real range of the Rex i3

[kentheteaman]

BMW people have shot themselves in the foot by selecting a smaller battery of 18KW size. It should have been 24KW like the LEAF which would have given at least 80miles per charge.

Hi Ken, thanks for sharing your experiences !

I guess getting higher range results will prove to be a challenge (as with ICE equipped cars btw). Self-control will be extra difficult, 'cause the car is so nice and effortless to drive, as far as we experienced it on our two test-drives.
We also observed, like the previous poster stated, that the projected range is influenced by the cars driving history. Where the privately owned i3 of a friend (BEV) is showing 146 km on a full charge (and climbing as he makes more (sensible) kms), the dealers car (REx, ~3000km) gave us only ~100km on a 80% charge.
.........I hope you are right. For me 60miles range is good enough for my usage. But 100mile range will be comforting.

But still, getting the most out of the 22kWh will be an adventure, to say the least. BTW: please mind that the battery is not 18.8 kWh; where BMW states the usable capacity (85% of 22kWh), Nissan et al. state the hypothetical installed capacity. For the leaf, usable capacity should be ~90% of 24kWh = 21.5kWh AFAIK.
.........Thank you for pointing out the battery size. I was not aware of it.

Thanks for sharing, Steven

PS: nevertheless: more battery capacity would have been a bonus of course ! At around 32kWh BMW could have had a winner on this aspect...

 

[kentheteaman]

Thanks Ken. A quick question, for your 'HOME TO WORK' journey did you set off with 50% charge or was it more ?

Hello Plug,

Yes, it was 50% after 8 hours of charging.
It showed 41miles in electric range.

When I reached work place of 45miles distance it showed still 6miles left in electric range.

Drove at 60miles/hour speed and couple of overtakes at 75miles/hour speed in motor way.

regards,
ken

 

[kentheteaman]

@kentheteaman

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The ranges you're getting do seem lower than I'd expected. Not a problem for me as I'd worked on a real range of 60 miles when calculating whether an EV would work for us. That said, BMW did make a big play of "83 real world miles" so I do wonder if your experience was degraded by the car having recent history of being a maxed out demonstrator.
..........The car has only done 1270miles on demo trips. So it was not a run down one.

I'm more concerned about your report that it took 8 hours to achieve a 50% charge on a three pin socket. That's an irritatingly long time. Need to get the wallbox installation sorted before the car arrives (3 weeks to go!).
...........Yea, it was 8 hours to achieve 50% charge. I will be good idea to sort out the fast charger before i3 arrives.

 

[Stevei3]

Well, Ken,

a tidbit of experience info came in tonight: my friend ran his i3, the BEV that constantly states 140/145km + as range, empty (well, with 2km projected range remaining) in 95 km @ 120 kmh on the motorway (90 km motorway + a little bit of before and after in city traffic). 18.8 kWh/100km according to the car.
Preheated before departure, running in EcoPro mode with heater (setting unknown), without seat heating and aircon, outside quite a strong headwind all the way, 3 degrees centigrade. I know he's not a real frugal driver (he also owns the same car I use as my daily driver; my fuel consumption is consistently +/- 10-20% less than his), but it could be that one has to adjust one's speed a tad... Or fill ip the REx again.

Regards, Steven

PS: the range the car states does not depend on battery wear as much as on the mean energy consumption of the drivers before you. In your own car, the range indicator has to get accustomed to your driving style.

 

[Lecram]

Thats useful info Steven. I drive daily from Barendrecht to Amersfoort, also 90 km highway, 5 km urban. And there are 4 charge point at the companies parking spots. I think that decreasing speed a bit will provide significant more range. It's a matter of rational driving, using regen and active cc as much as possible and also gentle acceleration. Cant wait to experience that!

 

[Plug]

Thanks Ken. A quick question, for your 'HOME TO WORK' journey did you set off with 50% charge or was it more ?

Hello Plug,

Yes, it was 50% after 8 hours of charging.
It showed 41miles in electric range.

When I reached work place of 45miles distance it showed still 6miles left in electric range.

Drove at 60miles/hour speed and couple of overtakes at 75miles/hour speed in motor way.

regards,
ken

Thanks for the confirmation Ken, I wasn't sure if your overnight charge combined with what was left over so you'd actually set off with more than 50% in the battery. Any thoughts as to why there was such a difference between the results of that trip and your first one ?

Trip 1 : 100% initial charge gave 49 miles range @ 65 mph in COMFORT mode
Trip 4 : 50% initial charge gave 51 miles range @ 60mph in COMFORT mode

Another thing your experience seems to show is that the range prediction is way more erratic than the BMW marketing leads us to believe. More ammunition for our US friends who want the SOC% indicator.

 

[BrianStanier]

Maybe the SOC of 50% is wrong? If it were really higher that would fit with the apparently improved mileage and with the strangely long charge time.

 

[kentheteaman]

Well, Ken,

a tidbit of experience info came in tonight: my friend ran his i3, the BEV that constantly states 140/145km + as range, empty (well, with 2km projected range remaining) in 95 km @ 120 kmh on the motorway (90 km motorway + a little bit of before and after in city traffic). 18.8 kWh/100km according to the car.

