Real World experience with an EV + newbie info

[PixelpeepS3]

Below is my experience – all figures are taken from what I have recorded, nothing is from the manufacture or magazine or car show.. all me…and based on my first 3500 miles with a BMW i3 REX

In the real world, how much does it cost:

|https://thumbsnap.com/dRsKDjIO[/url]

Charging options

• 13amp plug 3kw – this is supplied with the car – 3kw takes 12 hours to fully charge. Plugs into a normal domestic plug socket.
• Installed home charger 7.7Kw - £250 for home charger includes professional installation (should be 750 you get a 500 government grant) - Charges from flat in 4.5hours – shuts off when done, you can set the car to ‘pre-heat’ whilst still on the charger so its defrosted/cooled when you get in it– average price per KW @ home is 13p – so a full charge will cost around £3– that will give you between 100-140 miles
• Fast charger (supercharger/rapid) 50KW – you need to be a member of polar or chargemaster which costs £10 a month and then you pay 9p per kw but it can give you 80% charge in 40 minutes (see below for locations/availability) –
Every day you come home and plug in, when you leave in the morning it will have a ‘full tank’ every day.

Range:

If you buy the one with the range extender (REX) you can have another 60-80 miles ‘emergency’ and you can, theoretically, drive forever by keep topping up the REX with normal fuel although this doesn’t work out overly cost effective. (£9 in fuel fills the REX and you get 60-80 miles)

On EV alone i've seen between 100-170 miles depending on a ton of factors:
Heated seats do not appear to affect range (im sure this is false)
regen braking - just taking your foot off the accelerator causes friction charging (like F1 Kerrs lol) - so much so that you can effectively drive with one pedal.
Down hills you can match the speed and use either zero electric or actually charge the batteries, in traffic you use zero.

In the i3 the big killer is the heater - on a fully charged battery it will show around 25% loss in range when you put the heater on. - it gradually sorts itself out and the range comes back but if there was one thing i could change it would be this.


Charging Network

All charge points as of 20 MARCH 2018
15660 CONNECTORS
9137 DEVICES
5454 LOCATIONS
559 installed in the LAST 30 DAYS

Rapid/supercharger stats as of 20 MARCH 2018
3238 RAPID CHARGERS
322 have been installed in the last 30 Days

Live, interactive map showing all charge points in the uk - https://www.zap-map.com/live/

[granada203028]

On the i3 does the heater heat water like the Leaf? I find the delay in the heater coming on annoying, I assumed it would be direct electric like a fan heater behind the dash so instant defrosting. OK most mornings it comes on on the timer so I suppose a little bit of energy is stored in the water. Steady heater consumption looks to be about 1.5KW mostly but was 3KW during the recent cold snap. Driving then slowly in town the heater uses more energy than the motor.

My leaf doesn't have the heat pump but I guess this would not offer any advantage in very cold weather as it can't pump from approaching freezing.

I would not have thought heated seats uses much, a few 100W I guess and then throttles back. The heat is sort of trapped by the upholstery insulation and your clothes/bottom...

[Knock_knock]

granada203028 said:

My leaf doesn't have the heat pump but I guess this would not offer any advantage in very cold weather as it can't pump from approaching freezing.

Mine does, and it seems to still work even below freezing, but gets augmented by straightforward resistive heating too. During the recent cold weather I've seen 3kW or more used briefly, before dropping back to around 1kW again. Last couple of days it hasn't drawn higher than 1kW before dropping back. I think the heatpump is supposed to get less efficient but still do some useful work down to around -12'c.

[chandrew]

Very good post, thanks a lot.

I found a good comparison about EVs in a recent McKinsey teardown report:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and...




This should give some light into the different types of heating. It should be noted that the BEV i3 (which I used to run) has the option of a heat pump, I believe located where the petrol engine is in the other version.

