Public Charge Points

[RossP]

I decided to drive to a business meeting in Birmingham as an experiment today. It was 78 miles door to door...

I had a contingency of stopping off at Waitrose in Lichfield to stick a bit of charge in. So I stopped there on the way down, to find it wasn't working which I've reported to Chargemaster.

I made it home with 4 miles range left! I did ramp things up to 'comfort' mode for the last part of the journey when I knew I was going to make it

[Greg_D]

that is an issue!!!!! You'd have thought that these machines (bearing in mind how crucial it is that they be working when people expect them to be) would have self diagnostics on board to see if they are indeed working and report their own status online so at least you can make an informed choice about route planning.

[RossP]

Indeed I checked on the Chargemaster website this morning and it showed as OK albeit the location on the map was totally wrong too!

When I spoke to Chargemaster, they were already aware of the fault and he mentioned that it was actually reporting back to them it was working. They were also aware of the map location issue which they are going to rectify too. They did tell me that it was unusual for a station not to be working...

[jeffa]

I have recently bought a second hand Mitsubishi I-MiEV and drove it from Brighton to Birmingham. First charge point was Pease Pottage. I only charged it to 92%, drove at 70mph and ran out of battery 3.5 miles from the next charge point. I was super impressed that the product manager for Mitsubishi stopped to ask if we wanted help. The nice man from the RAC towed us to the M4 services and the Eastbound fast charge point did not work. I had to phone Ecotricity who were unaware it had failed. We were then towed to the West services which worked then on to Oxford and then Leamington Spa. Total journey time 12 hours.

I am not sure whether we could have coped if any other fast charge points had failed. I have now bought a type 2 cable which at least gives a slower charge from a public point.

[spitty709]

RossP said:

I decided to drive to a business meeting in Birmingham as an experiment today. It was 78 miles door to door...

I had a contingency of stopping off at Waitrose in Lichfield to stick a bit of charge in. So I stopped there on the way down, to find it wasn't working which I've reported to Chargemaster.

I made it home with 4 miles range left! I did ramp things up to 'comfort' mode for the last part of the journey when I knew I was going to make it

Hi Ross / Andy, I am having some serious range issues with my i3, when I leave my house fully charged (84 miles in comfort mode) and drive 2 miles up the road my range is down at 69 miles. Today same thing started after a full charge (80 miles) drove 16.9 miles and only got 52 miles eft so 16.9 miles of driving and I used 28 miles of range, and before you ask this was all done very light footed albeit in comfort mode. I even paid for the heat pump!

How did you achieve 82 miles? what mode and what speed on motorway etc. What does yours display as range after a full charge ?

Thanks.

Edited by spitty709 on Monday 3rd March 21:19

[Atommad]

The Milton Keynes pricing document is at best confusing. See below. It starts by giving the cost per hour, but then says you will be charged for the "charge" you draw down which you would assume to be charged per kWh. But given that the car draws at different rates, ie 7kw then 4kw then 1 kW how on earth (no pun intended) will you be charged? For the number of hours the car is charging - this could be charged by the hour, but would not equated to the "the charge they draw down". Does nobody check this stuff before they put it out?

"£1 per hour (or part of) for the 3kw charge points (the older posts that charge in 6　 - 8 hrs)

£2 per hour (or part of) for the 7kw charge points (the newer posts that charge in 4 – 6 hrs)

These charges are subject to the user being a member of the national POLAR scheme. Membership costs £20 per annum and allows access to charge points nationwide.

From 1st April, we will also be upgrading the posts to pay as you go, which will allow people to charge even if not a member of the scheme. The cost for this option will be 50% higher than that stated above, i.e. £1.50/£3 depending on which charge speed is used.

Parking will remain free of charge in the EV bays and EV motorists will only pay for the charge they draw down, not per hour spent parked, i.e. if they park at 9am and only use £1 of charge, they can remain in the space for the remainder of the day without making additional payment."

[Atommad]

The Milton Keynes pricing document is at best confusing. See below. It starts by giving the cost per hour, but then says you will be charged for the "charge" you draw down which you would assume to be charged per kWh. But given that the car draws at different rates, ie 7kw then 4kw then 1 kW how on earth (no pun intended) will you be charged? For the number of hours the car is charging - this could be charged by the hour, but would not equated to the "the charge they draw down". Does nobody check this stuff before they put it out?

"£1 per hour (or part of) for the 3kw charge points (the older posts that charge in 6　 - 8 hrs)

£2 per hour (or part of) for the 7kw charge points (the newer posts that charge in 4 – 6 hrs)

These charges are subject to the user being a member of the national POLAR scheme. Membership costs £20 per annum and allows access to charge points nationwide.

From 1st April, we will also be upgrading the posts to pay as you go, which will allow people to charge even if not a member of the scheme. The cost for this option will be 50% higher than that stated above, i.e. £1.50/£3 depending on which charge speed is used.

Parking will remain free of charge in the EV bays and EV motorists will only pay for the charge they draw down, not per hour spent parked, i.e. if they park at 9am and only use £1 of charge, they can remain in the space for the remainder of the day without making additional payment."

[andywaterfall]

RossP said:

I decided to drive to a business meeting in Birmingham as an experiment today. It was 78 miles door to door...

I had a contingency of stopping off at Waitrose in Lichfield to stick a bit of charge in. So I stopped there on the way down, to find it wasn't working which I've reported to Chargemaster.

