So who's getting an i3?

[TransverseTight]

Hi All, Rather than me trawling back through 53 pages of posts - what sort of MPG / range are you getting on long journeys? I'm considering a purchase to replace my Juke lease car which goes back in January. Which means I need to order nowish. I need to get the Rex due to living near Brum and working away in Southampton for 2 weeks at a time. Mostly driving less than 10 miles a day, with a bit of shopping and trips out, but then a round trip every second weekend of 280 miles (140 on Friday and 140 on Sunday). Looks like the REV would do that on a single tank. The only time I drive further than that is the annual trip to Le Mans, but I've got an X-Trail which does that - and can fit a fridge freezer, marquee and bikes in the back ;-) There's a BMW dealer across the street from where I work and there's a nice Blue and Silver demo car I'm going to ask to have a go in.

If I've read things correctly on the earlier posts, knowing I'm about to do a long drive I can tell the car as I set off to keep the batteries at full charge so I can keep up the speed on the M3/A34/M40/M42 route I take. Would it be ok doing motorway speeds all the way? OR would it still get depleted somewhere near oxford and drop the speed?

Cheers.

TT.

[mids]

Hi TT, I'm sure others can chip in as well but from what you've said I think the REx would suit you pretty well.

I've done 3 long distance motorway trips where I've fully drained the petrol tank and they were all very consistent. The speed on the ACC was 70mph and the average distance driven when using the REx was 88 miles (which works out at 44 mpg). The total range battery+REx at those speeds is averaging just over 160 miles so you should easily be able to do your 140 miles without having to stop and without having to drop the speed. Obviously if you drive faster than that then the range will come down pretty sharply.

I've kept a few basic stats so PM me if you want more details but that's the summary.

[Armpit63]

The noise of the scooter engine in the back reminds me of the knackered diff in my 1990 Daimler.......which is nice

[Fish]

TransverseTight said:

Hi All, Rather than me trawling back through 53 pages of posts - what sort of MPG / range are you getting on long journeys? I'm considering a purchase to replace my Juke lease car which goes back in January. Which means I need to order nowish. I need to get the Rex due to living near Brum and working away in Southampton for 2 weeks at a time. Mostly driving less than 10 miles a day, with a bit of shopping and trips out, but then a round trip every second weekend of 280 miles (140 on Friday and 140 on Sunday). Looks like the REV would do that on a single tank. The only time I drive further than that is the annual trip to Le Mans, but I've got an X-Trail which does that - and can fit a fridge freezer, marquee and bikes in the back ;-) There's a BMW dealer across the street from where I work and there's a nice Blue and Silver demo car I'm going to ask to have a go in.

If I've read things correctly on the earlier posts, knowing I'm about to do a long drive I can tell the car as I set off to keep the batteries at full charge so I can keep up the speed on the M3/A34/M40/M42 route I take. Would it be ok doing motorway speeds all the way? OR would it still get depleted somewhere near oxford and drop the speed?

Cheers.

TT.

I've got a Rex and did down to Solihull. The rex can only be fired up when you are below 75% charge then it held it there when I was doing a steady 75mph all the way down to Solihull. Southampton should be doable.

You can also program the numbered buttons on the dash to toggle the Rex on or off rather than going through the faffy menu...

[TransverseTight]

Cheers Guys. Sounds like it will suit me just fine. Might keep 5 litres of unleaded in the boot in summer though - just for days when the A34/M3 has holiday madness. I've been stuck on there going no where fast a few times over the last couple of decades. At least now I won't be burning fuel unless absolutely necessary Though these days theres 2 additional services at Chievely and Tothill so overkill really :-) IIRC Chively even has an EV charger and a Gregs which doesn't charge much more than their normal shops.

Just done a run back in the Juke for comparison - still not impressed - 39.5 mpg without breaking the speed limit once.

[Olf]

TransverseTight said:

Cheers Guys. Sounds like it will suit me just fine. Might keep 5 litres of unleaded in the boot in summer though - just for days when the A34/M3 has holiday madness. I've been stuck on there going no where fast a few times over the last couple of decades. At least now I won't be burning fuel unless absolutely necessary Though these days theres 2 additional services at Chievely and Tothill so overkill really :-) IIRC Chively even has an EV charger and a Gregs which doesn't charge much more than their normal shops.

Just done a run back in the Juke for comparison - still not impressed - 39.5 mpg without breaking the speed limit once.

Thats rubbish - my Disco 4 will do 36 if you stick to the speed limit.

[ChrisW.]

But you miss the point.

The goal is to use the car mainly on battery power, so the efficiency is only diluted by the occasional long journey.

Of course, should most of your journeys be long --- you'd be better buying a Bluemotion ...

[TimJMS]

Monday evening and I finally collect



199 miles on day 1. Virtually all on the battery. Fuel tank still over 3/4 full so that distance included 2 litres of petrol.

I love this car.

[TimJMS]

two days in and 375 miles now. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how fast the battery can be recharged at home. Two and a half hours typically. Here is the graph from tonight's recharge. Only phase 1 is relevant, and the car was parked up with 10 miles of battery remaining :

[autofocus]

TimJMS said:

199 miles on day 1. Virtually all on the battery. Fuel tank still over 3/4 full so that distance included 2 litres of petrol.

Hi there,

Is this correct ? Will the i3 REX seriously cover 199 miles in a day with out a recharge and only use around £3 in fuel ?

