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BMW Smart Charging App helps drivers charge for less

As electric vehicles proliferate and people try to conserve energy, moves toward smart charging seem only natural. Now, BMW is offering smarter charging, and it should mean more money in the pockets of its customers when they charge at home. BMW owners who drive one of the company's i vehicles will be able to use the BMW Smart Charging App that taps into a national energy rate database (powered by Genability) to allow drivers to automate charging during off-peak hours when electricity usage costs are lower. Charging vehicles at these lower rates could save drivers as much as $400 a year, BMW says. It's a simple idea, but one that could make BMW's EVs even more attractive to potential customers. The BMW Smart Charging App is initially available to customers who have leased a BMW ActiveE from the company's 2012 test fleet, a group whom BMW dubs Electronauts, and many of whom are also early adopters of the BMW i3. The app will then become available to all BMW i3 and i8 customers beginning in 2015. The Smart Charging App is integrated with the BMW i Remote App, which links with the BMW ConnectedDrive interface to also allow drivers to monitor charging times and vehicle status, adjust charging settings and even adjust vehicle temperature so the car is ready before the driver gets in the vehicle. The Smart Charging App is available for iOS and Android devices. Find more information in the press release from BMW below. BMW Launches First App to Automate the Home Charging Process for BMW i Electric Vehicles. 09.06.2014 BMW Smart Charging App Determines Optimal Times for Charging Electric Vehicles Based on Rates and Calculates Cost. Woodcliff Lake, NJ – June 9, 2014... The new BMW Smart Charging App makes it possible for BMW i customers to automatically identify the best rates and times for charging their electric vehicles at home. Developed by the BMW Group and available for Android and iOS devices, the BMW Smart Charging App is integrated with the BMW i Remote App, which allows drivers to get vehicle information via their smartphone. The BMW Smart Charging App has the potential to save customers as much as $400 annually on their electric bills. BMW is the first automotive manufacturer to offer this automated and fully integrated functionality. In its initial phase, the BMW Smart Charging App is currently available to BMW Electronauts.

BMW and Samsung team up with Galaxy Gear smartwatch that talks to your i3

Without a doubt, the most impressive thing that BMW showed at CES this year was a driverless M235i drifting flawlessly around a wet track at Las Vegas Speedway. However, that bit of robotic helmsmanship wasn't the only trick the German company had up its sleeve. Or, more to the point, on its wrist.
Taking a page from rival Mercedes-Benz, BMW demonstrated how a "smartwatch," in this case the Samsung Galaxy Gear, could be made to function usefully with a vehicle, in this case the BMW i3. Calling it a "research application," BMW showed off its BMW i Remote App on the Galaxy Gear; the app gives information about state of battery charge, available range and whether or not all the doors and windows are closed or open. Perhaps more useful still, the watch can be used to send a destination to the i3's navigation unit, adjust the climate control in preparation for a trip and can recognize voice commands. Nifty stuff, if not world-shaking, that could help tech-obsessed luxury buyers take a second look at the upcoming BMW EV.
Take a closer look at the watch in action below, or read thru the BMW press release.

New BMW i3-like Visio.M EV concept uses lightweight resin

It's not a new version of the BMW i3, but an updated version of a lightweight concept car from SABIC, BMW, the Technical University of Munich, Daimler and others does bear a certain resemblance to the well-designed plug-in city car. From the black "glass" in the hatch to the angled line tail lights to the up-and-down window line, you can see a sort of family resemblance (see an i3 comparison photo here). And, of course, they both have an electric powertrain. But the changes made to the new lightweight urban electric concept vehicle is more of an exercise in what's possible rather than a way to evolve the i3 and i8 into a broader i family of vehicles. Even so, what we see here is interesting, since SABIC found all sorts of new ways to take weight out of the car as part of the Visio.M (Visionary Mobility) project, which was first announced in 2012. Let's start with the window material, which as you might guess from the quotation marks above, is not made of glass but is instead SABIC's Lexan polycarbonate (PC) resin plastic. The lower weight (the PC helps shed about 29 pounds) adds two miles of range while the PC resin has better thermal conductivity compared to glass and so does even more because the HVAC system can be more efficient. According to SABIC's computational fluid dynamics analysis, an extra 9-10 miles of range, in fact. Without the battery, this concept weighs just 992 pounds. Remember, BMW already made a lot of weight-reduction measures in the i3 thanks to carbon fiber reinforced plastic, so to make the "glass" lighter would only help boost efficiencies on a production vehicle that uses a resin like this. Read more below. SABIC's LEXAN™ resin delivers weight savings and thermal efficiency for new ultra-lightweight electric car concept developed by BMW-led Visio.M Consortium Munich, October 20, 2014 Today, at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), BMW, Daimler, TUM scientists and a consortium of industry participants showcased a lightweight urban electric concept vehicle with various advances, including an all-plastic design of the car's windows. The windows are made of LEXAN resin, a polycarbonate (PC) material, and coating technologies from SABIC, a leading developer of PC glazing for automotive windows and many other thermoplastic solutions for the automotive industry.