Hengus said:
Thanks. Looking at the state of the Ecotricity Fast Charging network, REX may be needed for some months to come for any long journeys.
I've had my REX since November and have done 5000 miles including lots of UK motorway trips.
It is a great motorway car. I'll always take it in preference to my wife's Range Rover Evoque. The driver assist package is just amazing - I expected to do feet-free motorway driving but feet-free, safe, a-road driving was an unexpected bonus and I seek out motorway jams to experience it steering itself.
Sadly, You can't rely on ecotricity's CCS chargers. The poor guys there must be close to despair sometimes. Their chargers are made by DBT and you'll read lots of comments about them here and elsewhere. When they work, they are great but a half hour charge will only give you 50miles of 70mph driving in our winter temperatures.
Forget the motorway AC chargers - you'll sit in McDonalds squinting at the Bmw app willing the range numbers to increase. A coffee, a Big Mac, 10 emails and a couple of phone calls equals 7 or 8 miles of range. Waiting for the range figure on the BMW app to increase is like watching paint dry!
However, as long as you keep your speed at or below 70mph and switch the REX in at 6-7 miles range (sorry US readers - for us that's just an iDrive click), you can drive all day - the electric range won't drop any further and you'll have all that amazing performance. I have more bladder anxiety than range anxiety! There's a slight sense of directional instability in windy conditions but it never actually deviates off line - it just helps to keep me awake.
Overall, I'm delighted and Scott & Dominic at Dick Lovett, BMW in Bristol have been great.
My number plate is quite cool too...
DC 64AMP.
