[hollpe]

[just trying to resolve the issue with the images I've tried to attach!]

This weekend we headed up to Dumfries & Galloway for a short break. Door to door it's 200 miles. The iX3 is my first EV and I've had 5 Series Tourings for the past 6 years or so.

It's bit of a long read but hopefully this write up is useful for some folks

The car was fully loaded with all the luggage for a weekend of walking and:

1 x wife
1 x me!
2 x kids (9 & 11)
2 x Rough Collies (They weigh about 20kg & 26kg)

I was going to use the roofbox but we managed without as I wanted to get some sort of bench mark of range without it.

The boot liner is an E83 BMW Boot liner that fits the iX3 pretty well. Glad I didn't chuck it out now! In terms of a boot mat I bought one off ebay that is an excellent fit and really good quality. A link to it is here:

The dog cage is the same one I used in the G31. It was custom made and has a sloping back to maximise the boot space. It fits the iX3 really well. There is more room at the side but less room in front of the cage that the 5 series.

Again, if anyone is interested the cage (https://arrows-uk.com) measurements are below:



The car was charged to about 96% when we set off, showing a range of 211 miles. Climate control was set to 22%, the wife had the heated seat on and the outside temperate was around 8 degrees.

We stopped at Appleby Manor (121 miles) for a quick charge (BP Pulse). At this point we had averaged 2.7kWh. Most of the journey had been on the M1 & A66 with the cruise / driving assistant etc set to about 75mph. The car was showing approx 59 miles left. The charging stop added about 16kWh and the range was showing 102 miles and we had about 80 miles left to do. The whole process with the BMW charging card was really slick and worked very well.

Arriving at our destination there was 23 miles left on the range.

I used the granny charger at the holiday cottage with the 10m Tough Leads extension, this worked well, but at 10amps pretty slow, still fast enough to get a full charge ready for the drive home. The underfloor storage in the boot is just big enough for the BMW type 2, BMW granny charger and 10m tough leads extension cables!

The return journey was pretty much the same but stopped at Scotch Corner for a quick 10 minute charge using the GRIDSERVE charger. This was not the same experience as the BP Pulse! It took ages to connect to the car, then failed to charge. In the end I waited until the iPace next to me had finished and used the other connector, which worked fine. The interface in the GRIDSERVE chargers isn't as intuitive as the BP Pulse one, and more expensive (they don't partner with BMW charging) so I will avoid in the future, unless it's an emergency!

The return journey was the same 2.7kWh average, with similar speeds but during the daytime this time.

So to sum up the whole trip!

Facts & Figures (mostly in B Mode & Eco Pro and occasionally Comfort)
- 2.7kWh average for a 400 mile fully loaded trip in temperatures around 6-8 degrees
- Real world range around 186 miles
- Estimated range in these conditions with a roof box is 130-140 miles

Pros
- The car is fantastic! Smooth, quiet, plenty quick enough. Quality is superb.
- Space (there is more room in the front and rear than the G31. Leg & head space as well as width)
- The driving assistant worked really well for the most part. It takes a bit to trust it (I've not had it before) and it seems to favour being over to the left more than I would like.
- It handles brilliantly for a large car and the suspension is very compliant even on the some of the rougher roads in Scotland we were on
- The range predication was pretty accurate
- Rapid charging is quick enough
- The seats are excellent. I normally have lumbar support for my back, but I don't have it this time around. My back has been fine and there is a plenty of lower back support.
- Overall I love this car and am glad I made the jump into a BMW flavoured EV

Cons
- Real world range was a little less than I expected, but more than adequate.
- I suspect the roof box would knock the range down to somewhere between 130 to 140 miles if the 30% range reduction is accurate I'm going to try this on a future trip and I'll report back
- The granny charger cables are a bit hefty and a faff, but do their job well enough.

One thing someone said to me that has stuck in my mind (to help the range anxiety) is to stop at the charging point that is the one before the one you think you will need! I've been using Zap-Map which works really well. One of the really useful features is the real time availability of a charging point that you can browse before setting off and then comparing it to the chargers the built-in nav selects.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I hope it's helpful. I had some questions about space, fully loaded range etc when I first got mine so hopefully I've helped answer some of those for anyone who is doing some research in the future.

