ID.3 range in real world

[TallTony]

Hi everyone,

Apologies if this has been covered before…

I’m thinking of replacing my wife’s BMW 225xe with a VW ID.3 and her only concern is that every other month she drives 230 miles to see her parents - at motorway speed of 75 miles is that possible with the 58 KWh model that claims a range of 260 miles?

My i3 has a good range till you show it a motorway, is the ID3 the same?

Cheers, Tony

[sjg]

No, not at that speed, and definitely not once it gets cold and/or wet.

The 77kWh one probably would even in the worst conditions.

[xx99xx]

3.5 miles per kWh seems to be a common average. So no, I doubt it's possible without a short stop.

[TallTony]

That's a shame, thanks for replying.

[giveitfish]

No experience with the ID.3, but 230 miles of motorway at a 75mph cruise is pushing it for my Tesla Model 3 Long Range.

Done that distance a few times now, motorway almost door to door and always popped in a 10 minute fast charge to give a safety buffer.

[Stephen-733s2]

Not trolling at all, just asking. Would she drive 230 miles without stopping usually? I would have thought at least one stop for a wee/drink etc. The range should be close enough that even one quick 15 minute stop coupled with a decent charger and you’d more than cover it?

[annodomini2]

https://ev-database.uk/car/1306/Volkswagen-ID3-Pro...

[TallTony]

Stephen-733s2 said:

Not trolling at all, just asking. Would she drive 230 miles without stopping usually? I would have thought at least one stop for a wee/drink etc. The range should be close enough that even one quick 15 minute stop coupled with a decent charger and you’d more than cover it?

Not disagreeing, indeed she will always stop. The concern is availability of chargers at the motorways services, in my experience they are either taken or broken. But being truthful I haven’t tried to use them for maybe 3 years, have things improved?

[bigmowley]

We have had an ID3 since January and have done enough trips in it to get a good feel for the range. I do a regular 180 mile trip which is nearly all motorway. Ours is a middle battery the 62KW size. There is no way you are going to reliably and confidently do a 230 mile trip without one recharge stop. It is just about possible but the stress would be huge. My 180 mile trip starts with a full battery and finishes with about 25 to 30 miles left. That is driving quickly but not silly fast. I find that if I drive as fast as I would normally in an ICE car then the range really drops and I might not make it, on the flip side drop from an indicated 90mph cruise to say 50 mph cruise and the range shoots up dramatically. I do find it’s a lot more of an imposition in the electric car, in my ICE cars I can drive as I please, in my electric car I have to drive sensibly. Which to be honest I find a bit annoying.

More concerning is that it’s been in the VW dealer for 4 weeks now for a software upgrade and I have no sign of when we might get it back

[sjg]

TallTony said:

Not disagreeing, indeed she will always stop. The concern is availability of chargers at the motorways services, in my experience they are either taken or broken. But being truthful I haven’t tried to use them for maybe 3 years, have things improved?

Gridserve have fully taken over the Electric Highway (mostly motorway services) from Ecotricity and the initial wave of unit replacements is in full swing. https://evmap.mazshar.com for current status - it’s using the existing parking bays but new units that take contactless card payment and will charge two cars at once. Later wave will be lots of new high performance chargers much like the new services at Rugby (12x 350kw CCS, many with CHAdeMO, plus 12x Tesla Superchargers).

Loads more good just off motorway options now too - MK Coachway (J14 M1), 8x Instavolt chargers at Banbury (J11 M40), 8x Swarco chargers at J27 M6. Loads more like that coming.

[LordGrover]

bigmowley said:

... I do find it’s a lot more of an imposition in the electric car, in my ICE cars I can drive as I please, in my electric car I have to drive sensibly. Which to be honest I find a bit annoying.

I can see why you may feel that way, but for me it's rather the opposite.
I've recently switched to EV from a 981 Boxster, and very much enjoy the more relaxed and comfortable driving style 'imposed'/encouraged by the platform.

[Martyn76]

TallTony said:

Stephen-733s2 said:

Not trolling at all, just asking. Would she drive 230 miles without stopping usually? I would have thought at least one stop for a wee/drink etc. The range should be close enough that even one quick 15 minute stop coupled with a decent charger and you’d more than cover it?

Not disagreeing, indeed she will always stop. The concern is availability of chargers at the motorways services, in my experience they are either taken or broken. But being truthful I haven’t tried to use them for maybe 3 years, have things improved?

A Better Route Planner (ABRP) is a very good app for electric route planning, if you go on the ABRP website aside from the usual route and charging times needed it will even do a virtual drive of the route you will take, there is an ongoing upgrade of the "Electric Highway" so more and better chargers are coming on line every week/month.

I have also read that Tesla are going to be opening up their supercharger network to other BEVs too.

Edited by Martyn76 on Tuesday 29th June 10:43

[dmsims]

I disagree about ABRP (strongly)

Having just done a trip from Torquay to Chesham (via the 303), 201 miles with 77 left on arrival and planning one to Leeds.

It makes some utterly bonkers decisions taking no account for example numbers of chargers, reliability etc

You can eventually make it make a sensible decison but is far from straightforward!

[sjg]

It's good for getting a rough idea, like comparing how different cars would fare on a particular journey. While they've got loads of data for some cars on consumption and charging at different speeds / weathers, for many they don't so it's a vague guess.

I've seen some weird choices but if you dive into the settings you can usually get it close enough. They recently added a slider so you can aim for fastest overall, or longer/shorter legs.

[dmsims]

So in ABRP on the journey above why does it stop for a charge ? (when clearly even on a fag packet there is no need)

[JonChalk]

dmsims said:

I disagree about ABRP (strongly)

Having just done a trip from Torquay to Chesham (via the 303), 201 miles with 77 left on arrival and planning one to Leeds.

It makes some utterly bonkers decisions taking no account for example numbers of chargers, reliability etc

You can eventually make it make a sensible decison but is far from straightforward!

I appear to be one of the other few people who agree with you on ABRP - it makes some odd decisions at times.

It's useful to check things in advance, and I have found its live charger availability to be pretty good, but it's not without its faults, particularly (for me) ignoring charger preferences (avoid or prefer) and doing it's own thing.

.and to stay on topic, I've got 210 miles out of 58kWh ID.3 on mostly motorway, and the very hilly sections of the M4 in Wales at 75mph (which really hits the economy).

I make a regular 245 mile trip to my parents, and a 20 minute charge each way + overnight granny charging easily copes with 490 miles.

Edited by JonChalk on Tuesday 29th June 17:53

[off_again]

From the reviews that I have seen, the ID3 is pretty good on efficiency at the higher speeds. As previously commented, seems that a few people can do the longer distances, so that’s good. Sounds like it will do it!

Sounds like a broken record, but the Korean stuff is equally efficient and they do get very close to their ranges. That said, range is very dependent on how you drive and the prevailing conditions. If the conditions turn bad, it can reduce the range.

However, as previously commented, a quick 15 minute stop for a coffee and break would be enough to top up the battery and make the range fine. Just a case of adjusting.

[oop north]

I don’t like ABRP either - hopeless for return journeys (which are majority of mine) and told me to use Ecotricity charger which never (until Gridserve upgrades started working) worked on my ipace

[TallTony]

Thanks everyone for the comments, shall be visiting the VW dealership later this week.

Its a little frustrating to hear about the software issues with the ID.3, is this something everyone experiences or just a few (unfortunate) cases?

[dmsims]

I think it's fair to say that 2.1 software is pretty good (and enabled for OTA updates). Not had any issues