Electric Range

[thx1138]

I really want to purchase or lease an I3 and I was hoping some owners could help with my choice. My commute is 32 miles each way for total of 64 miles. I will not be going on any side destinations just back and forth to work and will charge at home each night. I live in Valencia and will commute into Hollywood my speeds will range from 70-35 miles an hour. Will I be pushing the electric limits of this car each day to get to work?
I know by factory settings I will have 17 miles left on the charge .

 

[alohart]

With your climate and usage, you should be able to drive round-trip to work without running low on charge, even with the use of some heat or A/C. Speed is a major factor in range, so if you somehow are cutting it close, you could slow down a bit to extend your range.

I just drove 90 miles with my wife in our BEV including 2 1,000 foot ascents and descents about ⅓ of which was at 60 mph, ⅓ at 50 mph, and ⅓ at 40 mph. I arrived home with only 2 miles of estimated range remaining because the 2 ascents lowered my average miles per kWh to 5.2 (I average 5.6 when driving on mostly flat terrain at speeds less than 60 mph).

 

[MikeS]

Actual range achieved seems to very hugely depending on a variety of factors. I rarely get more than 70 miles from my REX when I do lots of short trips but can get 90 on one single journey.

Best advice is to get a test drive for a few days and check it out on your route with your driving.

 

[psquare]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

My advice would be to ask the dealership for a longer test drive and perform the actual trip in an i3. Make sure you start with a fully charged and preconditioned battery. Also, enter you destinations into the SatNav, as this allows the car system to give you a more detailed calculation of range (based on terrain, climate, traffic).

I did exactly this last year and it showed that an i3 was the perfect commuting solution for us. Our daily round-trip is 35 miles max and our REx usually has 50-52% SOC left by the end of the day when driven in Comfort mode.

Hope this helps.

 

[WoodlandHills]

You should try not to precondition when making a test drive to simulate a worst case situation. You also should run the a/c the whole time as if it was August and it was 108 outside. The last thing you want is to find out that your range is marginal all summer long.......

Or just wait and get a 2016 with the bigger battery. If you can't wait lease a REx.....

 

[thx1138]

Thank you so much for the input .....from what i've read on the forum people are happy and passionate about the i3. I will be going in this weekend for another test drive and will pass along some details. The first time I took the car out it wasn't charged and it was a quick 10 min drive around. Once again thank you for taking the time.

 

[barrychan]

If you use most of your battery each day, you will need L2 charging for sure.
High speed, a/c, heat, uphill, precondition all use up range.
If you can charge while you work even with level one charging you will be ok.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Setting a departure time with preconditioning while on the EVSE maximizes your range and comfort since both the battery is at optimum and the cabin is already comfortable so none of that has to happen on battery power. FWIW, the level 1 EVSE that comes with the car might not have you leave with 100% if you set a departure time since that process can draw more than that EVSE can provide to bring it back up to full. WOrks fine with a typical level 2 (240vac) EVSE.