[MWizz]

Hi All,

I pick up my BMW IX 50 during the US reveal party on 6 April and on 10 April my family plus large dog plan to travel from Bethesda, Maryland to Sarasota, Florida for Spring break. Originally we planned to fly but the vehicle became available sooner than expected! We are new to BMW and EV's, so I'm guessing this could be quite an adventure. I'm hoping the Sat Nav will plan the route and charging stations along the 1-95 for us and ensure the BMW is optimized on arrival at a DC/level 2 charger. I assume 1-95 will have a number of fast chargers on route...or am I being naive? I admit to being a little nervous, as I understand there is a steep learning curve and little time to familiarize ourselves with the BMW. With this in mind, does anyone have any helpful advice and tips to aid us on our long journey?

 

[Odopt]

Go with the flow!
I have no better tips to give, I will receive my first EV (IX50) in a couple of weeks so you are talking to a rookie.

Enjoy your new car!!

 

[ICS_UK]

Go with the flow!
I have no better tips to give, I will receive my first EV (IX50) in a couple of weeks so you are talking to a rookie.

Enjoy your new car!!

You could join an EV Facebook group and ask that question you would certainly get plenty of advice. Try ABRP EV route planner it has the iX50 data and see what that comes up with. You can set the selected charge stops into the iX navigation and compare what the BMW nav comes up with. In the UK we get a charging card with discounted rates when used on chargers it supports in the chargers search you can filter only chargers accepting this card.

my tip would be charge more often don’t get to low until you learn the best chargers to use and the car itself.

 

[hilld]

I am still waiting on my iX, but I do have a VW ID.4 EV currently. Since you are probably going to rely on the included charing from Electrify America, make sure your account is setup and you have the app installed on your phone. That way you can use that to find the nearest one and the CarPlay integration is not bad. I can't speak to Android though.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Ditlow]

As mentioned ABRP is a great tool. Tell it what kind of car you have and plug your start and destination in and you’ll get a feel for the chargers you’ll need to hit along the route.

Plan to charge the IX at home the night before you leave to 100% and stop at your first charger at around 20% or less. From there you can charge to 50-60% and then hit the next charger at 20% or less. Repeat. This should give you the fastest travel and charge times while giving you some nice breaks every couple of hours. You shouldn’t be at a charger for more than 20 minutes, 30 max this way. I plugged in a sample route and had a max charger stop of 21 minutes. If you stop overnight somewhere try to stay at a hotel with charging available and again charge to 100%. 100% charge isn’t super harmful as long as it’s for short periods and not every day.

ABRP (the app and the site) give you a bunch of options to play with for starting state of charge, minimum charge at charging station arrival, your destination arrival charge, and you can have it preference EA for the free charging. Play with these as you see fit.

Also, last thing, weather - cold, wind, and rain, will impact your range significantly. Just be aware of that. I like to have a “backup charger”, one closer to my intended charger, in mind just in case. I have very rarely needed to use it though.

Have fun!

 

[ICS_UK]

Have fun!

Had 5 minutes tried your route setting Electrified America as preferred network

Pretty good I think I would never drive more than 200 miles without a stop so this works well I think clicking on the charger shows number of chargers as segments and availabilty

 

[MWizz]

You have all been very helpful and even gone out of your way to offer help...thank you.

 

[Vivek Nayyar]

Hi All,

I pick up my BMW IX 50 during the US reveal party on 6 April and on 10 April my family plus large dog plan to travel from Bethesda, Maryland to Sarasota, Florida for Spring break. Originally we planned to fly but the vehicle became available sooner than expected! We are new to BMW and EV's, so I'm guessing this could be quite an adventure. I'm hoping the Sat Nav will plan the route and charging stations along the 1-95 for us and ensure the BMW is optimized on arrival at a DC/level 2 charger. I assume 1-95 will have a number of fast chargers on route...or am I being naive? I admit to being a little nervous, as I understand there is a steep learning curve and little time to familiarize ourselves with the BMW. With this in mind, does anyone have any helpful advice and tips to aid us on our long journey?

Congratulations on your iX50. Would you mind sharing your experience once you're back? I'd love to know how comfortable that kind of journey is.

 

[MWizz]

Congratulations on your iX50. Would you mind sharing your experience once you're back? I'd love to know how comfortable that kind of journey is.

Thank you. Yes, I hope to share my experience but it now seems the ship carrying my BMW has been delayed and will arrive in Baltimore on 4/2. It usually takes 7-10 days for delivery so we'll see....

 

[Vivek Nayyar]

Thank you. Yes, I hope to share my experience but it now seems the ship carrying my BMW has been delayed and will arrive in Baltimore on 4/2. It usually takes 7-10 days for delivery so we'll see....

Thanks, @MWizz! Hope to see your feedback on your new drive soon.

 

[kennethjk]

Hi All,

I pick up my BMW IX 50 during the US reveal party on 6 April and on 10 April my family plus large dog plan to travel from Bethesda, Maryland to Sarasota, Florida for Spring break. Originally we planned to fly but the vehicle became available sooner than expected! We are new to BMW and EV's, so I'm guessing this could be quite an adventure. I'm hoping the Sat Nav will plan the route and charging stations along the 1-95 for us and ensure the BMW is optimized on arrival at a DC/level 2 charger. I assume 1-95 will have a number of fast chargers on route...or am I being naive? I admit to being a little nervous, as I understand there is a steep learning curve and little time to familiarize ourselves with the BMW. With this in mind, does anyone have any helpful advice and tips to aid us on our long journey?

There are plenty of EA stations located at Walmart all along 95

as someone mentioned use one of the many free apps, EA has one

good luck

 

[TrainingCaptain]

Maybe you can do a video or blog like bjorn (youtuber). drive and charging experience

 

[PanamaRod]

Download the MyBMW app...it will plan your trip too...with charging station and time to charge along the route. App has other features for you BMW, too.