madnificent

Amazing driving machines. One of the most fun EVs today, guaranteed to make you smile.

I had some memorable moments when it was launched. I believe they sold with very little profit. They were not sold through dealers, but from BMW directly. As with any non-metal shell, repairs are hard to come by because of missing expertise. The i3 was also quite expensive for a visually tiny city car. At the time BMW perceived as a somewhat pretentious brand which made the small car feel tiny and untrue with it's narrow tires which gave off a strange impression to buyers. The steering sticks near centre which can be strange. It was also expensive to buy and people assumed maintenance would be expensive too, as was perceived of other special cars from the brand. We test-drove it (60Ah) and it was a blast to drive, the Model S (85kWh) of the time offered far more range, faster charging, and felt substantially more practical at the time if you had some space to park. The Tesla brand was also on a mission to sustainable driving at the time.

Flash forward to today and the i3 is what people here are asking for. It's light with an analogue feel, an absolute joy to drive, it's frugal on electricity, the battery kept up well because of a great design, and there's no rust I know of. Sure, it charges slowly, but it quickly ramps up to it's 50kW max charging speed and doesn't consume much so it's great for anything but long-distance travel. The car is connected to the internet (I think always?) but the firmware has been unlocked so we can service it as needed. All buttons operate as you want it and are BMW quality, nice to touch and they're clear to use.

You drive one of the most fun affordable and practical EVs you can buy today. Big thumbs up!

It's the same for my old QQS-pro though. Even after some mods, it still just works. Upgrades are clear but not necessary.

The inlet does nothing, so we just need to measure atmospheric pressure. XD

Mercedes's non-dedicated platform's cars seem to sell better (did not check numbers, just what I see around me). The design language of the EQS was gorgeous as a prototype but the production model was not considered pretty. To me it seems the design language was not the problem, it was the specific design.

I did not read the whole article but it may well be that the platform is (or becomes) different, yet with a more contemporary design. Reuse of an existing platform limits the need for new tooling and thus allows for a lower price, that can be a good choice to evolve.

We have also passed the point where electric cars have to prove viable. They're clearly practical and are nice to drive. There is not as much risk in a non-perfect EV reaching the market, we mostly need more EVs on the road (or at least less ICEs).

With the CLA electric they've shown a promising drivetrain so they're moving forward. I am excited about that engineering.

If anything, Mercedes figuring out how to get their current customers in electric cars is great!

Bought a slimbook before covid. 14" in 13" frame. Still use it today because whenever something needs replacing it turns out I can get the parts and do it.

Read the spec sheets so you're certain the usb-c port has power delivery and display port and such. Camera and microphone seemed lower quality. Keyboard was harder than Lenovo but way better than butterfly mac after the latter had any dust. Many manuals are Spanish (which I do not speak). Cooling was improperly executed (but my specific laptop was used for testing so perhaps something wasn't right there) but still gets the job done.

The display is way better than similarly priced competitors. Since I bought this many around me have bought similar laptops (Tuxedo, BTO, Starlabs, ...). Support is very accommodating over email.

I wanted to buy their newer model but I have no reason to so I'm still on what I bought back then.

mu4e with Emacs

It's great because:

• process a big bulk of emails quickly
• renders emails in a consistent format, lowering mental overhead
• can link to individual emails in my notes
• many mail providers through the same interface
• custom views crossing many (or some) mailboxes and providers
• emails available offline
• tracking pixels and the likes don't work
• can search/filter through many mails quickly

It's bad because:

• requires Emacs, high learning curve
• first setup was cumbersome for Gmail
• rendering emails as text loses some information (rarely a problem, can view the email as html)
• no backlink from email thread to my notes yet (should be ok to write)
• I use another interface on mobile
• I send emails as plain text which is weirdly rendered in some clients (mostly fine, emitting html possible)

I doubt connected cars will go away. It is very practical. Allowing to root the vehicle and providing documentation might be compatible with modern consumer expectations.

There are many suppliers of parts. The easiest solution is to replace the engine with an electric motor and the weight won in gutting the motor and tank by batteries. The gearbox is often kept for simplicity. Kits are available from sites such as https://eveurope.eu/

The biggest challenge for me has been local regulations. Check those.

The CR-Z is a historic piece imo. Kudos on keeping it on the road. You'd have to replace both engines in your case but perhaps the driving dynamics can be kept.

Dacia Spring, VW e-up, Tesla Roadster (first gen) and compliance vehicles such as e-golf.

I use OSM& which is horrid to set up but it allows me to take the most energy efficient route.

OrganicMaps is FOSS and is much easier. There's some fuss about it though.

MagicEarth is included. Not FOSS but seemed to work well.

Turn by turn navigation works well in all of these. No Android Auto to my knowledge and no traffic information to my knowledge.

This was a really good suggestion. I enjoyed this a lot. Thank you.

TIL. Thanks.

Looks like there's a difference in using it with or without a capital (scanning some online sources). https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-difference-between-a-state-nation-and-country.htm indicates it should be written with a capital but even then I would not have known. That might be an LLM hallucination, if it is not then my comment could be correct.

Why not use the only accepted country though? As a non-native speaker coming from an EU country it feels derogative.