BMW i3 (and others!) range and driving efficiency?
Discussion
I've had my i3 for just a couple of weeks now, and it's a brilliant little thing! But i'm interested to hear about what sort of range and efficiency people are getting, and especially how that changes with the seasons (ambient temp etc)!
Because an EV is so efficient driving style makes less difference than on a ICE vehicle, although of course for max efficiency you want to avoid any regen and cruise at the min load you can (speed = load, pretty much, as the faster you go the more air you need to push out the way in any given time period)
I'm also interested to know if the consumption figure for the last journey given on the connected drive app, includes the consumption of the auxiliaries?
My last journey was 23.6miles, at 3.1miles/kWh (it was 2deg, dark, raining, and i was in comfort mode, and doing 70mph on a dual carriageway most of the way) which used about 85% of the batteries capacity according to the car. But, 23.6 / 3.1 is just 7.6kWh, which, given a usable battery capacity of around 18kWh (mine is a small battery i3) ought to be about 50% useage. Except, being 2degC during charging and use, the traction battery would have been cold, so perhaps it's useable capacity at 2degC is just 9kWh ?? Alternatively, i used 7.6 kWh to move me the 23.6miles, and another roughly 8kWh to keep me warm, light my way, and probably to condition the traction battery during running????
Interested to see how other peoples figures stack up (for i3's and Teslas/Leaf etc too ;-)
(PS, even at a poor 3.1 miles/kWh, that's still just 2.2 pence/mile (ignoring charging losses) or equivalent to 235mpg if we are just counting "fuel" cost!!)
Because an EV is so efficient driving style makes less difference than on a ICE vehicle, although of course for max efficiency you want to avoid any regen and cruise at the min load you can (speed = load, pretty much, as the faster you go the more air you need to push out the way in any given time period)
I'm also interested to know if the consumption figure for the last journey given on the connected drive app, includes the consumption of the auxiliaries?
My last journey was 23.6miles, at 3.1miles/kWh (it was 2deg, dark, raining, and i was in comfort mode, and doing 70mph on a dual carriageway most of the way) which used about 85% of the batteries capacity according to the car. But, 23.6 / 3.1 is just 7.6kWh, which, given a usable battery capacity of around 18kWh (mine is a small battery i3) ought to be about 50% useage. Except, being 2degC during charging and use, the traction battery would have been cold, so perhaps it's useable capacity at 2degC is just 9kWh ?? Alternatively, i used 7.6 kWh to move me the 23.6miles, and another roughly 8kWh to keep me warm, light my way, and probably to condition the traction battery during running????
Interested to see how other peoples figures stack up (for i3's and Teslas/Leaf etc too ;-)
(PS, even at a poor 3.1 miles/kWh, that's still just 2.2 pence/mile (ignoring charging losses) or equivalent to 235mpg if we are just counting "fuel" cost!!)
ah, no wait, i'm an idiot! (no surprises there eh...)
I'd forgotten that i would have "Keyed off" whilst waiting to pick up my friend at their house the "last journey" data will just be for the return leg, so that makes it not 85% of the battery, but 42.5%! (round trip was 47.2 miles). So overall(round trip) i used 15.2 kWh / 85% SoC, which means the battery is 17.9kWh useable at this temperature. Phew, that makes more sense.......
I'd forgotten that i would have "Keyed off" whilst waiting to pick up my friend at their house the "last journey" data will just be for the return leg, so that makes it not 85% of the battery, but 42.5%! (round trip was 47.2 miles). So overall(round trip) i used 15.2 kWh / 85% SoC, which means the battery is 17.9kWh useable at this temperature. Phew, that makes more sense.......
I think his key point is non-motorway. EVs are incredibly good at this type of driving. Every time you slow down you use regen braking and recoup a bit of energy. If you get good with your forward planning and anticipation you can claw back a decent amount of energy and hence produce high numbers in the miles per kWh stakes.
It's how people manage to best the quoted range on the Chevy volt... with clever use of the L mode or, on the new one, using the little paddle behind the steering wheel to control regen braking.
Of course on the motorway you don't really want the regen and rather you'd want the car to roll further. But constant high speed travel is not the EVs strong suit.
It's how people manage to best the quoted range on the Chevy volt... with clever use of the L mode or, on the new one, using the little paddle behind the steering wheel to control regen braking.
