Maximum electric range

[i3atl]

That's probably the best way to understand and estimate your range. Multiplying by 19 is OK, but I'd recommend multiplying your efficiency by 18 to be on the safe side so you don't come up a little short. The car has 18.8kWhs available when it's brand new, under ideal conditions. I'm measuring ~18.5 kWhs on average available after 10 months ans 21,000 miles of ownership.

Tom, what was shown for usable kWh when the car was new? Most cars I've checked have shown 19.5-19.6 kWh.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The value may change with the ambient temperature...

 

[TomMoloughney]

That's probably the best way to understand and estimate your range. Multiplying by 19 is OK, but I'd recommend multiplying your efficiency by 18 to be on the safe side so you don't come up a little short. The car has 18.8kWhs available when it's brand new, under ideal conditions. I'm measuring ~18.5 kWhs on average available after 10 months ans 21,000 miles of ownership.

Tom, what was shown for usable kWh when the car was new? Most cars I've checked have shown 19.5-19.6 kWh.

I didn't start measuring it until I had the software that displayed the SOC, which was in November. I never saw anything more than 19kWh.

 

[Gonville]

And, the REx version, because it is carrying around what amounts to a fat mother-in-law all of the time in the back, averages slightly less.

That nearly made me reconsider a decision to ditch my 535d for the REX as a second car to our BEV.

Just drove into the city with the 535d and felt like I was in a dinosaur and its the best car I have ever had....until the i3. It's excellent at coasting to save diesel but you really have to focus to not rear end people from the lack of regen braking.

 

[MikeS]

Having recently completed a longer than average journey it was interesting to see the range difference. Currently, most of my journeys are very short city trips with the occasional 15 mile return journey on a motorway and A road. I normal drive with the heating/air con off (because there is not much point in trying to heat the car for a 5 min trip) and get about 70 mile range (temp between 5 and 15 deg C). I find that the GOM and % charge are very accurate for the regular trips. However, this weekend I drove 60 miles each way (got a low level charge at the destination) On this journey according to the GOM and the % charge I would have got nearing 90 miles - still with heating mostly off an outside temp was around 10 deg C- so for a ‘city car’ it seems that the range is a lot better on longer journeys!

 

[BrianStanier]

A steady speed is probably the reason. I find consumption cruising at an indicated 65 generally more efficient than country roads with a maximum of 50 or so averaging only ~30mph because of the continual deceleration and acceleration..

 

[jadnashuanh]

I think a lot of the battery consumption on short trips comes from the repeated conditioning the vehicle performs when you turn it on, especially if you are using comfort mode. It's less consumption to hold the car in that state than it is to repeatedly bring it up to that point. Regeneration is never going to be a efficient in stop and go as being able to run at a steady pace, but the drag goes up in a hyperbolic curve as speed increases - IOW, it is not linear and a little more speed incurs a much bigger energy use penalty.

The last couple of trips, my car was indicating mid-80 mile max range, and based on my actual usage, it probably would have been over 90-miles with the driving I was doing. It has warmed up here the last few days and, I did set a departure time, so that helps as well.

 

[Jeffj]

I agree that warming up the battery each time you drive on a short trip reduces range, but once temps stay above 60 or so, the thermal mass of the battery should make that heating pretty negligible - the battery really won't lose too much heat if its 60 or 70 degrees out.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The battery does have decent thermal mass, but with the large windshield, if you're dealing with cabin conditioning, that, too will create a hit. If you opt to drive with the windows down, the increased drag above 25mph means you're using more energy than if you kept them closed and used the a/c.

But, while EVs have been around for awhile, the percentage of new owners and their learning curve, it will take awhile before most people have a good feel for what to expect from a modern EV. Short answer, you'll go further when it is warm out than when it is frigid, and, like on any vehicle, how and where you drive it will affect your results as it does with an ICE. It's just that you start with a MUCH smaller tank, and it takes longer to fill it up than with an ICE. Understanding those fundamental facts can lead to more realistic expectations.

 

[erikpanda]

That's probably the best way to understand and estimate your range. Multiplying by 19 is OK, but I'd recommend multiplying your efficiency by 18 to be on the safe side so you don't come up a little short. The car has 18.8kWhs available when it's brand new, under ideal conditions. I'm measuring ~18.5 kWhs on average available after 10 months ans 21,000 miles of ownership.

Tom, what was shown for usable kWh when the car was new? Most cars I've checked have shown 19.5-19.6 kWh.

