Guess what Mad_Lad got this time?

ELM327

Deleted User wrote: »

Oh congrats, thought you'd have gone back to ICE ? well done, congrats ! Fabulous car.

Yes I had to get a 3 phase lead but make a slight mistake by getting 16 amp instead of 32 amp, 16 amp will give the full 11 Kw on 3 phase but only 3.5-3.7 Kw on single phase , i.e 16 amps.

Anyway no big deal really. I have a 32 amp single phase lead I got with the car.

This is the cable I got.

https://evcables.co.uk/index.php/3-phase-coiled-charging-cable-green-g2.html

seems to be out of stock now. Black is in stock ?

No he's Dr Phev now, like yourself

DrPhilG

DrPhilG wrote: »

I was on that same site last night.

They have a 3 phase, 32a blue cable, same as the one with the car essentially but 3 phase insewd of single. £189 which isn't too bad.

Could sell the original one, or keep it for my Rolec untethered charger at home.

I'm considering a Zappi tethered upgrade though, depending on the spark price.

Handy to have two cables just in case. I got the 10 meter green curled one but as they say on the site the max usable is about 7 meters. It's heavier than the blue one supplied with the i3 and it doesn't curl back up as easily if stretched out but it is dead handy for when you need the extra length. I can fit the two of them in the frunk.

unkel

DrPhilG wrote: »

Could sell the original one, or keep it for my Rolec untethered charger at home.

Turn your Rolec into a tethered charger by leaving the spare cable permanently attached

That's what I do - it is ever so handy.

mordeith

DrPhilG wrote: »

I was on that same site last night.

They have a 3 phase, 32a blue cable, same as the one with the car essentially but 3 phase insewd of single. £189 which isn't too bad.

Could sell the original one, or keep it for my Rolec untethered charger at home.

I'm considering a Zappi tethered upgrade though, depending on the spark price.

Probably a dumb question but how do you know the difference between 1 and 3 phase? I have the 32a blue cable.

DrPhilG

mordeith wrote: »

Probably a dumb question but how do you know the difference between 1 and 3 phase? I have the 32a blue cable.

This is what mine looks like. Does yours match?

mordeith

Ah so it's the three solid cores. Pretty sure mine (I mean the wife's!) has only the middle one. Must double check when I get home.

DrPhilG

mordeith wrote: »

Ah so it's the three solid cores. Pretty sure mine (I mean the wife's!) has only the middle one. Must double check when I get home.

Those pictures are of a single phase cable.

I've just nabbed a second hand Zoe cable, 3 phase 32a, second hand. 6m too.

Apparently the Zoe cables are quite compact compared to some of the after market 3 phase cables which are very bulky.

mordeith

DrPhilG wrote: »

Those pictures are of a single phase cable.

Thanks. I really should pay more attention to this side of things. Having three phase is probably not a major deal for us anyway as hardly ever use the public network. Will be good to know for curiosity.

DrPhilG

mordeith wrote: »

Thanks. I really should pay more attention to this side of things. Having three phase is probably not a major deal for us anyway as hardly ever use the public network. Will be good to know for curiosity.

I do use it a fair bit these days. I go to the cinema usually once a week and can charge there. Also if I'm up the town there is a slow charger handy.

Might as well make the most of them until costs come in for them in 2020!

dashoonage

Sorry to hijack the thread. But google has so many different answers

What a realistic range of an i3 94ah with REX then ?

Patser

dashoonage wrote: »

Sorry to hijack the thread. But google has so many different answers

What a realistic range of an i3 94ah with REX then ?

That's a complicated question - but to give you a simple answer about 140km on pure electric, about 100km extra with Rex.

Now comes the complications-

Are you driving foot to floor on lovely empty motorways -20% range roughly
Is it freezing cold outside -10% approx
Did you have car plugged in and preheated before you left back to normal range, and toasty warm
Are you commuting in Dublin rush hour traffic and a mild summer day +20%
Do you not really care about acceleration and are happy to drive in eco plus mode with speed and aircon limited +20%

Good thing is the sat nav will show your range, at current usage and adapt as you change settings and style of driving.

