About a week ago I was at the Supercharger at San Juan Capistrano, CA charging up and a BMW i3 pulled in next to me in a Supercharger slot. I thought to myself, "This will be interesting". The car looked new and was driven by a man about 40 years old and had his son, about 5 years old, in the back. He pulled out the Supercharger cable and looked at the plug with a confused look on his face. He then looked at the plug on his car and went back to look at the Supercharger plug. I felt I needed to stage an intervention.
So I introduced myself to the man and explained that this was only for Tesla's and that his i3 would not be able to charge here. He was a pretty ticked off. He told me that the dealership told him that there were 6 "hi-power" chargers in the area that he could charge his car. He then proceeded to mess with his phone to show them on a map to me. After a few minutes of fiddling with apps he found the Charge point app and showed me the "combo" chargers that BMW told him were the "hi powered" chargers. I told him that some had combos and others didn't. I then explained the costs, opening a Charge point account and my experiences and times needed to charge. He had not set up a charging system at his house.
He was getting more and more ticked off with every minute that passed. His wife then rolled up in their SUV, who I guess was following him in his journey to get his car charged. He had about 20 miles of EV range and with a "full" tank of gas he would get about 40 more miles in normal driving. I was feeling range anxiety for him, and I didn't own the car.
He then told me that he owned the car for about a week and replaced his x5 with the i3. There was an absence of excitement in his voice that you'd expect from someone telling you that. We chatted a few more minutes and he was off to find the next Charge point. The funniest part of this story was his last sentence he said to me!
"I should have bought a F-ing Tesla" And he drove off.
(no exaggeration!)
John
So I introduced myself to the man and explained that this was only for Tesla's and that his i3 would not be able to charge here. He was a pretty ticked off. He told me that the dealership told him that there were 6 "hi-power" chargers in the area that he could charge his car. He then proceeded to mess with his phone to show them on a map to me. After a few minutes of fiddling with apps he found the Charge point app and showed me the "combo" chargers that BMW told him were the "hi powered" chargers. I told him that some had combos and others didn't. I then explained the costs, opening a Charge point account and my experiences and times needed to charge. He had not set up a charging system at his house.
He was getting more and more ticked off with every minute that passed. His wife then rolled up in their SUV, who I guess was following him in his journey to get his car charged. He had about 20 miles of EV range and with a "full" tank of gas he would get about 40 more miles in normal driving. I was feeling range anxiety for him, and I didn't own the car.
He then told me that he owned the car for about a week and replaced his x5 with the i3. There was an absence of excitement in his voice that you'd expect from someone telling you that. We chatted a few more minutes and he was off to find the next Charge point. The funniest part of this story was his last sentence he said to me!
"I should have bought a F-ing Tesla" And he drove off.
(no exaggeration!)
John