Average mi/kWh for 94 Ah i3

[brorob]

Now that the new i3 with the larger battery pack has been on the road for a little while now, I'm curious what some drivers are getting for average miles/kWh. According to the iRemote app the community average is currently 3.9 mi/kWh, which includes both BEV and REx models and both 60 Ah and 94 Ah options. If you enter your average, please include your driving style and whether you have a BEV or REx 94 Ah model.

Below is some information about the most efficient cars for 2017. According to fueleconomy.gov, the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq is more efficient than the i3 BEV. Here is the current top list, based on average MPGe:

1 - 2017 Hyubdai Ioniq @ 136 MPGe
2 - 2016 (& 2017?) BMW i3 BEV w/60 Ah battery pack @ 124 MPGe
3 - 2017 Chevy Bolt @ 119 MPGe
4 - 2017 BMW i3 BEV w/94 Ah battery pack @ 118 MPGe

 

[user 3172]

According to my iRemote App the community average is 3.6 so there's the first problem to solve! Is it country specific or something?

For the record my comparable to that 3.6 is 3.8. I'm mixed driving including 20 mile regular motorway jaunts at about 65mph. Average has dropped since the onslaught of cold weather. I was over 4 earlier in the autumn. But I enjoy the acceleration around urban bits so that won't help one bit.

And it's a Rex 94

 

[pfanning]

4.1, 2017 94a BEV. ~50 mile commute daily, mostly freeway but mostly in traffic. It's been near or below freezing for the last couple of weeks, there's a slight reduction in range.

 

[mattyp]

New member here. I'm doing some research on the i3 before I buy my next vehicle and I'm very interested in this metric, miles/kWh. That is the true test of what EV's can do. I've currently got 2 Ford Cmaxes, one a standard hybrid and the other a plug-in. That car comes with an EPA estimated EV range of 19 miles yet I routinely average 23-25 miles. My lifetime average with the Cmax Energi is 4.6miles/kWh.

I'm a little shocked to see an i3 that weighs so much less with a better aerodynamic shape achieve less range. My next car will need to help me commute 70 miles a day (mostly highway @ 65mph) so I'm going to need something that offers at least 90 miles of EV range.

Will the previous i3's handle that sort of distance or am I going to have to choose a REx or 94AH car for this?

 

[alohart]

I'm a little shocked to see an i3 that weighs so much less with a better aerodynamic shape achieve less range. My next car will need to help me commute 70 miles a day (mostly highway @ 65mph) so I'm going to need something that offers at least 90 miles of EV range.

The i3 BEV's 0.29 Cd might not be much better than your CMax. The i3 was not designed to be a highway cruiser.

My lifetime efficiency in our 2014 i3 BEV is 5.5 mi/kWh, but that's driving in Honolulu's EV-ideal conditions: moderate speeds and moderate temperatures that never require heat and frequently don't require A/C. I almost always drive under the control of adaptive cruise control (ACC), so I rarely accelerate rapidly and will disengage ACC and begin decelerating gently if I see slower traffic beyond the ACC range. Those driving at higher speeds, in more extreme weather conditions, or who are addicted to the i3's instant torque would almost certainly use more energy per mile. Based on how efficiently you seem to drive your CMax, you could probably average more than 5 mi/kWh in an i3 BEV.

Will the previous i3's handle that sort of distance or am I going to have to choose a REx or 94AH car for this?

If you can find a good deal on a 94Ah BEV, that would be ideal. You could be pushing the range of a 60Ah BEV at times under less ideal driving conditions. If you don't often need to drive farther than your commute, I would avoid a REx which adds complexity, weight, and has been considerably less reliable that the BEV.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The power/weight ratio on the i3 makes it too much fun for many people to achieve super mi/Kwhr values. At least based on the BMW iRemote app, the community average is 4.1. But, because heating can become a significant portion of your energy usage, not only how you drive, but the length of your drive and the weather will potentially make huge differences in your efficiency. Worst case...lots of short trips in super cold weather and you like the cabin toasty. Multiple chances of the cabin cooling off to ambient before starting all over again. The BEV is potentially better at heating than the REx, because (depending on market), it comes standard with a heat pump verses having to use resistive heating (all REx, only have resistive heating). A single, longer trip is easier, but the battery capacity still takes a hit if it's cold. FWIW, BMW has said that using the a/c above 25mph is more efficient than driving with the windows open.

 

[nitramluap]

We have two 2017 BEVs each with about 1000km on the odometer. Our consumption is 13.5 kWh/100km, which is below the community average.

This is 80% motorway driving (100km/h) in Australian summer conditions (30 degrees C) in COMFORT mode with the AC on 22 degrees & driving carefully.

That equates to 4.6 miles/kWh if my maths is correct.

 

[I33t]

Ours is in Australia too.

17,000km+ distance and 13kWh/100km average

 

[cdnji]

From Vancouver, Canada. I've done 2400+km and averaged 19.2/100km. FWIW, I've only driven the i3 using EcoPro on few occassions. I drive it on Comfort almost all the time. Also pre-condition it daily.

 

[jadnashuanh]

When it's cold out, setting a departure time and preconditioning the cabin does save battery power and does extend your range. It's even better if you have access to an EVSE at work so you can do it at both ends of your commute.

 

[dmann]

I live in the interior of British Columbia, Canada and the weather here is colder than Vancouver. We've had a cold winter with temperatures dipping down below -20 degrees C a number of times. I drive our BEV on EcoPro most of the time and park it in our garage (so don't precondition). In the year that we've owned it, we've put on about 11,600 km. Our average consumption, according to the iRemote app, is 16.5 kWh/100 km. Our driving is all city, and we live at a higher elevation than most of the city so we continually drive up and down a significant hill. In fact, our average recuperation is 5.9 kWh/100 km, which is above the community average of 4.0 kWh/100km.

 

[gururise]

I average 4.3mi/KWh on my 2015 REX; however, I think the calculations the car is doing may be off. It doesn't seem to take into consideration "recooperation" or regen in the usage calculations. The iDrive screen has a separate section for showing how much energy was regenerated and while driving, I notice while driving downhill the recooperation values can be really high even though my usage values are low. Driving downhill, I know I probably got a very good mi/KWh average, but that doesn't seem to be calculated properly.

Could it be BMW separated the usage and regen calculations and does not take into consideration the regenerated energy when calculating usage like most other manufacturers do? If thats the case, it would make sense for your "usage" figures to be lower than other cars.

 

[Gocat]

BMW i3 94amp/hr REX

My all trips average is 15kWh/100km I do long journeys of 125 mile twice a week and then journeys of 22 mile I drive at 58-68 mph sometime I will shadow lorries to extend my range .