Edited by chandrew on Monday 26th March 08:13

[PixelpeepS3]

Quick update - Just discovered i have an Economy 7 meter...

a quick search of the net provides a rate of 7p per kWh which changes the landscape somewhat...

Based on my average mile per kWh which is 4.5 it means i could pay just £0.0156 per mile or £15.56 to do 1000 miles.

i'll be on the phone to EON first thing tuesday !

[NeoVR]

PixelpeepS3 said:

Quick update - Just discovered i have an Economy 7 meter...

a quick search of the net provides a rate of 7p per kWh which changes the landscape somewhat...

Based on my average mile per kWh which is 4.5 it means i could pay just £0.0156 per mile or £15.56 to do 1000 miles.

i'll be on the phone to EON first thing tuesday !

This is true - however you have to balance it against the fact "peak" electricity would be more expensive. IIRC over 40% of total elec usage would need to be during the E7 window to make it financially better than a normal tariff.

[essayer]

Bizarrely, my E7 peak rate is cheaper than the non-E7 tariff unit rate. Weird huh?

[PixelpeepS3]

NeoVR said:

This is true - however you have to balance it against the fact "peak" electricity would be more expensive. IIRC over 40% of total elec usage would need to be during the E7 window to make it financially better than a normal tariff.

At the mo our whole house is using less than 22kWh per month (not living there yet) so 30 odd kWh per night charging the i3 when we get in there will almost certainly end up with a knock on the door from plod looking for the industrial scale cannabis farm lol

[FiF]

PixelpeepS3 said:

NeoVR said:

This is true - however you have to balance it against the fact "peak" electricity would be more expensive. IIRC over 40% of total elec usage would need to be during the E7 window to make it financially better than a normal tariff.

At the mo our whole house is using less than 22kWh per month (not living there yet) so 30 odd kWh per night charging the i3 when we get in there will almost certainly end up with a knock on the door from plod looking for the industrial scale cannabis farm lol

Shouldn't concern you too much tbh. Someone down the road got the knock following a complaint by the parent of a kid they were selling cannabis to. Plod quickly found the rather large shed at the bottom of the garden, probably with the help of a thick electrical cable leading the way, inside they found matey filling deal bags. He got a caution. Yep a caution.

[RobDickinson]

PixelpeepS3 said:

At the mo our whole house is using less than 22kWh per month (not living there yet) so 30 odd kWh per night charging the i3 when we get in there will almost certainly end up with a knock on the door from plod looking for the industrial scale cannabis farm lol

You really drive 200km every day?

[PixelpeepS3]

RobDickinson said:

You really drive 200km every day?

It was the whole point of getting the EV - we have a daily 140 mile commute.

[so called]

PixelpeepS3 said:

It was the whole point of getting the EV - we have a daily 140 mile commute.

Just discovered this thread as I've decided to buy an i3.
The car I'm looking at is a May 2016 model so has the lower rated battery.

I went to a BMW dealer for some advice but the guy was shockingly disparaging of the i3 and determined to sell me a 3 Series diesel.

I'm concerned that I wont be able to make a 94 mile round trip commute.
Its actually about 88 miles of dual carriageway so sat at around 70mph.
Does this sound realistic?

Any and all advise welcome.

[Pica-Pica]

chandrew said:

Very good post, thanks a lot.

I found a good comparison about EVs in a recent McKinsey teardown report:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and...




This should give some light into the different types of heating. It should be noted that the BEV i3 (which I used to run) has the option of a heat pump, I believe located where the petrol engine is in the other version.

Edited by chandrew on Monday 26th March 08:13

Thanks, interesting. I remember the tear downs we used to do, system by system, part by part, of various competitors. All laid out on benches with parts weight, materials and estimated costs.

[Pica-Pica]

essayer said:

Bizarrely, my E7 peak rate is cheaper than the non-E7 tariff unit rate. Weird huh?

