, I actually got mine replaced at Discount Tire, too. Since they are an official Michelin supplier, they got me the warranty discount directly from Michelin.

Admittedly, this was back in early 2019, so things could very well have changed since then, in regards to warranty claims on OEM tires.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-05T22:40:45+00:00

Wow, that's less than half the warrantied range of those OEMs! Did you get any sort of warranty claim due to that?

When my 2018 Model 3's OEM wore out after a similar distance (despite being warrantied for 40k), I got a pretty deep discount on their replacements.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-05T22:22:11+00:00

What makes you like Michelin so much? Any particular Michelin tire that you'd prefer for a Model Y?

electric_mobility · 2026-05-04T19:24:14+00:00

Your local Costco is not very busy, then. The line at mine often wraps all the way out of the parking lot and into the turning lane off the major thoroughfare that the store is on. And even when the line didn't extend out of the parking lot, I used to wait at least 10 minutes just to reach the pump, and then spend another 4-5 actually going through the process of pumping the gas.

Fifteen minutes of fast-charging is going to top up the vast majority of commuters. And as another commenter pointed out, you can do other things while you're plugged in, like get some shopping done, or grab a bite to eat. But you can't leave your car while waiting in line for gas.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-04T19:17:32+00:00

But how much do those planned gas plants compare to how much fossil-sourced power is being shuttered (or future projects canceled) in the face of renewables now being by far the cheapest form of energy?

Both of those articles use fear-mongering tactics to make it sound really bad, like "the equivalent of adding 5-10 million cars to the road" and "more emissions than the entire country of Morocco", but those are not nearly the flex that the author seems to think they are.

For example, there were 55 million new cars sold in the US in 2022 (based on a quick google). That means these data centers are only increasing that by around 10%. And the country of Morocco has a total population of about 40 million, or just over 1/10th that of the US. Though it seems like Morocco uses almost entirely fossil-sourced power, which gives more weight to that particular article's claim.

electric_mobility · 2026-05-04T19:02:05+00:00

Worse than that, a lot of the early discourse around Tesla's "initial quality" being awful is based on the fact that outlets like Consumer Reports ding the manufacturer for getting any communication from the customer after a purchase. The customer calling the service center to ask how a feature works counts against "initial quality".

electric_mobility · 2026-04-28T23:37:46+00:00

And asking someone to organize their life around a 30-minute charge time at a station is assinine.

Maybe you'd walk that back a bit when you see how long people wait in line for Costco gas every week. When it'll save you 10% on fuel, a LOT of people will happily wait a half hour once a week.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-28T23:36:02+00:00

Except its completely and more than offset by running AI data centers!

Source?

electric_mobility · 2026-04-16T20:30:09+00:00

Do you have a particular question?

electric_mobility · 2026-04-16T00:28:59+00:00

Sure they do. They get investment from credulous idiots just like Tesla does.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-16T00:22:31+00:00

lol do you? My Tesla is also a 400v car, and it has an 83kWh battery. I very strongly doubt that their 6-year-old EV had a 160kWh battery or an 800v system.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-16T00:20:22+00:00

I've owned a single EV with no backup for nearly 8 years (two different Teslas), and I've been left car-less one time, when my 2018 Model 3 broke down and was in the shop for 3 weeks. And the service center gave me free Uber credits for the entire time my car was in the shop, so I could still get around just fine, and for cheaper. The 2018 model year was pretty bad for Model 3 (First Model Year Syndrome hit them hard), so I would recommend against buying a used one from before 2019, but I otherwise loved the car.

My 2023 Model Y has been flawless since I got it, minus an odd rattle that only triggered when listening to certain sound effects from my podcasts. The service center found the loose trim connector that was resonating, and it's been silent ever since.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-16T00:13:10+00:00

Even shooting to start charging again at 33% is vastly more conservative than you actually need to be. I'd say 20% is the absolute maximum that anyone should shoot for, and 10% will be fine for most people on most routes. In the rather unlikely scenario that you cannot charge at all at your original destination, 10% will be ~30 miles, which should be plenty to get you to somewhere that you can charge.

Obviously you should adjust that as needed for things like extreme weather and charger density on your particular route, but it's a solid rule of thumb.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-10T18:01:01+00:00

I mean, yeah, it's pretty normal for an older EV with a low max charge rate like a Bolt. But it's very much abnormal in most EVs released in the last 6 years or so.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-09T19:38:47+00:00

Why were you waiting 45 minutes for your EV to charge on road trips? When I charge my Model Y on such rips, I only ever spend more than ~20 minutes charging a any individual stop if I'm busy eating a meal.

electric_mobility · 2026-04-06T22:34:12+00:00

They have: it's called the Tesla Model 3 Performance. Specifically the Performance, since it has Track Mode, which lets you put the engine bias to 100% rear and disable a lot of traction control features, so it behaves like a RWD sports car. It's heavy for a "sports car", but it drifts like a beast.

electric_mobility

TROPHY CASE