Access How to build a 8 x 12 wood shed

Access How to build a 8 x 12 wood shed

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How cold is too cold for driving a convertible roof down

IT WAS somewhere near Bala, as the road climbed ever higher into the mountains, that the temperature really started to drop.

The outside temperature gauge in my friends Saab - a car built to cope with a harsh winter if ever there was one - had dropped its reading from a toasty five degrees to just above freezing. Thing is, where his car had a powerful heater and a plushly trimmed interior, mine has a floppy roof that goes up and down and as a result the answer to a question Im sure youve been itching to find out. How cold is too cold for driving around with the roof down?

I was, in the noble interests of Life On Cars research, more than kitted out for the job; whereas Id happily drive my Mazda MX-5 in the climes it was designed for in jeans and a t-shirt, last weekend I had gloves, a big coat and the heater on at full blast. Logic dictates that tackling a snowy mountain pass with the roof down should be unbearably uncomfortable but heres the truth in the (very) cold light of day - it really wasnt the hellish experience youd think.

True, the air was very cold that afternoon but the really chilly stuff was being whipped over the Mazdas windscreen, leaving me to enjoy the warmth whirling into the interior from the heater. Its a bit like going skiing, but with the added luxuries of electric windows and a CD player. It was only when I pulled over to take a few photos that the cold caught up with me, because as soon as I got out I was no longer in a cosy car interior, I was hundreds of feet up, in the middle of nowhere in the midst of the cold snap currently engulfing most of Britain.

In fact, being the motoring masochist I am, I was actually enjoying it. There are lots of things I love about Wales, like the unpronouncably brilliant names for the villages and the Welsh cakes on offer in just about every bakery, but best of all they do roads quite unlike just about anywhere else in the UK. Coming across a set of twisty roads draped over some stunning scenery and having a couple of great cars to tackle them in is one of the best feelings in motoring.

So the answer to the question is that its never really too cold to drop your roof down, as long as it isnt raining - or in my case, snowing - of course. Blummin freezing but big, big fun.

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How CARB May Make The i3s Range Extender Less Attractive

The range extender engine for the i3 is seen here to the left of the electric motor

According to the UK price list for the i3 the range extender will automatically come on when the state of charge falls to 18%. Ive been guessing that will happen at about 20% so I was pretty close. It will then attempt to maintain the battery SOC at 18%, while allowing the car to continue to drive along relatively uninhibited. The only time there will be a problem is if your driving is demanding a high level of energy output for a prolonged period of time.

For instance, driving along at 60 mph on a flat surface you may only need 10 or 11 kWs to sustain the charge because thats about all youll be consuming. Thats no problem for the REx because it can provide up to 25kWs of constant supply. However if you need to drive up a steep grade at highway speeds for 10 continuous miles or so you may have a problem because the car will likely draw more than 25kWs under these strenuous conditions. The 18% buffer combined with the REx pumping out its maximum output will allow the drive to continue for quite some time, but after a while of using more energy then it is capable of replacing, it will eventually need to reduce power output. What happens then is unclear but I would imagine the car would slow down to a speed it can maintain power for. Again, this should not happen on flat land, as the energy consumption should be able to be replace by the REx. It will also have plenty of power for most hills and bursts of speed when needed. Im talking about long, extended drives up steep inclines that happen at the end of your journey after youve already depleated the battery and the range extender has come on. Personally I have a situation where this could come into play myself. My in laws live in Vermont and the last 10 to 15 miles to their house is mostly uphill. Id already have the range extender on by the time I get to this final leg of the journey so Im curious if Ill have a problem making it. I could stop along the way and charge for a while if necessary but Id prefer just driving nonstop. After all, thats why Id get the range extender; so I dont have to stop to charge along the way of a trip.

So what can be done to alleviate this? The Chevy Volt has a "Hold Mode" that the driver can initiate at any time. This manually turns on the range extender without waiting for it to automatically turn on when the battery is depleted and holds the battery state of charge at the level it was when you turned it on. Sounds like a great idea, so is BMW going to do the same thing? Yes, and maybe no. If you look at page 8 of the UK price list that I provided the link to above, youll see it says: "Manually activated when the vehicle is below 80%". Brilliant! So if you buy an i3 in the UK, you can turn on the range extender once the state of charge drops below 80%. Therefore if you know youll be driving up a long, steep hill or mountain at the end of your journey, you can turn on the range extender and "hold" the charge so when you arrive at the mountain youll have plenty of charge to complete the journey. Perfect, so US customers will get this feature also, right? Unfortunately, maybe not.

CARBs restrictions may hinder the REx

California is the #1 market for electric vehicles in the US and one of the reasons they sell so well there is zero emission vehicles are allowed carpool lane access regardless of the amount of passengers. This is a highly sought after perk in California and cars that qualify for it usually sell very well. The all electric i3 will definitely qualify, but the under the new more strict rules for PHEVs, an EV with a range extender will only qualify for the valuable HOV access sticker if it operates this way: "engine operation cannot occur until the battery charge has been depleted to the charge-sustaining lower limit". So that means the range extender cannot be manually turned on at 80% and still qualify for HOV access in California.

Its clear to me BMW will make the i3 conform with CARBs rules so it will have HOV access is California, but will they do this to all the US cars, or just for the ones shipped to California? I dont have the answer. I tried to get clarity on this at the i3 Premier but nobody wanted to confirm it one way or the other. Hopefully that means a decision hasnt been made on this yet and there is hope for the rest of us. If so and the powers to be at BMW find their way to read this blog post, please consider offering the same ability to manually turn on the REx for US customers outside of California. The vast majority of customers in the US dont need carpool access, why should they have their range extender neutered so people in California can have it? This is a simple software change. Its available in the UK and probably for the rest of Europe so its not like it will cost BMW anything to develop. Lets hope BMW does the right thing and makes this feature available to US customers outside of California. It really makes the range extender a more useful asset, this shouldnt be a hard decision to make.

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