It would also depend on supplier and what tariff you compare, and whether it is a locked in duration. Shop around and compare each company’s dual rates.
Also I have seen wildly different daily standing charge rates.

[modeller]

so called said:

Just discovered this thread as I've decided to buy an i3.
The car I'm looking at is a May 2016 model so has the lower rated battery.

I went to a BMW dealer for some advice but the guy was shockingly disparaging of the i3 and determined to sell me a 3 Series diesel.

I'm concerned that I wont be able to make a 94 mile round trip commute.
Its actually about 88 miles of dual carriageway so sat at around 70mph.
Does this sound realistic?

Any and all advise welcome.

No way in a 64Ah. Just in a 94Ah.
A 94Ah has ~28kWh of capacity, 94miles would need an efficiency of 3.34miles/kWh , which should be doable. You'd need to precondition in winter and perhaps slow down a bit!
Checkout the i3 UK facebook group for loads more advice.

[Jag_NE]

those are pretty phenomenal costs per mile if compared to conventional ICE cars...i have a fairly economical diesel and that must be in the region of a quarter of the cost. if you can charge at work / out and about for free it gets even better. i have a 70 mile round commute, instead of a tank a week at 70-80 quid thats 50-60 quid a week in my pocket. if you have an ICE car for long trips and are happy to be seen in an i3 its bloody attractive.

[covmutley]

I used to commute from Cardiff to Bristol and my fuel cost in my i3 dropped from about £10 (in think?) to £3.

I now work on other side of Cardiff, which has messed up the overall running costs maths somewhat. But I can now charge at work so am typically spending about a fiver a week max to run the i3 sometimes a week of driving is free!

[oop north]

so called said:

Just discovered this thread as I've decided to buy an i3.
The car I'm looking at is a May 2016 model so has the lower rated battery.

I'm concerned that I wont be able to make a 94 mile round trip commute.
Its actually about 88 miles of dual carriageway so sat at around 70mph.
Does this sound realistic?

Any and all advise welcome.

You have no chance of managing that - I have a 64ah rex and do a reasonably regular 77-mile round trip which is around 50 miles motorway and the rest reasonably free flowing minor roads or a roads. In the depths of winter with no heating in eco pro + and going no faster than 60 I still cannot manage it without using a bit of petrol. So your greater mileage with faster speed means no chance! If it’s a rex you could manage though

[so called]

oop north said:

so called said:

Just discovered this thread as I've decided to buy an i3.
The car I'm looking at is a May 2016 model so has the lower rated battery.

I'm concerned that I wont be able to make a 94 mile round trip commute.
Its actually about 88 miles of dual carriageway so sat at around 70mph.
Does this sound realistic?

Any and all advise welcome.

You have no chance of managing that - I have a 64ah rex and do a reasonably regular 77-mile round trip which is around 50 miles motorway and the rest reasonably free flowing minor roads or a roads. In the depths of winter with no heating in eco pro + and going no faster than 60 I still cannot manage it without using a bit of petrol. So your greater mileage with faster speed means no chance! If it’s a rex you could manage though

Thanks for the reply's, it's a lot more clear to me now.
So I'm definitely going to be using some petrol on the rex side of it.
I've been checking out nearby charging points as a potential support as I am now committed to the purchase.
Even with the fuel costs, the money I save compared with any of my current cars is going to be significant.
Tuscan is about £22/day.
Disco about £20/day.
Cerbera about £28/day.

I passed an i3 this morning on the same route sat at around 65mph.
Is there an optimum economy speed on motorways/dual carriageways?

[Pooh]

I am getting a range of around 160 miles in my Zoe and most of my driving is at 60 - 70 mph, if I drove a bit more slowly it would easily do 180 miles, even in the snow at around -5c, I was getting around 120 miles and the heater still worked fine.
I test drove an i3 but the Zoe is a far better car for what I need.
I have done around 10k miles in four moths and it has cost me around £30.00 because I can charge it for free most of the time.