I didn't start measuring it until I had the software that displayed the SOC, which was in November. I never saw anything more than 19kWh.

Just to share my experience on this so far (about 10K miles since last April): I concluded that the BEV should have a max usable capacity of about 19.6 kWh by recalculating actual capacity based on data from the mobile app after doing single stretch trips starting from 100% SOC - i.e. using actual total consumption, actual miles for the trip and remaining SOC% (the SOC% of the app is quite accurate in my experience as I noticed it several times coincided exactly with the indicator in the car when just a full block of 25% was left). I did not keep records but it was during summer that I did get a calculated result of 19.5/19.6 kWh regularly. In (mild European) winter it seems to have gone down to about 19.0 but not much less than that (after pre-heating though).

Erik

 

[noakey]

It's a long time ago but I'm pretty sure that when I first looked at buying an I3 the salesman said the "Official" range was 107 Miles and that translated to around 75 Miles in the "Real World"

My experience after 14,500 miles is range of 60 to 100 miles depending on driving style, pre-conditioning (departure time set), mode and temperature. I would say the average is about 75 miles.

Also note that these are figures for one continuous journey. If you stop for a while, then the battery conditioning eats some range at the start of each journey.

I find using auto-cruise as much as possible also helps. Lucy (yes we have named our i3 Lucy) seems to drive more economically at a given speed than a human.

Enjoy.

 

[ScottinOregon]

I inadvertently did a little testing of battery range last Sunday. It was a beautiful day in western Oregon and we drove to Sauvie Island to walk along the Columbia River with the dogs. The trip was sprung on me by family members so I didn't have a full charge in the battery but felt we could get out there and back to a downtown Portland public charging station in good form. Range fell more than a mile every mile we drove after parking it and letting the batteries cool while we walked and it wasn't looking good for the home team even with the tall buildings of downtown in sight. I figured that in this under-promise so as to appear to over-deliver culture of ours that we'd have more miles than the gauge was showing us, and we did, slightly, but I'm here to report that when the percent of capacity number goes to zero, by golly, you're done.

Pushed it to a McDonalds (hint: don't let your spouse leave it in drive so you're generating electricity as you push it) but couldn't get their laptop charging plugs to work and finally found an outdoor socket at an industrial building nearby (they're rare!) and put a half hour of Level 1 juice in it, which got us the mile and a half to the fast charger out front of the power company HQ (free if you pay the city for on-street parking) where another half hour got us 90%. All was well in the end and we got to walk around some areas of Portland we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. My dad said he did the same thing with his 1959 VW bug which, he claims, didn't have a gas gauge. It had a valve to open when the tank ran out and you got an extra gallon or so, but he never used it and so it was gummed up and he ended pushing it up hills and down to a gas station in Newport. So ... it would seem to run in the family.

I'm the guy who had the tree fall on my REx after 13 months, during which I only put about 5 gallons of gas in the thing, so got a BEV this time and it has definitely upped my excitement level when driving!

 

[i3an]

I suspect that the most recent software upgrade, which appeared to access more of the battery's theoretical capacity and thus obtain greater range, is in fact only being more honest about the meaning of "empty." Before, one could go to zero—and a few miles beyond—but now it looks like this fudge factor is eliminated and empty means empty. Beware!
BTW, I once had one of those early VW bugs, and yes, if I remember rightly there was a foot lever that would access a reserve tank, just enough to limp home. Wouldn't it be nice if, when one's i3 has totally run out of sparks, the being who answers the God button could, on a one-time basis, similarly grant access to the dregs of the battery, just enough to limp home.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Wouldn't it be nice if, when one's i3 has totally run out of sparks, the being who answers the God button could, on a one-time basis, similarly grant access to the dregs of the battery, just enough to limp home.

Might be nice, but who would pay for the decrease in battery life if yours then needed them replaced under warranty?

 

[i3an]

"on a one-time basis" ... I doubt the i3 battery is so delicate that one near-flat (down from, say, 10% to a 5% charge) would cause it irreversible harm.

 

[ScottinOregon]

The "god button" mention reminds me -- at one point I called it and after their obligatory "I'm sorry" told me that they could tow me to a dealership where they would "diagnose my problem Monday morning." Well, I knew my problem! I asked if they could tow me two miles to the power company's chargers and that was negatory. I could have paid $150 myself to do it, but I had a 25 y/o boy with me and all flat streets to the charger, so nixed that. About then said 25 y/o son, in an act of self preservation, found the outlet outside a nearby warehouse that we used to Level 1 it enough to go the two miles.