DrPhilG

I charged overnight and so far today have driven 117km using 61% of the battery. Its between 6 and 10 degrees, I live on a hill top, 65km of it was on cruise control at 105kmph. The heat has been on automatic and set to 22 degrees. And I'm generally a bit of a speed demon with a heavy boot.

So in winter on hilly ground with a lead foot I'd still get nearly 190km on battery. That's impressive. The GOM suggests another 120km on the REx.

DrPhilG

Ps, I just charged from 39-92% on a fast charger in 24 minutes. So much faster charging than the Leaf. I used to need nearly half an hour from 20-80% in the Leaf and that's a much smaller battery.

mordeith

It certainly depends on driving style. My wife did 54 km today and averaged 15.5kwh per 100km. The day before she cut just under 14kwh.
The last trip I did of 74km I used over 17.3kwh.
120kph zones are a killer! :-)

Patser

Yep, flooring it really drains battery on an exponential rate, especially over 120kmh.found this video (in Dutch I think) where the raced a Leaf, i3 and VW E Up around a track, with foot to floor to see how far they'd actually get per charge. E Up by far the slowest but went furthest, the i3 only managed just below 30km range flat out and Leaf even less (these are all 2014 models pure BEV so no Rex or upgraded batteries)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkU5OjMw0Os

One trick with the i3 is that to make sure and have the battery pre-heated before setting off in cold weather as with all batteries cold will greatly slow down fast charging.

I3 battery heater only kicks in when a depart timer is set along with precondition at least 4 hrs prior to departure.

It heats to 10 Deg C which allows max acceleration and regen but that still does not allow max DC charge rate but by driving the car it will be plenty warm by the time you need a charge.

Battery pre-heat only works when the car is plugged in, so if working all day or out all day and the battery gets cold enough charging will be noticeable slower on DC.

3 phase AC is always good and can charge from 20-90% in about 2 hrs 20 mins, this is the 33 kwh version, not bad.

DrPhilG

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I3 battery heater only kicks in when a depart timer is set along with precondition at least 4 hrs prior to departure.

3 phase AC is always good and can charge from 20-90% in about 2 hrs 20 mins, this is the 33 kwh version, not bad.

Never heard about the 4 hours prior to departure thing.

I have a departure time set for 8am every morning and preconditioning set to on.

As for 3 phase, I've bought a 6m 3 phase cable from Electric Autos. Originally from a Zoe. Good price at €170 second hand.

DrPhilG

DrPhilG wrote: »

Never heard about the 4 hours prior to departure thing.

I have a departure time set for 8am every morning and preconditioning set to on.

As for 3 phase, I've bought a 6m 3 phase cable from Electric Autos. Originally from a Zoe. Good price at €170 second hand.

170 Euro's was a good price, I paid more than that, I'd have to go back to check my email to see exactly.

Yes, depart timer + precondition must be active at least 4 hrs prior to departure but to be honest unless it's very cold charging alone will warm it or the battery heater might only have to be active for a short time and it heats to max 10 Deg C unless charging brings it over that temp, charging at higher rate say 7 kw will help, 11 Kw even more. It's still not sufficient for max charging rate at the fast charger. But BMW engineers obviously knew that it was plenty that by the time you need a fast charger it will be at the temp to allow max charge rate when leaving from 100% and charging at say 50% or lower.

If like me sometimes you don't need to charge every day, I work shift so there are times I won't have to charge for a few days or more and if it's been very cold I will notice a slight reduction in acceleration, I haven't noticed a reduction in regen strength. But it's no problem for me because I'd be mainly doing local driving and don't need max power for tipping around.

If you leave the car a few days and not plugged charging and precondition then the battery can get quite cold and if there's a fast charger near you and you plug in then charging will be a lot slower as is the case with all BEV's. There's no battery yet that I know of that does not suffer in cold, not even fuel cell cars.

I think one day in work the chargers were broken and I went to charge in Naas on the way home and I think I saw 35 Kw being pulled from the charger that's a long way off from 59 Kw I normally see. I did not get battery temp readings.

