[Theophilus]

Today, I had a terrible experience with my 2024 i5 M60. Some of it was related to the BMW, but most of it was related to non-Tesla EV ownership.

My church had an event about two hours away in Oxnard, CA, about 100 miles. Last night, I charged to 100% and made the drive to Oxnard with no traffic. The trip had 3.6 miles/kWh efficiency and I arrived with 54% charge left.

When I left the event, BMW's navigation calculated everything based on traffic and the heavy rain we had today. It determined I should stop at an EVGo charger in a random city that wasn't really on the way. By the time I arrived, I was down to 23% charge. Upon arrival, two stalls were open and three were used. The two stalls were both out of order. I waited for the remaining three for 30 min, but no one moved and I had to leave to be on time.

BMW navigation then continued my journey, but decided to take another detour to an Electrify America charger at a Target mall in another random city that wasn't really off the freeway. Both stations required about 20 min of city driving to get there. When I arrived, the rain was torrential and all the stalls were in use except one. A Hyundai was waiting. I asked the driver why he didn't use the open stall and he said, "It's not working." Sure enough, it had a black screen. I decided to try it, because I had Plug and Play Charging, of course, but after getting drenched by trying both connectors, I realized it would not work. Hyundai was still waiting and I was already late, so I left.

When leaving that plaza, which was elevated on a hilly street, the curb was at such an angle that I smashed into it with my low front skirt. I haven't checked for damage visually, but I definitely heard it.

Also, since I was drenched and the inside of the car was warm due to my body heat, the windows fogged up in addition to the poor visibility of the torrential rain. I wanted to defrost, but of course, I was down to 19% now.

BMW wanted me to try another charger down the way, but this time, I refused. I cancelled the BMW navigation and used CarPlay instead. This is what I should have done from the beginning.

After lots of driving, traffic, and warnings from the car, I finally reached my destination with 5% charge. BMW gave me a warning that, if I let the battery cool down, the charge and range would decrease further, so I took a few minutes to go to an Electrify America next to this familiar destination. Thank God, 3 of the 10 stalls were open.

I tried one, two, and three stalls while getting soaked again in the rain, but none of them worked. BMW reported a vague error with the Plug and Play Charging. The last resort was to try the third charger and use my credit card. That finally worked, and I charged from 5% to 25% before going to my meeting. The charge for the electricity was $8.40 at $0.56/kw. I'm supposed to get these sessions for 30 minutes per day free of charge.

Afterwards, I had to pick up my children and realized I needed to charge more, so I went back to the same charger and once again used my credit card to get up to 74% charge at an additional cost of $24.08.

I picked up my children and returned home with 59% charge. Thinking about tomorrow, I realize I'll probably need 80% at least, so I am charging again now.

Not a good day for EVs in my opinion. Yes, the car was comfortable, fast, etc., but I didn't enjoy it because of the stress surrounding the range. I didn't even use the radio because I was so focused on what was going to happen if I couldn't make it to my meeting.

The BMW 540 or 550e are looking quite good to me now.