i3 Range and the weather

[Amateurish]

When I set my departure time, it also gives me the option of "preconditioning". I'm not sure what this is, given I don't have the winter pack.

[RossP]

It just means warming (or cooling) the interior of the car.

[Amateurish]

Is see, but then what would be the point of setting a departure time if you didn't also activate preconditioning?

[RossP]

Good question! If you've setup delayed charging it charges the batteries so they are fully charged for departure time (I think!).

I can't really see why anybody would want to do that though. The preconditioning of the cabin is one of my favourite features.

[ChrisW.]

It should charge the batteries overnight within the low cost tarrif period, and then precondition the car in time for your departure.

But I know they have probems with this, so I charge immediately and then allow the car to precondition itself from the mains before my departure time ...

[Welshbeef]

So first hard frost last night how were the i3's?

My diesel appeared to take 15 mins for the oil to get to 100 degrees but that meant the mpg was harmed by only a couple mpg which given cr was static for 5-10mins while the screen cleared isn't too bad.

I guess the pre heat is a god send wish all cars had it.

[skilly1]

Got into my car nice and warm and frost free, thought to myself - god I love this car ! Drove to work and had a range reduction of about 7 miles (had to use the REX for the last 2 miles when normally I get in with 5 miles to spare).

Will be interesting to see what it is like in the snow as I was driving over wet grass and the traction control was all over the place.

[Amateurish]

Preheating had the car nice and toasty ready for 6:15.

Efficiency for my normal 60 mile commute was at 3.4 mi/kwh. Temperature was a fairly consistent -2 indicated.

So range is now at 64 miles (down from about 81 in the summer).

[mids]

The REx quite impressed me yesterday. I had to drive from the North East back down South late at night but my pre-travel charging plans got disrupted meaning I could only set off with 25 miles remaining on the battery, eeep. I knocked the cruise down to 67mph but I managed to get from Whitley Bay to Wetherby services all on the one tank and my battery range had gone up by 2 miles by the time I got there. So that was 88 miles on just under 2 gallons which I thought was pretty good considering it was close to freezing and the car has winter tyres fitted.

[Doshy]

skilly1 said:

Got into my car nice and warm and frost free, thought to myself - god I love this car ! Drove to work and had a range reduction of about 7 miles (had to use the REX for the last 2 miles when normally I get in with 5 miles to spare).

Will be interesting to see what it is like in the snow as I was driving over wet grass and the traction control was all over the place.

There is a topic on the i3 forum about the i3 in the snow, someone in the U.S. Can't find the link but he did mention to be careful with the re-gen as it can lock the wheels when slowing down! Although he said the skinny tyres were rather good even though they were not winter ones.
My i3 arrives in 2 weeks when it will probably be -10c and I'll have just enough range to pop to the local shops and back.....

[ds666]

I must read the manual - didn't know about the preheat ( I don't have the battery precon so didn't realise I had this feature ... doh ) . I've just tried it now and set the preheat time for 4:30 pm tonight - the fans immediately started to heat the cabin - is that right ?

Range this am about 60 ish so still fine for me , plus I dropped my electricity tariff by 30% last week

[Greg_D]

ds666 said:

I must read the manual - didn't know about the preheat ( I don't have the battery precon so didn't realise I had this feature ... doh ) . I've just tried it now and set the preheat time for 4:30 pm tonight - the fans immediately started to heat the cabin - is that right ?

Range this am about 60 ish so still fine for me , plus I dropped my electricity tariff by 30% last week

Hi Derek,

What tariff, and with whom? i'm too lazy to look into that sort of stuff (i'm having a chargemaster installed at work, let the business pay for the bit of leccy it uses, lol)

I'm surprised i haven't seen you around? The wife saw one go past the end of our track a few months ago and i spotted another solar orange one going round stourbridge ringroad a couple of weeks back, must have been the first one Benham delivered, that was an orange one on 20s.

I'm dying to have a flash/wave moment with another i3. Has anyone else on here had one yet? those leaves (presumably the correct word for multiple leafs) don't wanna know about comradeship :-(

[TimJMS]

Predicted range back up to 90 miles this morning. 9.6 degrees centigrade out there though, fully 30 miles more than mornings where it is at freezing.

[Greg_D]

My previous post was well timed. A couple of days later i saw and followed another i3. Turned out it was ds666!!! Our kids go to the same school, small world!

[Nick928]

RossP said:

Do any of you REx owners regret going down that route? I am happy with my BEV choice - it works for me but I appreciate that it's not for everyone.

I know it really depends on your usage but Mrs928 only does a round trip commute of about 50miles but has still been caught out a few times due to lights & heating on and I assume outside temperature reducing range. Non functioning public charge points have also required the use of the RX a few times.
When we bought it we realised the claimed range would potentially be substantially reduced in winter driving and went RX for peace of mind as a result.
After six months experience with it, if we'd gone electric only there have been so many occasions where pure electric range has been touch and go it would have meant the total pain in the arse of taking a different car.
I know others are lucky enough to have £30k to spend on a car to drive to the shops in but we bought it as a main family car (not only car), to have to take another car at the slightest chance of range issues would be a compromise (& total deal breaker) too far.
I do wonder how pure electric will do in comparison to RX when it comes to residuals. Maybe at secondhand prices more people will buy them just for the school run or going to the shops, although without the subsidised home charging points this may also put a few off.

After six months of driving, the novelty of a new car usually wears off but with the i3 I still think it's absolutely fantastic. Electric or RX, they really are great little cars.

As others have said, I've noticed the range on full charge drop from 85ish to 65miles. We've not had any warrantee works or software updates so it's not due to outside this. The weather, up until the last few weeks hasn't been too bad so I'd question if this is the only cause of this issue.
Being RX it's not the end of the world but it's not ideal.

[JonnyVTEC]

[TransverseTight]

I'm waiting for a really cold snap because after reading all these "my cold range is rubbish" posts I've been pleasantly surprised to find I got 4.8miles/kWh today on a 62 miles mostly motorway run. Under 5 degrees out with a bit of sleet.

Fairly heavy traffic and average speed 47mph for the trip. Used preheat for departure on the timer, set to eco pro, cabin temp at 17 degrees (I wear driving gloves), used the auto cruise control. I probably only got to 70mph for about 5 minutes of the trip due to traffic.

By my calcs that's good for 92 miles of range based on 18.8kWh usable battery.

[ds666]

There is definately a link between temperature and range . My commute is virtually identical each time I do it and since the weather has been colder my average has dropped from around 5.0 miles/kwh to below 4 ( average was actually 3.7 until I sorted the tyre pressures ...) The other variable for me is that in warmer months I never used the heater/air con whereas now I use it periodically but only to demist the windows .
The other thing I've noticed is that the range is better based when I charge it at work on a 13 amp plug than when I use my 32 amp home charger - that may be because the charging at work is during the day when it is typically warmer ? Who knows.
I haven't had to not use the car because of the range limits , cold weather or not , but it has been close .