Most of the time though you'll need to charge on DC after a long trip and you'll most likely leave from 100% charge with precondition set so by the time you reach 160-170 odd Kms it will be plenty warm, I noticed this last year when we went to Galway in December it was pretty damn cold that day and it charged at max rate.

One thing I would not be bothered doing is charging to 100% every night with precondition set just to have the battery warm, that's pointless because leaving it sit long enough will just see it get cold again and unless you depart at that time the car will warm up inside which is a real waste of energy as pre-condition and warming the cars interior can not be set independently.

Even the Ioniq has an electric fan heater that blows warm air into the battery but at what point I do not know , during fast charging ? I could not see how it could warm the battery in the space of a fast charge, most likely it warms it when plugged into AC but I don't know the conditions that allow it to warm the battery.

So charging an i3 is as slow as a 24 Kwh Leaf when the battery would be at the same cold temp. But when warm it charges a lot faster.

The real + with the i3 is you can fast charge it forever and it will never slow down charging like a Leaf and it does have the heater for when it gets very cold.

The 44 Kwh i3 should be available soon if it's not already released in Deutschland. At that point I think I would not require the rex but you never know as the charger situation here is a disgrace, no CCS within 50 Km radius of me. Carlow is still CCS only and it's about 4 Kms from me. We'll see what the ESb do for 2019 , they have plans to expand a high power network, 150 Kw I think. Sooner the batter.

Unfortunately , to the best of my knowledge BMW still refuse to allow more than 50 Kw on DC which is a real shame. If someone knows different please let me know.

I can't see myself in another car other than the i3 for a long time to come, the next one I get will be the 44 Kw S, it's just so much fun. shame they didn't make a 250 hp version.

Rumour also has it that the i3 will continue to evolve after 2021 when previously BMW had said it was ending production so lets hope that's true, it's a great car.

DrPhilG

[Deleted User] wrote: »

170 Euro's was a good price, I paid more than that, I'd have to go back to check my email to see exactly.

In fairness it was second hand, but still a great price for a 6m 3 phase. Best I was getting online was about £280 sterling for a new 3rd party one which is apparently quite chunky too compared to the Zoe one.

DrPhilG

DrPhilG wrote: »

In fairness it was second hand, but still a great price for a 6m 3 phase. Best I was getting online was about £280 sterling for a new 3rd party one which is apparently quite chunky too compared to the Zoe one.

Ah I missed it was 2nd hand, nice.

I just checked, I paid 229 Sterling. Pricey alright but I've made good use of it it's my new way of fast charging, I use AC a lot more than DC. The extra EV range over the 24 Kwh also helps reduce the amount of time I need to charge.

So yeah you got a good deal, I couldn't find 2nd hand ones at the time.

Mine is 10 meters which is convenient.

DrPhilG

Is the 10m 3 phase not huge?

I have a 10m single phase from my Leaf days and that's pretty awkward.

It's a bit large alright but appreciated when I need it. Nowhere near as easy to curl up as the blue single phase lead supplied by BMW.

DrPhilG

I'm hoping that the the 6m Zoe cable will still fit in the front.

DrPhilG

DrPhilG wrote: »

I'm hoping that the the 6m Zoe cable will still fit in the front.

Mine fits in the frunk along with the Blue single phase lead.

DrPhilG

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Mine fits in the frunk along with the Blue single phase lead.

10m and the 5m?

I take it you removed the tyre spray kit?

DrPhilG

DrPhilG wrote: »

10m and the 5m?

I take it you removed the tyre spray kit?

Both fit together, didn't remove anything I will take a pic and upload in an hour or two.

Forgot the pic will take it tomorrow.

Here's a pic of the 3 phase 10 meter AC lead along with the blue single phase lead + Tyre pump + Portable EVSE ( AKA Granny Lead )

ELM327

Why would you carry a 3 phase and single phase cable?

DrPhilG

Lol, we're you good at Tetris as a child?

Impressive. My 6m Zoe cable when it arrives is going to be bigger as its not the curly type (I don't think) but I'll see how it goes. I would like to pack the 10m cable at the bottom, then put the rest on top as the 10m is only for emergencies cause by ICErs