2014 BMW i3 Comes With Free DC Fast Charging Through 2015 | Edmunds.com

Edmunds.com

2014 BMW i3 Comes With Free DC Fast Charging Through 2015 | Edmunds.com

BMW announced a program that will provide buyers of the 2014 BMW i3 electric vehicle with free DC fast charging through the end of 2015.

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milliamp

Why not just use the Tesla standard? The last people want is 50 different charging standards. J1772 is standard but it's only 240v. CHAdeMO supports 480v but it's larger than Tesla's charger and only does about 62.5 kW vs Tesla at 120 kW.

Tesla comes with an adapter for charging off of J1772 and is it really looks like the best solution. They are making an adapter to use CHAdeMO stations as well but they are expensive ($1k).

There were already 2 fast charging standards on the market, now there are 3? Do you have more detail on the charger specification?

milliamp

In reading more it sounds like Germany is pushing DC based CCS (Combined Charging System) and the BMW i3 is using some SAE J1772 Combo also used by Spark EV.

The SAE Combo can do about 100 kW (200-500 V, 200 A) (ie. better than CHAdeMO) but I don't know how it differs from the 240v J1772 or CCS. Nissan is also saying a future version of CHAdeMO will support 100 kW and go to 200 amps.

Everyone worked on their EV technologies behind closed doors and in secret and now we have 4 or 5 different charge/plug standards. This will be an issue for a lot of people as EV grows at the rate it's going.

kerb

Greetings, are there any official publications from BMW supporting the free DC Fast Charger through the end of this year?

hrmandell

Europe and US makers are using the J1772 and CCS (DC charge only) standards. Japanese makers are using CHAdeMO. Tesla has their own. All are patented. It's utterly ridiculous that they could not agree on one standard.

Charge Now is free to all BMW owners on the DC Fast Charger only. It is part of the NRV network. J1772 connections carry a fee. There are few CCS fast chargers...only about 5 or 6 in So Cal. BMW has a $6000 DC charger available but is not requiring its dealers to install it, which I think is a mistake. Real electric mobility which is BMW's goal will not be met until DC chargers are spaced an hour or so apart. Having one at each BMW dealer would accomplish that.