Ohmer said:
Danke euch allen, for all the informative discussion!
Just curious, what is meant by the mention of
60, 93Ah batteries for the i3? That's not very much
capacity, as a single, typical car starter battery has
around 100Ah.
You're completely wrong with that. The typical car battery is about 1.3 AH. The battery will allow a momentary power draw of up 100 Amps, like turning the starter, but it only lasts a few seconds.
The 93 AH battery is exactly what it says "Amps per Hour". What you don't know is the voltage. It's 354 Volts for the i3. Which in terms of kwh, which is what every other manufacturer uses, it's only a 33kwh battery.
Basically, it's a marketing trick. By using the AH, you can use larger numbers on your ads. Especially if you leave out the voltage on the ads, which they do. People with little knowledge of electricity will think the battery has a higher capacity than it really does.
Some tech info:
a Amps (A) X v Volts (V) = w Watts (W)
ah Amps/Hour (AH) X v Volts (V) = wh Watt/Hour (wh)
So for the i3: 93AH X 354V = 32,922 wh. Which is in fact 32.922 kwh, rounded to 33kwh.
Not as much as the eGolf. And since you pay $50,000 for that vs the eGolf's $36,000 (In Canada), the i3 isn't cost effective.
If you look at trader.ca, you'll see lots of i3 listed. I talked to 2 of them and they all agree they overpaid for lots of range anxiety. And those were the 60AH batteries. No wonder people are getting rid of them.
If you have $50,000 to spend on an electric car, better buy the 60kwh Chevy Bolt Premier (fully optioned out) in Canada.