Preheated before departure, running in EcoPro mode with heater (setting unknown), without seat heating and aircon, outside quite a strong headwind all the way, 3 degrees centigrade.
.............that works out to 59miles @ 74miles/hour speed. That is 10miles more than I got driving in comfort mode with seat heater on. May be Eco Pro mode should be used always in motorways.
regards,
ken

 

[kentheteaman]

Another thing your experience seems to show is that the range prediction is way more erratic than the BMW marketing leads us to believe. More ammunition for our US friends who want the SOC% indicator.

Hello Plug,

What I noticed with range prediction was it kept changing every few minutes depending on my speed. One minute it was around 59miles and very soon that dropped to 30miles or less when I increased my speed. When my speed reduced then the range went up.

I agree that SOC% will be really useful to estimate your own range based on your experience.

regards,
ken

 

[I33t]

I think you are correct Ken.

If range is an issue, better not to burn Kw on extra acceleration, speed and heating, Switching to eco pro would be the way to go. Comfort mode appears to be for short trips well within minimum range.

 

[I33t]

What I noticed with range prediction was it kept changing every few minutes depending on my speed. One minute it was around 59miles and very soon that dropped to 30miles or less when I increased my speed. When my speed reduced then the range went up.

So, immediate range feedback based on driving style and conditions.

If the car had a SOC indicator instead of this, the driver would have to do the arithmetic. How accurate it is remains to be seen over the longer term but it is encouraging that the feedback is fast.

 

[Sranger]

I am glad that I decided not to order the i3 REx. It looks like the extra weight really makes the real world range about 60 miles on a charge... I would have thought a solid 70-80 miles would have been possible... It also looks like the decision of the U.S. REx to kick in at 5% charge is a big mistake. It might indeed cause the power limiting mode more often than I would have thought. It also seem that the Gas milage in REx mode is fairly poor at speeds above 60mph...

I hope other test prove to have a more positive outcome...

 

[Lecram]

I think that it is more relevant to see what the user experiences are after one year from many users. Driving an electrical car demands different drive style as we are used to. As I already said: we are early adopters and we all have to learn how to drive such a car.
BMW has defined the i3 as a city car and driving high speeds consumes a lot of energy.

It's funny to see that Renault ZOE drivers, here in Holland, are competing against each others for having the highest range. We should do that here as well and learn from each other.

If you expect the same way of driving as in a petrol you'd better stay driving a petrol car.

 

[Stevei3]

I think that it is more relevant to see what the user experiences are after one year from many users. Driving an electrical car demands different drive style as we are used to. As I already said: we are early adopters and we all have to learn how to drive such a car.
BMW has defined the i3 as a city car and driving high speeds consumes a lot of energy.

It's funny to see that Renault ZOE drivers, here in Holland, are competing against each others for having the highest range. We should do that here as well and learn from each other.

If you expect the same way of driving as in a petrol you'd better stay driving a petrol car.

Hi Marcel,

couldn't have formulated it better myself

Thanks, Steven

 

[i3me]

What I noticed with range prediction was it kept changing every few minutes depending on my speed. One minute it was around 59miles and very soon that dropped to 30miles or less when I increased my speed. When my speed reduced then the range went up.

So, immediate range feedback based on driving style and conditions.

If the car had a SOC indicator instead of this, the driver would have to do the arithmetic. How accurate it is remains to be seen over the longer term but it is encouraging that the feedback is fast.

My experience up to now with my BEV (1300kms) is that the display immediately behind the steering wheel gives you 2 types of charge info:
- All the way to the right the predicted range is displayed as a number using previous driving, current speed, load, heater use, etc.
- A thin blue bar on the bottom and going left to right represents the SOC. It's divided into 4 sections, each representing 25% SOC and does NOT vary by conditions.

Estimating your SOC on this bar is possible to within 2-3% of an exact figure even while driving.


PS: the SOC can also be checked by checking the i Remote app!

 

[TomMoloughney]

What I noticed with range prediction was it kept changing every few minutes depending on my speed. One minute it was around 59miles and very soon that dropped to 30miles or less when I increased my speed. When my speed reduced then the range went up.

So, immediate range feedback based on driving style and conditions.

If the car had a SOC indicator instead of this, the driver would have to do the arithmetic. How accurate it is remains to be seen over the longer term but it is encouraging that the feedback is fast.

I think you missed the point of the state of charge gauge discussion. Nobody was saying you should have a state of charge gauge instead of the range estimator. What those in favor of it were saying is they want both. The more info the better and for those customers that don't want to use it, fine. They wouldn't be forced to. One observation i gave seen is the majority people who have driven EV'S for a while want an SOC gauge. Yet the majority of people who have not had much EV experience mostly want to rely on the estimated range gauge. That's fine, just have both on the car and let the customer decide which suits them better. That way everyone is happy

 

[I33t]

Hi Tom,

I don't think I was doing anything but responding to a users reaction to the display by pointing out that either option is not ideal and you have to take on board that the range display is taking into account many factors that will be a mathematical challenge for the driver on the road if they were to rely on a SOC, but if you had to have just one, the range estimator is probably better especially for inexperienced drivers.

Thankfully, it sounds like we do have both after reading 13me's post above yours so we should all be happy now