Thanks @Kezo.
I was a bit premature when I said that I was managing to understand everything – that was before I read the Public Charging section ? I’m sure that, like everything, you work it all out and it ends up becoming second nature, but I think that this is the area where those who have yet to make the move to a BEV are most daunted, especially those of an older generation and, of course, those who don’t have any ‘at home’ or ‘at work’ charging options.
Ok, I’ll be a bit more specific. The BMW iX1 has a 64.8kWh battery and can charge at both 11kW (Destination) and 130kW (rapid).
2 scenarios for you. Firstly you’re at home and there’s an on street destination charger just down the road, you can leave it there over night if you need. That charger will be a 7kW charger and will charge the car in a little over 9 hours from empty to full. In reality, because we never let the battery get to 0 miles, it’ll be less than that.
Secondly, you’re going on a long trip, you’ve 400 miles to travel but am in no rush to get there. You’ve chosen the motorways to get where you’re going and stop at a service station just before half way with 5% of your battery remaining. You drive up to a big machine and plug in, flash your credit card to the machine and it’s off. The maximum speed your car will allow is 130kW, so it’s going to rapidly get up to that speed seeing as you’ve got a charger capable of 150kW charging. You go into the services, get a coffee, have a comfort break and get back to the car 30 minutes later, the charger now tells you your battery is at 82% of it’s full charge. It’s still going but you can see the speed on the charger is slowing down slightly, it’s now under 100kW. You’ve enough to get where you plan to stop next, so you disconnect and put everything away. You drive another 150 miles to another service station. Here you arrive at 5% again, plug in and off it all goes. Seeing as the coffee from the last stop is weighing on your mind (and bladder) it’s off for a comfort break and you can have a wonder around those services for a short while. 30 minutes later, you’re good to go again.
I hope that puts a more realistic picture of charging?
For a more realistic picture of what range a car provides try the EV Database https://ev-database.org/uk/ They provide realistic values for just about every EV going. You get 6 different numbers –
1 – Town/City driving in the cold
2 Motorway driving, at a steady 70mph, cold
3 – Combined driving cold. The combined driving is taken in the same way as a combined mph reading we’re all used to.
4 – Town/City mild (think average summer day)
5 – Motorway mild
6 – Combined Mild
To give you a safe comparison BMW quote a WLTP lie of 267 miles for the iX1, EV-Database gives:
1 – 220 miles
2 – 165 Miles
3 – 190 Miles
4 – 335 miles
5 – 210 miles
6 – 260 miles
That means that in the summer driving mainly around town with some A road driving you’ll get that 267 or near enough to matter. It also means in the winter, that’ll drop to 190 miles, less if you go heavy on the Aircon. These numbers, as with just about every quoted figure depends dramatically on how you drive. Drive it like you’ve got a month to live and you’ll be lucky to get 150 miles in summer. Drive it like you’re paying for the charging in blood and you could well see 300 miles but be very bored.
From experience and from comments from other EV drivers, the reality of EV-Database is that for some cars, it’s mean, for others slightly generous but, it’s always a lot more accurate and gives you a hugely better idea of what to expect from your car of choice.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.
Mark