Of course on the motorway you don't really want the regen and rather you'd want the car to roll further. But constant high speed travel is not the EVs strong suit.
Otispunkmeyer said:
I think his key point is non-motorway. EVs are incredibly good at this type of driving. Every time you slow down you use regen braking and recoup a bit of energy. If you get good with your forward planning and anticipation you can claw back a decent amount of energy and hence produce high numbers in the miles per kWh stakes.
It's how people manage to best the quoted range on the Chevy volt... with clever use of the L mode or, on the new one, using the little paddle behind the steering wheel to control regen braking.
Of course on the motorway you don't really want the regen and rather you'd want the car to roll further. But constant high speed travel is not the EVs strong suit.
Agreed. This is why EV's need to be aerodynamically efficient. Shame the I-Pace isn't more slippery like the Model 3It's how people manage to best the quoted range on the Chevy volt... with clever use of the L mode or, on the new one, using the little paddle behind the steering wheel to control regen braking.
Of course on the motorway you don't really want the regen and rather you'd want the car to roll further. But constant high speed travel is not the EVs strong suit.
What's the community average showing in the app in the UK?
Reason for asking is that mine is shown in kWh / 100km. We're getting 16.3 on this measure compared to an average of 15.8 (so a bit worse but not much). We live in the sticks so most of the drives are national speed limit (80km/h) or motorway (110-120 km/ h). Probably 50/50 split between the two in KM terms
Reason for asking is that mine is shown in kWh / 100km. We're getting 16.3 on this measure compared to an average of 15.8 (so a bit worse but not much). We live in the sticks so most of the drives are national speed limit (80km/h) or motorway (110-120 km/ h). Probably 50/50 split between the two in KM terms
I got down to 3.1 Mile/kWhr yesterday...........
but i was chasing a 335i down a B road! I love the fact that even when driving like a chump this car still returns decent economy, especially if you stay off the friction brakes. (although i did get the powertrain over-temp warning light up on the dash ;-)
Which leads me on to my next topic, i3 handling: It's such a pity you can't at least put the DSC in a more relaxed mode, or turn it off like on other BMWs. This car, with it's low CofG, and excellent front/rear weight distribution has a REALLY good natural balance, and makes very good use of it's 135 section tyres! If there was a bit more steering weight, and the on-centre performance was more linear, i'd class the i3 handling as really rather good indeed.
but i was chasing a 335i down a B road! I love the fact that even when driving like a chump this car still returns decent economy, especially if you stay off the friction brakes. (although i did get the powertrain over-temp warning light up on the dash ;-)
Which leads me on to my next topic, i3 handling: It's such a pity you can't at least put the DSC in a more relaxed mode, or turn it off like on other BMWs. This car, with it's low CofG, and excellent front/rear weight distribution has a REALLY good natural balance, and makes very good use of it's 135 section tyres! If there was a bit more steering weight, and the on-centre performance was more linear, i'd class the i3 handling as really rather good indeed.
My motoring is a mix of journeys - generally into Manchester and out which is 77 mile round trip a couple of times a week (usually go motorway at 60mph but in cold weather return eco route which avoids mway) then some v short journeys 2 miles each way for school bus run, but mainly around 6-7 miles each way. In last couple of weeks efficiency is well down - getting less than 3 on any tips less than ten miles
mids said:
Max_Torque said:
It's such a pity you can't at least put the DSC in a more relaxed mode, or turn it off like on other BMWs.
PM incoming ;-)("Rollers" of course refers to "chassis rolls" or what we call a "rolling road" where the drive wheels are driving the rollers which have a dynamometer attached to measure wheel torque, and the other pair of wheels sit statically on a stationary floor. Here, you need to be able to disable the various ABS/DSC systems because otherwise the system assumes you are doing a massive burn out and takes away all the torque or trys to brake the spinning wheels...
For cars where we don't know how to access such a "rollers" mode, we tend to have to take the front ABS sensor signals, duplicate them, and then feed them into the rear ABS sensor inputs, which fools the car into thinking all the wheels are spinning at the same speed.
I would expect regen to still work in Rollers mode however, unless it is a specific "end of line" mode for post production test, and there must be another mode for full "emissions" testing, where of course the regen mapping must be as that used on road to simulate the correct consumption profiles)
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 26th November 12:48
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