If so, I might just have to take a long hard look at one of these.

I tend to drive around 100 - 130 miles per day 5 days a week, but have the odd day at around 200 miles. Discounted an EV as did not think any of them would suit my needs. It appears I might be wrong.

Please advise.

Regards

Tim

[Fish]

We have a rex and use it on Dual Carriageway normally 75-80ish your range is about 70miles at that. The Rex will add another 65miles.... and of course you can keep filling up.

However it isn't designed for long journeys all the time. I'd suggest if you did say 30-60 miles a day and one long trip a week great. Long trips every day go for a normal car...

[TimJMS]

autofocus said:

Hi there,

Is this correct ? Will the i3 REX seriously cover 199 miles in a day with out a recharge and only use around £3 in fuel ?

If so, I might just have to take a long hard look at one of these.

I tend to drive around 100 - 130 miles per day 5 days a week, but have the odd day at around 200 miles. Discounted an EV as did not think any of them would suit my needs. It appears I might be wrong.

Please advise.

Regards

Tim

As the man says, not without a recharge. My i3, when at home is always on charge. Doing this, I have averaged 142 miles a day so far with virtually no REx usage. For you the ability to do this will depend entirely on how well served you are by DC Rapid Charging stations compatible with the i3.

[danp]

TimJMS said:

As the man says, not without a recharge. My i3, when at home is always on charge. Doing this, I have averaged 142 miles a day so far with virtually no REx usage. For you the ability to do this will depend entirely on how well served you are by DC Rapid Charging stations compatible with the i3.

Or refuelling? Can get circa 80miles on battery and similar for each tankful?

But yes I'd guess you don't really want to regularly be doing more than say 100/110 miles between charges else would become a bit of a faff filling up all the time.

[TallTony]

Well I am nigh close to placing my order, in silver with upgrade wheels and HK. My commute is 26 miles each way, predominantly done at 50mph with just a mile or so of town driving. Is there any possibility I'd get away with charging it every 2 days?

What is it like at max speed? Could you do 90mph on the motorway for a length of time?

I love the concept, but truthfully i do have issue with the looks - I can't help but think it looks like a futuristic Fiat Panda. What is the publics reaction to it?

[Welshbeef]

TallTony said:

Well I am nigh close to placing my order, in silver with upgrade wheels and HK. My commute is 26 miles each way, predominantly done at 50mph with just a mile or so of town driving. Is there any possibility I'd get away with charging it every 2 days?

What is it like at max speed? Could you do 90mph on the motorway for a length of time?

I love the concept, but truthfully i do have issue with the looks - I can't help but think it looks like a futuristic Fiat Panda. What is the publics reaction to it?

Does it matter what anyone else thinks about it? If you like it or accept its looks that is all that matters who cares what mr x thinks

[mids]

TallTony said:

My commute is 26 miles each way, predominantly done at 50mph with just a mile or so of town driving. Is there any possibility I'd get away with charging it every 2 days?

I doubt it, there's a really big spread of range depending on how you drive. If you are prepared to drive like a granny you might just about manage it (some careful US owners are getting over 100 miles) but drive it normally and you'll have to be charging each day. Check out the i3 owners thread for typical PH ranges. I don't think I've seen anyone get over 100 miles here yet so to expect to be doing that regularly between charges is not really realistic. Sorry !

TallTony said:

What is it like at max speed? Could you do 90mph on the motorway for a length of time?

Not sure how long a period you mean. It'll happily do 90mph but your range is obviously going to really suffer. It's easy to find graphs online showing EV range -vs- speed, it's not a pretty sight at those sort of speeds.

[ajprice]

I don't have the finances or the off road parking to have one of these, but it had a look around one yesterday on the BMW stand at Cholmondley Pageant of Power. I'm 6'6, I fitted in the drivers seat and it was a nice place to be, like any other supermini ish sized car though, you wouldn't get a human person with legs behind me, so it's a 3 seater to me. The steering wheel is small! That was the most surprising thing, sitting in it, the boot was a decent size IMO. Overall, it's a nice piece of kit .

Question, the instrument panel screen behind the steering wheel was a small tablet/big phone shape, but the screen only seemed to be a letterbox shape strip across the middle of the panel, is it just that strip as the instrument panel? I thought the screen would have been bigger, the same size as the box like the console screen.

[TallTony]

Thanks Mids, and seeing as the range means I would have to charge it every day anyway then there is no point in driving it like a granny!

Another question - according to HMRC, companies can write off 100% of the value of minimal emmison cars against tax via capital allowances. Does this mean that the full price can be written off against profit, so a £32k car means £32k less corporation tax is paid?

(I'm no accountant...)

[TallTony]

I have answered my own question, I think - 100% of the corporation tax that would be due against the equivalent value of the car is written off. So the purchase of a £32k car, which becomes £27k after the £5k grant, means my company reduces 20% of the car value from the tax bill, which is £5400. That does make more sense!

Edited by TallTony on Sunday 15th June 13:30

[Amateurish]

mids said:

TallTony said:

What is it like at max speed? Could you do 90mph on the motorway for a length of time?

Not sure how long a period you mean. It'll happily do 90mph but your range is obviously going to really suffer. It's easy to find graphs online showing EV range -vs- speed, it's not a pretty sight at those sort of speeds.

From my experience, I would say a range of about 45 miles at that speed.