My thinking about EV options given my range requirements

[Houdini]

I've been exhaustively researching for a few weeks and am pretty keen on an i3, here's my thinking and conclusions to date:

My work commute is ~70 kms so on a normal day I'd stay electric but 3 days a week approx I have a detour or two. At least two days a week I return home only to go out again 20-40 minutes later for another 30-40 km round trip. Today I did some extra stuff (kid drop off and pickups) and I ended the day having done 101.5 kms. I don't want to have to drive with the climate control off just to try to get home. AC not a biggie but the heater is required - this morning it was 5 degrees and it's only Autumn.

Chevy/Holden Volt - only 80 km's electric range and then onto petrol/gas. Price $50,000 approx. Perhaps up to half my week I'd get into the petrol for 20 ish km's.
Nissan Leaf - Gen 1 gets maybe 140 kms range, maybe less when you use the heater, so would do the distance but we only get the Gen 1 here and it's a couple of year old technology. Bit of a jump to the Gen 2 Leaf in technology but it's doubtful we'll even get them here as they're still trying to clear stock. Price $39,990.
i-MiEV - 100 kms range max, really expensive, really basic - not good value for money. Price $30,000 to $50,000.
BMW i3 BEV - should be good for 140 kms pretty solid by my reading. Price $60,000 estimate for a base one which here should come with quite a few things that are options overseas (we tend to get a pretty good base spec for import cars).

So the i3 looks like it will do everything I need an EV to do if it just gets released this year :?: which is still to be confirmed.

Plus it has the heat pump option which means I can run the heater in winter and not worry too much about sucking the range out of the battery.

 

[cab]

My commute is about 62 km round trip...I am only considering the rex version. As an aside, I am 85% on battery in my Volt over the last 19k plus miles. There are just too many unplanned trips and the non rex doesn't appear to give me enough buffer over my commute miles.

 

[Houdini]

My commute is about 62 km round trip...I am only considering the rex version. As an aside, I am 85% on battery in my Volt over the last 19k plus miles. There are just too many unplanned trips and the non rex doesn't appear to give me enough buffer over my commute miles.

Interesting. The BEV i3 will give you maybe 120 km's solid in comfort mode so you'd kinda have double your standard available. Would your unplanned stuff often take you over the 120-140 mark? I'm interested because I too have the unplanned stuff come up which I thought was longer than it actually turned out to be. I recorded the km's for a couple of these and the works was 110 and the average (well only for 2 or 3 trips) at the end of the day was about 100km. This is now giving me confidence that'll I'll be able to handle the unexpected when they come up. Also because this is a second car we have the diesel car for the interstate trips or any of the longer stuff.

Would this be your only car?

 

[ecoangel]

"The BEV i3 will give you maybe 120 km's solid in comfort mode " - you'll be driving very slowly to get that in winter.

Budget more like 100km in eco pro with just seat heating on for colder days.

I would suggest REX unless you only drive in city below 70km/h

 

[Houdini]

"The BEV i3 will give you maybe 120 km's solid in comfort mode " - you'll be driving very slowly to get that in winter.

Budget more like 100km in eco pro with just seat heating on for colder days.

I would suggest REX unless you only drive in city below 70km/h

I disagree. According to this thread - http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=724&p=5636&hilit=average+range#p5636

People are getting those sorts of ranges no problems:

My average commute efficiency is 15,1 kWh/100 km...
Right know i have 122 km range in comfort mode.

And it's kinda 42-44 degrees (6 degrees c) over there at the moment.

and also:

energyconsumption average 18,5 kwh/100km, but still dropping.
expect to stabilize at 15-16 kwh/100 km, which gives a 130-140 km range.
bev model, Netherlands. Usage: combination of city and highway driving (@130 km/h)

 

[ecoangel]

No problem with disagreement but please consider how to achieve 15.1kwh/100km - if you drive at an AVERAGE of 60km/h in UK rush hour stop start traffic on B roads and dual carriageways with 5 deg C expect more like 18kwh/100km.

Appreciate Auz is on average a lot warmer but this is 24h experience on same route with both BEV and REX with new batteries not after 30,000km.

See:

http://bmwi3.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/an-aerospace-engineer-from-uk-compares.html


Best rgds

 

[Houdini]

No problem with disagreement but please consider how to achieve 15.1kwh/100km - if you drive at an AVERAGE of 60km/h in UK rush hour stop start traffic on B roads and dual carriageways with 5 deg C expect more like 18kwh/100km.

Appreciate Auz is on average a lot warmer but this is 24h experience on same route with both BEV and REX with new batteries not after 30,000km.

See:

http://bmwi3.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/an-aerospace-engineer-from-uk-compares.html


Best rgds

Yes good points. As the batteries suffer the inevitable degradation we will see range drop off. I'll be interested as more people drive more km's in them to see how many km's and kwh/100km they can average while doing the daily commutes. i assume people will get more used to their cars and drive them more efficiently. I love the pure concept of the BEV but it's going to hurt year three of ownership if the consistent range is down to 80kms. Rex might be the way to go after all.