So who's getting an i3?

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Discussion

Caruso

7,422 posts

255 months

Thursday 10th January 2019
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Arguably the Rex makes sense for urban dwellers too who don't have off street parking. Having the petrol option means they wouldn't be entirely reliant on public charging points.

RossP

Original Poster:

2,523 posts

282 months

Thursday 10th January 2019
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REx still available in US. Not in Europe/ UK.

I think it’s a mistake too, even though my REx is demanding I put some fuel in so it can run its maintenance cycle....

uknick

880 posts

183 months

Thursday 10th January 2019
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Caruso said:
Arguably the Rex makes sense for urban dwellers too who don't have off street parking. Having the petrol option means they wouldn't be entirely reliant on public charging points.
Absolutely agree with you. I have REX 60Ah and when I come to replace it in a year or so I'm going to look at one of the last REX 94Ah.

I can charge at home and this copes for most of my trips which are only about 30 miles or so.
But, it's my only vehicle and a couple of times a year we do a 180 mile round trip to the coast and I wouldn't want to have to rely on the current charger network to get me home.

If I have to go only BEV then it won't be an i3 but, probably, Hyundai or Kia if their quoted ranges of say 250 miles are reliable in the real world.

SOL111

627 posts

131 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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toppstuff said:
I think ditching the Rex was a mistake.

I was interested in the i3. I am not anymore. frown
A shame as it's still a great car but know what you mean.

I initially thought I'd go for one of the first 120Ah BEV's but am glad I opted for an outgoing REx. No doubt it's heavier/slightly slower but it's got me out of jail already and has allowed me to make a much longer journey than would've been possible on battery alone. IMHO the 120Ah + REx would've been awesome.

SOL111

627 posts

131 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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REALIST123 said:
JPJPJP said:
Had two new rear tyres fitted to my i3

22153 miles in and down to 2.5mm

£226.08 all in by tyres on the drive
Yes? So......?

Been a slow day then?
Sorry but I found this quite helpful. 22k miles is impressive from such narrow rears so is good to know.

I'll get my coat wink

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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SOL111 said:
REALIST123 said:
JPJPJP said:
Had two new rear tyres fitted to my i3

22153 miles in and down to 2.5mm

£226.08 all in by tyres on the drive
Yes? So......?

Been a slow day then?
Sorry but I found this quite helpful. 22k miles is impressive from such narrow rears so is good to know.

I'll get my coat wink
My rears are pretty much all done, legally speaking after 11k, so well done you! ;-)

caseys

305 posts

167 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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Max_Torque said:
My rears are pretty much all done, legally speaking after 11k, so well done you! ;-)
Do you basically drive it around in Rolling Road mode?

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 11th January 2019
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caseys said:
Max_Torque said:
My rears are pretty much all done, legally speaking after 11k, so well done you! ;-)
Do you basically drive it around in Rolling Road mode?
er, yes......... ;-)

Gad-Westy

14,521 posts

212 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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Sorry, I have no doubt the answer to this is probably buried in this thread already, several times over.

Might get the Mrs another electric car. She had a Leaf for a while and it's sorely missed. I had a quick look at the BMW approved used i3's online. Looks like 16-18k gets you either an earlier REX or the an increased range full EV, newer model. I could probably make a case for either being the way to go for us. Ignoring the day to day school run type stuff, we make occasional journeys around 100 miles each way and occasional journeys that are 200 miles each way.

When we had a Leaf, we never really did either of these journeys in anything other than an ICE. Much as we'd like to, it was too much of PITA.

It strikes me that a newer i3 (pure EV) can probably do 100 miles with ease without stopping. Is that the case? Even at 70mph in winter?

And can I also ask, would an early REX do a 200 mile journey at normal motorway speeds with just one splash and dash stop?

Neither of these journeys are essential in an EV but the more miles that can be done using electricity only, the bigger the toy fund for me so I have a vested interest!

jjwilde

1,904 posts

95 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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Gad-Westy said:
Sorry, I have no doubt the answer to this is probably buried in this thread already, several times over.

Might get the Mrs another electric car. She had a Leaf for a while and it's sorely missed. I had a quick look at the BMW approved used i3's online. Looks like 16-18k gets you either an earlier REX or the an increased range full EV, newer model. I could probably make a case for either being the way to go for us. Ignoring the day to day school run type stuff, we make occasional journeys around 100 miles each way and occasional journeys that are 200 miles each way.

When we had a Leaf, we never really did either of these journeys in anything other than an ICE. Much as we'd like to, it was too much of PITA.

It strikes me that a newer i3 (pure EV) can probably do 100 miles with ease without stopping. Is that the case? Even at 70mph in winter?

And can I also ask, would an early REX do a 200 mile journey at normal motorway speeds with just one splash and dash stop?

Neither of these journeys are essential in an EV but the more miles that can be done using electricity only, the bigger the toy fund for me so I have a vested interest!
You can get the 94 Ah Rex i3 for £287 on PCP I think that's a good deal:

https://www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicle/

The 120 is quite a bit more expensive but yes it should easily do 100 miles, more like 140.

