My commuter car is a 2014
My commuter car is a 2014 Chevy Volt while my friend just picked up a new BMW i3 for his commuter. Back story: I have a 46 mile round trip commute to work every day. Throw in errands and I routinely drive over 50 miles per day. Charging with 120 at home and 240 at work I always finish my day on 100% battery power. Needless to say I love my Volt and not just because I'm averaging over 150 mpg but because I also love the quite smooth ride, the comfortable seats, the utility of its design and the way the car looks and drives.
I recently picked up a second home in the mountains. From my business to the mountains I have a 99 mile oneway trip with approx 27 miles of twisting mountain roads and 5700 feet in elevation gain. My Chevy Volt handles this trip with aplomb burning on average 2.5 gallons going up and 1 gallon coming down or 3.5 gallons round trip. Enter the BMW i3. My buddy followed me up last weekend in part to see how my Volt compares to his ultimate driving machine. For this drive I like to hold a portion of my batteries in reserve for mountain driving. With an efficient driving style I average 48 miles per charge during my weekly commute. For drives that exceed the Volt's 48 mile range I like to hold electric driving mode in reserve for times when the gas engine is least efficient and the electric drivetrain is most efficient, usually when traffic is flowing at 55 mph or lower or when traffic is stop and go. For the commute going up to the mountains I use no more than 20 miles on the battery before hitting the mountain roads. By design I start the assent with 28 miles left on the batteries, so I can have a little fun in the twisties and not be down on power when passing.
My friend had no such options with his i3 as the BMW lacks the option for strategic electricity usage while driving and instead forces the i3 driver to deplete their batteries before switching over to its ruckus range extender. When we both got to the mountains my Volt had 28 miles on its batteries while my friend's i3 had switched over to batteries a few miles back while we were still on the freeway. Not wanting to run out of gas on the way up we topped off his tiny little gas tank and proceeded to attack the curves. At first it was clear the BM was the faster car in the twisties. Now the difference between our two cars was not as great as when I drive this same road in my CTS V Coupe but he was quicker for a few miles and then it happened. The i3 went into crawl mode and I reeled him in fast. By the time I reached the small mountain town of Idyllwilld I had nearly 14 minutes to spare while he had a line of cars backed up behind his i3 and even had to pull over on several occasions to let Prius and RV drivers past!
As a side note driving back with a full charge I deplete approximately 3/5 of the battery before hitting the steep decline but when I reach the bottom of the hill I have t a full charge again thanks to regenerative breaking. For the return trip I only burn 1 gallon of gas! As for the i3 it made its way back home without switching over to limp mode but again, I beat him back to Orange County because he was worried that if he drove in the fast lane he would revert back to slow mode before getting off the freeways, not a safe option while driving fast moving Southern California Freeways.