Have an extended test booked - hoping to travel far

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jimmies

Member
Joined
May 5, 2014
Messages
10
I have a test booked for this coming Monday and was hoping to get as much real world use out f it as possible....deplete battery...rex....charge and refuel.

I'm up in N.Yorks and I'm trying to find out if there are actually any rapid DC charging stations that are compatible with the i3 (CCS only right??) My desired test drive is only really going to work if there is access to rapid DC charging. I know we are still early days with the infrastructure but I'm just trying to get a picture of what there is today. The multitude of websites out there are not clear at all

Thanks in advance

Lewis
 
Here are the location of the first CYC CCS chargepoints which are the nearest to you that I know about. You could easily reach any of those from North Yorks without needing to stop for fuel in the REx.

Rear Front Street Car Park Bedlington (NE22 5UD)
Keel Row Car Park Blyth (NE24 1AH)
Station Yard Car Park Ashington (NE63 8AA)
Northumberlandia (NE23 8AU)
Newbiggin Sports Centre (NE64 6HG)
County Hall Morpeth (NE61 2EF)
Greenwell Road Alnwick (NE66 iHB)
Stanley Terrace Morpeth (NE61 1PA)
 
Bedlington is currently marked as down on the CYC site, and some of the others have been reported as intermittent.

You will need a CYC RFID card to operate them, though you may be able to ring CYC on the spot and get access.
 
Plug - sounds a bit optimistic - around 95 miles, largely motorway from, Harrogate to North of Newcastle without needing to charge or use the REx, it'll be even further starting from Leeds if that is the dealer providing the demo car.

Incidentally, does anybody know why there is such a lack of charge points in the Leeds / Harrogate area?
 
RJSATLBA said:
Oops, sorry, just realised I'd misread Plug's post, now realise I think he meant getting that far on combined range of battery and REx.

yep :)
 
Plug said:
Here are the location of the first CYC CCS chargepoints which are the nearest to you that I know about. You could easily reach any of those from North Yorks without needing to stop for fuel in the REx.

Rear Front Street Car Park Bedlington (NE22 5UD)
Keel Row Car Park Blyth (NE24 1AH)
Station Yard Car Park Ashington (NE63 8AA)
Northumberlandia (NE23 8AU)
Newbiggin Sports Centre (NE64 6HG)
County Hall Morpeth (NE61 2EF)
Greenwell Road Alnwick (NE66 iHB)
Stanley Terrace Morpeth (NE61 1PA)


great info - lets hope I never want to go south :lol:
 
RJSATLBA said:
Plug - sounds a bit optimistic - around 95 miles, largely motorway from, Harrogate to North of Newcastle without needing to charge or use the REx, it'll be even further starting from Leeds if that is the dealer providing the demo car.

Incidentally, does anybody know why there is such a lack of charge points in the Leeds / Harrogate area?


As I live in Harrogate this info would be great - yes I'm getting the car from Leeds as the Harrogate showroom doesn't have them
 
Have a good day, I'm envious as I foolishly didn't ask for an extended test and made do with a circuit from Stratstone out to Moortown ring road via Harrogate Rd and back via Scott Hall. Be interested to hear how far you manage to get.
 
I have just taken the car back after having it all day. As there were no DC charging points near me I was un-able to do a full discharge/recharge test......even if there was the car only came with a 3 pin charger!

With this in mind I just took it out for more of a long drive around the Leeds Harrogate York area....not really trying to get best mileage.

When they gave it to me it had 75% charge showing 52 miles range and it had no petrol. When I got home (24 miles) it was showing 23 miles left. I left it to charge for an hour in my garage and it added 3 miles to the 'tank'.

I put £7 of petrol in it as I wanted to test the Rex and went on a drive including town/dual carrage/ A1M. I managed to work out how to put the maintain battery charge feature under button 8 and was able to use this to turn the Rex on and off. During the trip of 20 odd miles on the A1M the i3 was able to keep the charge of the battery consistent whilst travelling at 70/75. If I pushed it alittle the battery charge would drop a couple of percent but dropping the speed back to 70 seemed to bring it back up after a couple of miles. So I would say that just running on the Rex is very usable.

I found the handling very good overall and I absolutely love the acceleration! one thing I did find slightly unexpected was that when the i3 is pushed alittle on undulating tarmac the car gets a little jumpy, especially if going round a corner. Not sure if it is the tyres or the wheel size (or both) but I wasn't expecting it.

Another thing that annoyed me was I couldn't find the option to turn off the bloody traffic announcements ! - I'm positive you can turn it off though :oops:

There is plenty of space in the back, but I wouldn't order the cream carpets! the ones in the car were filthy.

I'm waiting on the finance figures to come from them and if I'm temped I will book another test drive. I'm also looking at a 118d ED

If there were plenty of DC points to enable a 250mile journey, this car would be an almost certainty for me. This car can make financial sense if you do the miles....but to do the miles you need the charging infrastructure
 
One thing I forgot to add is that when just pottering along with the Rex active you cannot really hear it, but if you are giving it a little right foot you can hear it 'popping' away in the back and if you come to a quickish stop after going fairly quickly (a quick dash between lights perhaps) you can really hear it for a second as you are stopping/stopped. It does sound very out of character with the car and I would have it as a negative point. But it would not be a point that would stop me from buying the i3.

It made me push the electric only button I had configured when going through Headingly as all I could hear bouncing of the walls was this popping noise of the engine in the back even with the window closed
 
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