Cars and Croissants - Father's Day

I'm a car guy and it is the main reason I wanted the BMW ActiveE and drive it every chance I get.  I'm also a believer in EVs and love to show other car people just how good this drive technology really is.  I'm often doing events where I get to show the car and talk about my experiences - it is a lot of fun - but there is one event that is probably the most fun for me....Cars and Croissants.

This is a group of car people that get together a couple times a month, in local towns, to show of their amazing cars.  I do mean amazing....we are talking Mclarens, rare Ferraris new and old and don't be surprised if you see an ultra rare Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.  The cars that show up range from antique to brand new exotics to ultra tuned.  All free to be there and you have complete access to these cars and their owners....it is a car nuts dream and you meet some really fantastic people there.

There must have been 150 cars

So why am I there?  To show off my BMW ActiveE, it generates a huge amount of attention.  The most recent event I attended 6 people followed me around on foot to see where I would park....as soon as I parked a couple ran up to the drivers window to ask me how did I get one and who did I know.  These guys love cars and EVs are no different.   I had a constant flow of people checking out the ActiveE and asking questions, really good questions, from 8:30 to 11:30am...I barely got a chance to walk around myself.  It was well worth it....talking shop is a huge bonus with an EV and being a BMW EV driver is even better.

Oh...just a few more Lamborghinis

Of this I have no doubt

The best comment I got all day...probably ever...was from a woman that was walking around the ActiveE and tapping it's sides....she then looked up at me and said 'I thought it would be heavier'....well ok then  ;)

I actually used to have one of these Scamps - it was my first car and it had a 318

Past the GT-Rs, NSXs and Supras we find some American classics

It was Father's day so I suppose my ActiveE could be considered the Son of....

One of the members came up and thanked me for bringing my ActiveE.  He said it was a real eye catcher because there is nothing else like it and they are always looking for new cars to talk about.  I will be going to as many of these as I can and I'm happy to report a Volt was present....I hope we get more EVs

It is a great time to be an EV driver

Yes...the ActiveE is efficient

I've completed 4,600 miles in just over 3 months.  During that time my ActiveE or Serenity as I affectionately call her has been calculating how efficient my driving actually is.  Result....4.0 mls/kWh or in other words for every kilowatt hour used I can go 4 miles.

So what does that really mean as far as going the distance....since the ActiveE battery has a capacity of 32 kilowatt hours I should be able to achieve on average 128 miles (4 x 32 = 128)....well not exactly since the ActiveE only allows me to use around 27kWh of that battery for driving so realistically I should get 108 miles (4 x 27 = 108) of range per charge or as I like to say MPC (miles per charge)

So is that good?  It sure is.  I do not baby this car, I use the AC when needed or the heat, I play the radio and sometimes I accelerate hard.  On the highway I usually stay with traffic and most importantly I'm driving 90% of the time with eco-pro off.   80% of my driving are on country roads with an average speed of 30mph...this EV works perfectly for me.  Again this is the overall average, on some days where I've reset the trip computer and kWh indicator to see how high I could go if I babied it I've achieved over 5 mls/kWh after 30 or so miles.   So that means 135 plus miles...I have not had the opportunity to try that yet but one day I will.

By the way...the EPA rates the ActiveE at 94 miles range or 33 kWh/100 miles so I'm doing better than the EPA figures.  I'm currently at 25 kWh/100 miles