UK Trip Reports

[Chris]

Two weeks ago I had a demonstrator REX for a couple of days, and the chap at the garage said I could go where I pleased. Taking advantage, I charged the car up full and filled the small 9ltr petrol tank and set of for York, a journey of about 175 miles door to door.

Using the A1 motorway and setting the REX to maintain the charge at 75% I set off, booting it in all the right places. She just wanted to go!

By the time I got to York my petrol tank was empty, and the state of battery charge had dropped to 70%.
I filled up with petrol and, proceeded to my destination in York City. I had planned to pick a friend up and demonstrate the i3 on battery only round the streets of York. I left my friend impressed with the cars performance and finish.

I was less heavy footed on my return, putting the car into ECO-PRO+ and driving gently, to see if I could return to my starting point without using any petrol. The Rex engine remained off until the battery charge had dropped to about 15% which was within about 3 miles of my starting point.

I have to say that the whole experience was facinating and has led me to analyse my energy consumption in every way. Watching a battery discharging during the journey back from York, really did make me drive with much more care and planing than the carefree, foot pumping journey to York when I knew I could replace power with the REX engine.

My battery bus is being manufactured in week 6 and being delivered, hopefully, in week 10.

Best regards
Chris

 

[Plug]

I think this is my favourite trip report so far, just because it's similar to journeys I'm going to be doing and it went so well

In Comfort mode you got 87 miles with REx and 30% battery so if they are equal consumption that would equate to a total range of 134 miles ?

For the return, if the distance was 87 miles and REx came on 3 miles short that makes 84 miles in ECO-PRO+ mode for the battery. Not too bad considering it's a REx and the time of year ?

 

[noakey]

Kewl Topic...

I collected a Rex for the evening to be sure my other half liked it and the baby seat etc all worked out.

Collected with 3/4 tank and full charge and reading 72 miles electric range.. It was dark and raining, had the heater set to 19 degrees and radio on, comfort mode..

The gentle 5 mile crawl to the motorway borrowed 7 miles from my range, a quick belt down the slip road (wow) and into 70mph cruise control. Its about 45 miles home from here (40 miles motorway and 5 miles dual and single carriageway), and it was dark and raining alllll the way. About half way back I slipped into Eco mode and was rewarded with a satisfying extra 15 miles range.

i3 felt totally comfortable belting along the motorway through the elements, and keeping a keen eye on the range (determined not to use the rex) arrived home with 12 miles left in the batteries (comfort). The journey is 50 miles total, and with an estimated range of 72 electric miles I should have had 22 miles left, so I guess the lost 10 was due to the dark, wet and cold. (Headlights, wipers and heater).

I charged overnight, pre-conditioned on timer and had 82 miles elec range on comfort for the return journey. It was light, dry and a clear run, except the last 5 miles to the dealer took half hour. Arrival at the dealer with 25 miles elec range left. I should have had 32, so again the lost 7 was probably due to me being a little keener on the peddle and playing with all the buttons and gadgets while in the jams, like how hot I could make the interior, and then how cold, how the heated seats worked, played with the radio, nav and all the buttons I could find.

Its all so kewl. So overall... The range seems to be about 10% less than predicted by the car if you want to have things switched on, but also the car would have been subject to other test drives so would have remembered other peoples habbits too. I think I could rely on a range of 60miles in any conditions.

Next time I try (with my very own i3) I will try for the max in perfect conditions...