Cheers

[ggla]

Nice write up. Thanks.

How long did you charge for on the go?
What’s the extension for the granny charger, I thought I read not to use them in the instructions?

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by ggla

Nice write up. Thanks.

How long did you charge for on the go?
What’s the extension for the granny charger, I thought I read not to use them in the instructions?

After doing a fair bit of research on the EV forums this one comes highly recommended:

https://toughleads.co.uk/collections...19514035994712

It worked really well at 10amps and the socket, lead or plug didn't even get warm. I got the one with the inline RCD.

[EVFan]

Thanks for sharing that.
I don't expect to make many long trips as loaded as you were but it is good to see what to expect in a scenario such as this.

[jukkha156]

Originally Posted by hollpe

[just trying to resolve the issue with the images I've tried to attach!]

This weekend we headed up to Dumfries & Galloway for a short break. Door to door it's 200 miles. The iX3 is my first EV and I've had 5 Series Tourings for the past 6 years or so.

It's bit of a long read but hopefully this write up is useful for some folks

The car was fully loaded with all the luggage for a weekend of walking and:

1 x wife
1 x me!
2 x kids (9 & 11)
2 x Rough Collies (They weigh about 20kg & 26kg)

I was going to use the roofbox but we managed without as I wanted to get some sort of bench mark of range without it.

The boot liner is an E83 BMW Boot liner that fits the iX3 pretty well. Glad I didn't chuck it out now! In terms of a boot mat I bought one off ebay that is an excellent fit and really good quality. A link to it is here:

The dog cage is the same one I used in the G31. It was custom made and has a sloping back to maximise the boot space. It fits the iX3 really well. There is more room at the side but less room in front of the cage that the 5 series.

Again, if anyone is interested the cage (https://arrows-uk.com) measurements are below:



The car was charged to about 96% when we set off, showing a range of 211 miles. Climate control was set to 22%, the wife had the heated seat on and the outside temperate was around 8 degrees.

We stopped at Appleby Manor (121 miles) for a quick charge (BP Pulse). At this point we had averaged 2.7kWh. Most of the journey had been on the M1 & A66 with the cruise / driving assistant etc set to about 75mph. The car was showing approx 59 miles left. The charging stop added about 16kWh and the range was showing 102 miles and we had about 80 miles left to do. The whole process with the BMW charging card was really slick and worked very well.

Arriving at our destination there was 23 miles left on the range.

I used the granny charger at the holiday cottage with the 10m Tough Leads extension, this worked well, but at 10amps pretty slow, still fast enough to get a full charge ready for the drive home. The underfloor storage in the boot is just big enough for the BMW type 2, BMW granny charger and 10m tough leads extension cables!

The return journey was pretty much the same but stopped at Scotch Corner for a quick 10 minute charge using the GRIDSERVE charger. This was not the same experience as the BP Pulse! It took ages to connect to the car, then failed to charge. In the end I waited until the iPace next to me had finished and used the other connector, which worked fine. The interface in the GRIDSERVE chargers isn't as intuitive as the BP Pulse one, and more expensive (they don't partner with BMW charging) so I will avoid in the future, unless it's an emergency!

The return journey was the same 2.7kWh average, with similar speeds but during the daytime this time.

So to sum up the whole trip!

Facts & Figures (mostly in Eco Pro and occasionally Comfort)
- 2.7kWh average for a 400 mile fully loaded trip in temperatures around 6-8 degrees
- Real world range around 186 miles
- Estimated range in these conditions with a roof box is 130-140 miles

Pros
- The car is fantastic! Smooth, quiet, plenty quick enough. Quality is superb.
- Space (there is more room in the front and rear than the G31. Leg & head space as well as width)
- The driving assistant worked really well for the most part. It takes a bit to trust it (I've not had it before) and it seems to favour being over to the left more than I would like.
- It handles brilliantly for a large car and the suspension is very compliant even on the some of the rougher roads in Scotland we were on
- The range predication was pretty accurate
- Rapid charging is quick enough
- The seats are excellent. I normally have lumbar support for my back, but I don't have it this time around. My back has been fine and there is a plenty of lower back support.
- Overall I love this car and am glad I made the jump into a BMW flavoured EV