I made it home with 4 miles range left! I did ramp things up to 'comfort' mode for the last part of the journey when I knew I was going to make it

Glad you made it mate!

[mids]

Atommad said:

The Milton Keynes pricing document is at best confusing. See below. It starts by giving the cost per hour, but then says you will be charged for the "charge" you draw down which you would assume to be charged per kWh. But given that the car draws at different rates, ie 7kw then 4kw then 1 kW how on earth (no pun intended) will you be charged? For the number of hours the car is charging - this could be charged by the hour, but would not equated to the "the charge they draw down". Does nobody check this stuff before they put it out?

Yes, it's not very well worded but the way I understand it is you'll be charged the hourly rate for as long as you charge, then once you've stopped charging it's free to remain in the spot (which in itself is arguable if that encourages cars to sit in charging bay slots for a long period of time).

I think most people agree that charging by the kwh would be the fair way to do it but the problem is that it isn't possible for a company to charge for electricity in this way unless they have a supply licence i.e. they are an electricity distributor.

[mids]

andywaterfall said:

RossP said:

I decided to drive to a business meeting in Birmingham as an experiment today. It was 78 miles door to door...

I had a contingency of stopping off at Waitrose in Lichfield to stick a bit of charge in. So I stopped there on the way down, to find it wasn't working which I've reported to Chargemaster.

I made it home with 4 miles range left! I did ramp things up to 'comfort' mode for the last part of the journey when I knew I was going to make it

Glad you made it mate!

Similar to your first big journey, total faith in the car and it's range predictor right from the off eh ?

[andywaterfall]

mids said:

andywaterfall said:

RossP said:

I decided to drive to a business meeting in Birmingham as an experiment today. It was 78 miles door to door...

I had a contingency of stopping off at Waitrose in Lichfield to stick a bit of charge in. So I stopped there on the way down, to find it wasn't working which I've reported to Chargemaster.

I made it home with 4 miles range left! I did ramp things up to 'comfort' mode for the last part of the journey when I knew I was going to make it

Glad you made it mate!

Similar to your first big journey, total faith in the car and it's range predictor right from the off eh ?

You've got to imagine BMW pay their engineers enough to get these things about right It's actually quite good fun adjusting your style when the way you drive has such an immediate effect on range, whereas in an ICE the effect is a bit less direct.

[RossP]

spitty709 said:

Hi Ross I am having some serious range issues with my i3, when I leave my house fully charged (84 miles in comfort mode) and drive 2 miles up the road my range is down at 69 miles. Today same thing started after a full charge (80 miles) drove 16.9 miles and only got 52 miles eft so 16.9 miles of driving and I used 28 miles of range, and before you ask this was all done very light footed albeit in comfort mode. I even paid for the heat pump!

How did you achieve 82 miles? what mode and what speed on motorway etc. What does yours display as range after a full charge ?

Thanks.

I drove all the way there in Eco pro plus (with no heating!). On the way back I used Eco Pro and heated drivers seat, switching to comfort when things looked ok.

On the way there I was very light footed (no more than 65). I went a bit quicker on the way home.

It's currently showing a range of 85 miles after a full charge.

No idea how you would get over 100 miles.

AndyW - does the battery get better with age?

[andywaterfall]

I'm only 7 weeks & 1600 miles in, but I can't see any great difference. But then I drive it 95% of the time without even considering the range, so it passes me by a bit One day if I'm at a loose end I'll have to drive & drive, but really gently, and not getting too far from home, just to see how far I can make it go...

[spitty709]

Hi Ross / Andy

Thanks for your replies, just went out to the car, its 4 deg C outside, full charge 80 miles range. Turned her on and it dropped to 78 miles. Went in to the menu and looked at consumption and the heater was taking 15 miles range ( heat pump heating ) turned the heater off and now have 93 miles range. Do either of you have the heat pump? is this normal I thought it used 30% less energy than the standard heater so if I had standard heating would I be loosing about 20 miles?

P.S. love the car, got a loaner i3 coming Friday as mine had a mark on the front bumper by the towing eye cover when I picked her up so they are going to sort it Friday and leave me with there demonstrator i3 Bev. so I will compare them.

Have either of you sussed how to change the orientation of the sat nav as it is always north at the top and not dynamic.

Thanks again.

[RossP]

I have the heat pump too but having the heater on does seen to eat range. To change the Nav view it's one of the icons on the left of the screen. It will have a symbol with a N and an arrow on it. Select this and then it will give you view options.

[XTR2Turbo]

Anyone else have a ChargeNow card?

I have one but every point I have tried comes up as card invalid. My Charge East card works.

Called Chargemaster and they are looking into it but I have to say don't seem to know that much about the ChargeNow scheme that was launched with BMW !

[RossP]

I have one and it came up with 'invalid card' at the Lichfield Waitrose charger. I also have a Chargemaster card which worked. Although I still couldn't charge my car as the charger wasn't working.

When I spoke to Chargemaster they said that the Waitrose station hadn't been assigned to the BMW program and that they were going to rectify that.

[mids]

BMWi have just said on twitter that Chargemaster have now installed 15 CCS DC rapid chargers 'between Oxford & Cambridge'.

[RossP]

I can't see that on their feed - @BMWi ?

[mids]

Yeah, it was a direct reply to someone enquiring about it so check @BMWi's twitter page to see it. Seems we're up & running although presumably these will have an hourly charge to use unlike the Ecotricity rapids ?