Greg_D

6,542 posts

245 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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a 94ah rex will only get 90-100 miles electric range in the cold. you'd be a bit iffy on electric only.

i'd certainly go for the older rex over the newer BEV. range anxiety disappears completely

Gad-Westy

14,521 posts

212 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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jjwilde said:
You can get the 94 Ah Rex i3 for £287 on PCP I think that's a good deal:

https://www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicle/

The 120 is quite a bit more expensive but yes it should easily do 100 miles, more like 140.
Cheers. The lease and PCP deals aren't terrible the annual mileages are all way too low to make it worthwhile. I don't mind mind paying quite a bit for an EV if it offsets a big chunk of fuel bills on the other car but probably talking more like 12-15k miles per year.

Gad-Westy

14,521 posts

212 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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Greg_D said:
a 94ah rex will only get 90-100 miles electric range in the cold. you'd be a bit iffy on electric only.

i'd certainly go for the older rex over the newer BEV. range anxiety disappears completely
Rex does have some appeal. How would one do on a 200mile motorway journey? 1 stop for fuel or more? Can't really be bothered with planned public charger stops.

dbryder

97 posts

137 months

Monday 14th January 2019
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I’ve done 250 mile journeys in my 60 Rex a few times, mine has no CCS as 95% of my journeys are <20 miles so no fast charging, not that I’d want to rely on it anyway.

Start with full charge, drive to 75% then REX for 80 miles.
Fill up, £12 at motorway price, drive another 80 miles and fill up again, do the rest on either REX or Electric depending on if you want to keep the charge high (if you have no destination charging)

I do use V-Power, it seems to get me @5miles more out of the tank than normal which might not sound like much but it can be handy.

I’ve managed to hypermile @150 miles out of mine on a warm day following a truck, but I don’t have the patience for that so @130 miles is more realistic.

I don’t like leaving the REX to come on at 5% as if the engine doesn’t work (I had a faulty injector) you have only a couple of miles of range at that point.

/D

Edited by dbryder on Tuesday 15th January 00:02


Edited by dbryder on Tuesday 15th January 00:03

covmutley

3,012 posts

189 months

Tuesday 15th January 2019
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Gad-Westy said:
How would one do on a 200mile motorway journey? 1 stop for fuel or more? Can't really be bothered with planned public charger stops.
I do this journey quite often for work. Assuming i start with both fuel and battery full I drive for hour or so (60 miles) then stop at services and charge but only for the length of time it takes me to have wee, coffee and check emails. Usually about 20 mins adds 40 miles range roughly. May do the same on way back, or just do a fuel stop.

It's easy. I tend to keep the battery above 30% and use rex and then when I have enough range to finish journey, I drain the battery right down. I have programmed one of the hot keys to turn rex on , so it is just a one button press. Simple.

Gad-Westy

14,521 posts

212 months

Tuesday 15th January 2019
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covmutley said:
Gad-Westy said:
How would one do on a 200mile motorway journey? 1 stop for fuel or more? Can't really be bothered with planned public charger stops.
I do this journey quite often for work. Assuming i start with both fuel and battery full I drive for hour or so (60 miles) then stop at services and charge but only for the length of time it takes me to have wee, coffee and check emails. Usually about 20 mins adds 40 miles range roughly. May do the same on way back, or just do a fuel stop.

It's easy. I tend to keep the battery above 30% and use rex and then when I have enough range to finish journey, I drain the battery right down. I have programmed one of the hot keys to turn rex on , so it is just a one button press. Simple.
It's a couple of years since I last used the charging network but the motorway service ones were really hit and miss at the time. Wetherby services on the A1 would be our stop at 70 miles (ish) but last time I was there, there were two chargers and a queue waiting for them. I just don't want to have to factor a stop like that into a long journey unless things have improved somewhat.

Not a deal breaker though, this would be wife's car for door to door stuff most of the time. I just want to see what else it might be used for so I can have a better understanding of costs and savings.

BigBen

11,610 posts

229 months

Tuesday 15th January 2019
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covmutley said:
I have programmed one of the hot keys to turn rex on , so it is just a one button press. Simple.
More on this please!

IN51GHT

8,777 posts

209 months

Wednesday 16th January 2019
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Looking at swapping from a 40kwh LEAF to a new i3 120AH, I just find the LEAF dull....and there are some cracking BCH rates on the i3.

Luke.

10,946 posts

249 months

Wednesday 16th January 2019
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IN51GHT said:
Looking at swapping from a 40kwh LEAF to a new i3 120AH, I just find the LEAF dull....and there are some cracking BCH rates on the i3.
What sort of rates are we talking? Loved our i3 and would love to jump into another if the deal was right.

IN51GHT

8,777 posts

209 months

Wednesday 16th January 2019
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Luke. said:
IN51GHT said:
Looking at swapping from a 40kwh LEAF to a new i3 120AH, I just find the LEAF dull....and there are some cracking BCH rates on the i3.
What sort of rates are we talking? Loved our i3 and would love to jump into another if the deal was right.
6 months down, 25k miles per year over 4 years, £355ish