Cons
- Real world range was a little less than I expected, but more than adequate.
- I suspect the roof box would knock the range down to somewhere between 130 to 140 miles if the 30% range reduction is accurate I'm going to try this on a future trip and I'll report back
- The granny charger cables are a bit hefty and a faff, but do their job well enough.
- I've had to re-programme my brain to after years of driving diesels which had a range of 650-700 miles!
- As others have said the BMW Nav isn't exactly optimised for the EV world in terms of route planning with auto charge point selection. I've been using Zap-Map which works really well. One of the really useful features is the real time availability of a charging point. It's shame BMW don't have this built in.

One thing someone said to me that has stuck in my mind (to help the range anxiety) is to stop at the charging point that is the one before the one you think you will need!

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I hope it's helpful. I had some questions about space, fully loaded range etc when I first got mine so hopefully I've helped answer some of those for anyone who is doing some research in the future.

Cheers

Wow, what a fantastic report, really great to read a real life experience with the car like this. Your pups look great too Any more pics of car please

thanks again

[supersebbo]

Thanks for this.

I got 220 miles real-world with 2 passengers and no luggage, it's good to know what to expect fully laden!

[keninuk]

Thank you hollpe for your time and effort.

That was a really good post and something in there for everyone I think, especially someone like myself who is awaiting delivery.

One thing I picked up on was that you could get both BMW leads and your extension lead packed away under the floor which will likely be how I will travel day to day.

I believe there is a '2VC Tyre Repair Kit' included as standard so assuming you have this, is this also under your floor with the cables or do you store it somewhere else?

Thanks in advance.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by jukkha156

Wow, what a fantastic report, really great to read a real life experience with the car like this. Your pups look great too Any more pics of car please

thanks again

Cheers. Here are some before and after pics from this weekends travels! The Carbon Black is going to be a bit of a labour of love, but does look great when it's clean!

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by keninuk

Thank you hollpe for your time and effort.

That was a really good post and something in there for everyone I think, especially someone like myself who is awaiting delivery.

One thing I picked up on was that you could get both BMW leads and your extension lead packed away under the floor which will likely be how I will travel day to day.

I believe there is a '2VC Tyre Repair Kit' included as standard so assuming you have this, is this also under your floor with the cables or do you store it somewhere else?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers Here are a few pics of the cables and how they're stored. The tyre repair kit is in the storage compartment on the left.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by ggla

Nice write up. Thanks.

How long did you charge for on the go?
What’s the extension for the granny charger, I thought I read not to use them in the instructions?

I just realised I hadn't answered your first question. I charged for about 10 minutes on the 50kw charger. Which topped it up enough to arrive at the destination with about 25 miles to spare.

It's also worth mentioning that the aircon was on all the time as well. It's how I normally use my cars as it stops any steaming up etc.

[jukkha156]

Originally Posted by hollpe

Cheers. Here are some before and after pics from this weekends travels! The Carbon Black is going to be a bit of a labour of love, but does look great when it's clean!

Car looks epic. Love the before and after cleaning shots!.

This is going to be be the perfect adventure car.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by jukkha156

Car looks epic. Love the before and after cleaning shots!.

This is going to be be the perfect adventure car.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that there was zero brake dust on the wheels! I used B mode for most of the weekend and hardly ever used the brakes! So my Bilberry wheel cleaner had an easy time of it this morning

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by hollpe

The other thing I forgot to mention was that there was zero brake dust on the wheels! I used B mode for most of the weekend and hardly ever used the brakes! So my Bilberry wheel cleaner had an easy time of it this morning

You have answered what was to be my question, in advance... "B mode". Helps in assessing if an iX3 or i4 will work for me, as a future choice.

BTW, excellent review.

[Mobeam]

Originally Posted by hollpe

I just realised I hadn't answered your first question. I charged for about 10 minutes on the 50kw charger. Which topped it up enough to arrive at the destination with about 25 miles to spare.

