All day errands

[E43toi3]

I've heard a lot about commuting and extended range road tripping, but what about all day errands across town? It's typical for me to do 32 mile out and back shopping trips about once a month. How would the Rex handle that? What kinds of things would you care about? What if the car starts out with, say, a half charge?

Thanks guys! My i3 lands in a few weeks and I'm learning so much from this forum.

 

[mindmachine]

I've heard a lot about commuting and extended range road tripping, but what about all day errands across town? It's typical for me to do 32 mile out and back shopping trips about once a month. How would the Rex handle that? What kinds of things would you care about? What if the car starts out with, say, a half charge?

Thanks guys! My i3 lands in a few weeks and I'm learning so much from this forum.

That is really what it was designed for actually. It is a city car primarily in the first place. Actually slower speed stop and go driving yields greater range then high speed interstate driving. When I am driving around town at 35 mph my efficiency actually higher. I have experienced 6 miles/kwh around town vs 4.4 miles/kwh at highway speeds of 55 to 60 mph.

If you knew you were going to make this trip once a month why would you start out with half a charge, it should not be a problem for the Rex but why not top up the battery the night before.

 

[E43toi3]

Ah great to hear. I guess I had a last minute "what's the catch?" moment.

True about the charge. I actually use the car so rarely (1-3 times a week) so it would probably never not be charged.

 

[WoodlandHills]

Your usage pattern is just like ours, initially we were just plugging in when we got to a half charge and that worked fine. The REx came on once or twice on the way home after a busy day with a low starting charge so now we just plug in when we get home. Now it never gets below a half charge in ordinary use and we always have a full tank so to speak should we need it. It's just a habit now to plug in as soon as it gets into the garage.

 

[MikeS]

Actually slower speed stop and go driving yields greater range

Not strictly true. If you do lots of short trips then in many ways it seems worse that a ICE car as I see a lot of ‘lost’ miles when using the car like this - probably owing to heating losses. As mentions previously, I can loose 3% driving from home for less than a mile, stopping for 30 mins and returning!

 

[E43toi3]

Either way - as much as I'd love to go strictly BEV I'm glad the Rex is available - at least until batteries and infrastructure improve. Hopefully by the time my lease runs out so I can eventually ween off of petroleum.

 

[mindmachine]

Actually slower speed stop and go driving yields greater range

Not strictly true. If you do lots of short trips then in many ways it seems worse that a ICE car as I see a lot of ‘lost’ miles when using the car like this - probably owing to heating losses. As mentions previously, I can loose 3% driving from home for less than a mile, stopping for 30 mins and returning!

Maybe you have something else going on there, as my car can sit for days in a cold garage and I do not see any loss or at least enough to measure in even 1 mile of loss. I especially disagree on the ICE comment you made.

I just made a local trip of 1.9 miles in each direction with a 20 minute stop in between, temperatures at 30 deg F and on the first leg I drove 1.9 miles and the trip computer said I got 5.5 miles/kwh efficiency @ 84% with 26 miles range left and on the return I did another 1.9 miles at 5.3 miles/kwh @ 81% efficiency with 24 miles range left. The guess o meter showed 27 miles of range when I left and 24 miles of range remaining when I returned home after driving 3.8 miles. ZERO loss of indicated range!

This is the way my i3 performs all the time on this type of short trip! Now I did not precondition or preheat the cabin either. Just saying.

 

[MikeS]

Mind machine - this just goes to show the disparity we appear to be seeing with our cars and why some of us keep questioning the performance. The % drop I see on short start stop trips seems to be attributed to the cabin heater in part. However, its only set at 17 deg C.

 

[mindmachine]

Mind machine - this just goes to show the disparity we appear to be seeing with our cars and why some of us keep questioning the performance. The % drop I see on short start stop trips seems to be attributed to the cabin heater in part. However, its only set at 17 deg C.

Probably true, if I have a trip like I reported yesterday of only 2 or 3 miles I do not use the cabin heater at all, just the seat heater. The time in the car is so short I figure why bother as I have a coat and gloves on.

Likewise in the ICE car the engine doesn't even warm up in that short time or barely enough to start warming the cabin. In the winter my Prius plug-in gas mileage drops from 52 mpg to around 35 to 40 mpg. Of course if I stay in EV mode the engine doesn't even start unless I ask for heat, until I drive 10 miles and use up my EV range. Again short trips and I use the seat heater, starting the ICE for 2 miles in winter is very bad for engine wear, engine oil and exhaust system.