Owners of the BMW i3 electric car will start being paid by BMW if they only charge it during non-peak times to help the overall usage of electricity be reduced. The BMW i3 can be charged at home or at places where it can be powered up quickly. This new trail is running from July 2015 to December 2016 within California.

How does it work?

BMW will have the ability to delay charging of cars by an hour, but if some customers need to charge up quick then can. Once the trail has finished, customers will then get another gift card off $540.

Usage issues

As electric cars become more popular and more and more people are leaving things on charge overnight, it poses the question whether the power grids will be able to cope with all of the usage. To try and avoid this before it becomes an issue, BMW and Californian utility company PG&E have partnered up to start compensating BMW i3 owners if they charge their cars during non-peak hours. So far, 100 BMW i3 owners have signed up to the BMW i ChargeForward plan and then they will be rewarded with either a $1,000 gift card and then a second card of $540 once the promotion is over.

The whole idea behind this is to let the utilities improve their infrastructure to cope with electric cars.