It's also worth mentioning that the aircon was on all the time as well. It's how I normally use my cars as it stops any steaming up etc.

Just read your excellent post which was both interesting and very informative.
On behalf of others who have read it thank you. Big cuddles to the collies !!
You have alleviated some of the fears of changing to a EV... from [like you] numerous diesel 500 mile range vehicles.

Just wondered if you could expand your findings in relation to the fitted sat nav charger information en route. Once a route is planned does it [a] provide info as to when and where one should stop [b] type of charger BP Ionity etc and if available before you get there?
Thanks again for any info.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by Mobeam

Just read your excellent post which was both interesting and very informative.
On behalf of others who have read it thank you. Big cuddles to the collies !!
You have alleviated some of the fears of changing to a EV... from [like you] numerous diesel 500 mile range vehicles.

Just wondered if you could expand your findings in relation to the fitted sat nav charger information en route. Once a route is planned does it [a] provide info as to when and where one should stop [b] type of charger BP Ionity etc and if available before you get there?
Thanks again for any info.

Cheers

Good question re the satnav. It does automatically select chargers along the route and does show the status of them to start with (if they are available etc). It didn't give any notifications to say if the charger status had changed. I've got a couple of longer trips next week again, so I'll try it out and report back. I'm going to update my original post as the auto-selection of charging points with the built in nav either wasn't enabled or I'd missed it in my haste to set off on the trip!

Zapmap is very useful though and definitely worth downloading. I use that before I set off to quickly see what chargers are on a given route, their speed etc as the interface is very slick.

[Mobeam]

Hi,

Just to ask if you completed your proposed long journey and if so would be interested in your findings with regard to the sat nav use for charging stations en route such as suggested stops, type/size and availability.

Looks like this subject is gaining interest with both owners and those awaiting after reading other posts.

[Mobeam]

Originally Posted by hollpe

Cheers

Good question re the satnav. It does automatically select chargers along the route and does show the status of them to start with (if they are available etc). It didn't give any notifications to say if the charger status had changed. I've got a couple of longer trips next week again, so I'll try it out and report back. I'm going to update my original post as the auto-selection of charging points with the built in nav either wasn't enabled or I'd missed it in my haste to set off on the trip!

Zapmap is very useful though and definitely worth downloading. I use that before I set off to quickly see what chargers are on a given route, their speed etc as the interface is very slick.

Hi,

Just to ask if you completed your proposed long journey and if so would be interested in your findings with regard to the sat nav use for charging stations en route such as suggested stops, type/size and availability.

Looks like this subject is gaining interest with both owners and those awaiting after reading other posts.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by Mobeam

Hi,

Just to ask if you completed your proposed long journey and if so would be interested in your findings with regard to the sat nav use for charging stations en route such as suggested stops, type/size and availability.

Looks like this subject is gaining interest with both owners and those awaiting after reading other posts.

We're heading off early tomorrow morning which is a 200 mile trip and returning late on Wednesday. I'll report back later in the week

[JAV64]

Hello everyone thought I would post about my long trip yesterday 13th February. I wish I could say the weather was good. Chucking it down all the way down and back. very windy too. At one point we could feel the gusts pushing this 2.2 tonne beast. 4 adults and some luggage in the back. Charged the car at Instavolt (34 kwh.) We had about 40kwh already in and so full battery, showing 198miles.

Sat off Sunday morning along the A1 topped up at Peterborough (24kwh) then at Harlow,(46kwh) this was a very busy charging station luckily not too long to wait. Upon return stopped at Peterborough (20kwh)

Aircon was set 21c and wipers on non stop. Had the adaptive cruise control and steering on and it worked really well apart from a couple of occasions where the amber light came on to take over. the system is incredible. Suspension is superb and the car on new tarmac was incredibly quiet but on other roads you could hear the road noise from the tyres.

Returned back home with 30miles left. Did the maths and the car averaged 2.5kwh. So a real world range at 70mph works out at 185 miles. Better weather would have seen better range and one can see in the summer doing near 200 miles for a similar journey. Overall a superb and comfortable ride.