CHANGE OF CAR

mjheathcote said:
You guys with the i3, do you have the Rex version, and if so, do you use it?
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We have the REX and we never use it as we hardly go below 50% charge. We get messages to use it for maintenance purposes every few months - you have to run the battery below 75% to be able to switch on the REX. So actually its a bit of a pain as I like to empty the 10L fuel tank every year or so to make sure the fuel doesn't spoil. Also you have to change the oil whether you use it or not. So I'd go for one without unless the battery range is regularly not going to be sufficient.
 
Crazymind said:
I took my wife’s Taycan today and I have to admit it is a nice piece of kit. To drive and to seat in and if driven with a little bit of brain it is also efficient. With my wife driving it… it show 340 miles at 90% charge… however after me driving 20 miles like I stole it immediately went down 280 miles range…
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We are currently touring round Ireland in a Honda S2000 - MrRR is driving (I'm very happy map reading and taking photographs) but he his very happy when he thinks the mpg is 35+ - I am very disappointed thinking 30 or below should be better :cool:
 
mjheathcote said:
You guys with the i3, do you have the Rex version, and if so, do you use it?
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i3S is electric only. It really is for local use but I did a 130 mile airport run at 4am this morning so lights and heated seats on and enjoyed the empty roads but used 80% of the battery so that's about as far as I would go. Nice to spend 3 quid on electricity vs 42 quid in the Range and 50 quid in the Maser. I will take the Maser or Sl to Goodwood Sunday though - some places are not EV appropriate!!

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the beemer i3 reminds me of a smaller version of the Mazda MX30 r-ev we have just bought (tho I do think the Mazda is meaner looking), has those stupid suicide rear doors you can only open if front door is open but given I cannot recall the last time I had anyone in the back seat of a car it made no difference to us. early days, but with the solar panels charging it it has cost zero to run the first week since we only went to inverness once and dingwall 5 times, still has the full 50 ltr petrol we filled it up with.........but that is why we went for it as a daily.
 
highlander said:
the beemer i3 reminds me of a smaller version of the Mazda MX30 r-ev we have just bought (tho I do think the Mazda is meaner looking), has those stupid suicide rear doors you can only open if front door is open but given I cannot recall the last time I had anyone in the back seat of a car it made no difference to us. early days, but with the solar panels charging it it has cost zero to run the first week since we only went to inverness once and dingwall 5 times, still has the full 50 ltr petrol we filled it up with.........but that is why we went for it as a daily.
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The Mazda when it launched I thought 'its a modern i3 Rex', and I guess it is, same 'drivetrain'. What I was disappointed about was the small battery and EV only range, much less than the i3 Rex. For me, smaller fuel tank, and bigger capacity battery, like the full EV version.
But if the EV range fits with your user profile....
Would be interesting to know if you say do a 200 mile run, how efficient the rotary generator is, and, can it "keep up' at motorway speeds?
Edit: looking on the Mazda website its no longer being made and sold as new, however £21k buys a dealer delivery mileage example, thats got to be a good buy!
 
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mjheathcote said:
The Mazda when it launched I thought 'its a modern i3 Rex', and I guess it is, same 'drivetrain'. What I was disappointed about was the small battery and EV only range, much less than the i3 Rex. For me, smaller fuel tank, and bigger capacity battery, like the full EV version.
But if the EV range fits with your user profile....
Would be interesting to know if you say do a 200 mile run, how efficient the rotary generator is, and, can it "keep up' at motorway speeds?
Edit: looking on the Mazda website its no longer being made and sold as new, however £21k buys a dealer delivery mileage example, thats got to be a good buy!
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looked at a few hybrids but tbh just could not find one anywhere near the deal for the Mazda - 8 month old, 2k miles, 3 years service and 1st mot included in what proved to be an unbeatable 19k cost!
we plan to generally use the alpine for longer journeys (Glasgow etc) but in 2 weeks Mrs H visiting her mother in the borders which is a good 6 hours plus drive each way so should get a good idea how well the petrol side holds up from that. will ask her to run it on full recharge mode and then alternate with EV on her way down and drive normal mode with only regeneration on her way back home for a comparison.
 
highlander said:
looked at a few hybrids but tbh just could not find one anywhere near the deal for the Mazda - 8 month old, 2k miles, 3 years service and 1st mot included in what proved to be an unbeatable 19k cost!
we plan to generally use the alpine for longer journeys (Glasgow etc) but in 2 weeks Mrs H visiting her mother in the borders which is a good 6 hours plus drive each way so should get a good idea how well the petrol side holds up from that. will ask her to run it on full recharge mode and then alternate with EV on her way down and drive normal mode with only regeneration on her way back home for a comparison.
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It's comparable to the Mrs audi A3 plug-in, however the Mazda has a better EV range with bigger battery, and higher AC charging at home, the audi is only 2.3kw but fine for the 10kwh battery.
They have improved the latest model with a battery, the same size as your Mazda, but still slow home charging, and of course, more like £40k to buy!
The Mrs will be loosing her audi at end of lease next June '27, as her employer is stopping lease company cars for car allowance instead. The Mazda would be a good, affordable, alternative with that bit better EV range for running around.
 
mjheathcote said:
Would be interesting to know if you say do a 200 mile run, how efficient the rotary generator is, and, can it "keep up' at motorway speeds?
Edit: looking on the Mazda website its no longer being made and sold as new, however £21k buys a dealer delivery mileage example, thats got to be a good buy!
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apologies to OP but just to update @mjheathcote Mrs H arrived at her mothers last night after the 350 mile journey and she still had half a tank so used 25 ltrs which works out at 62mpg using EV and petrol recharge for the journey. nowhere near the 100 mpg plus advertised but never expected to achieve that anyway although real world 62mpg still pretty good imo. it is a different driving style tho, she monitored the recharge ev% till it got to 90% then switched back to full EV for the next 45 miles or so till it reached 10% and switched back to recharge. the little rotary seemed to handle the stretches of motorway fine although she never took it over 75.......not much point really since it only had a top speed of 86 anyway lol
 
I can get mid 50's MPG out of my Renault 4 and people wave and smile at me along the journey too.
A few months ago I proved that she was capable of doing a 1000 kilometers in a day quite easily :)
 
highlander said:
apologies to OP but just to update @mjheathcote Mrs H arrived at her mothers last night after the 350 mile journey and she still had half a tank so used 25 ltrs which works out at 62mpg using EV and petrol recharge for the journey. nowhere near the 100 mpg plus advertised but never expected to achieve that anyway although real world 62mpg still pretty good imo. it is a different driving style tho, she monitored the recharge ev% till it got to 90% then switched back to full EV for the next 45 miles or so till it reached 10% and switched back to recharge. the little rotary seemed to handle the stretches of motorway fine although she never took it over 75.......not much point really since it only had a top speed of 86 anyway lol
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Sounds about right, a bit better than the Mrs hybrid on a long run, which has a smaller battery.
philw696 said:
I can get mid 50's MPG out of my Renault 4 and people wave and smile at me along the journey too.
A few months ago I proved that she was capable of doing a 1000 kilometers in a day quite easily :)
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Big difference is weight, we have made steps forward in efficiency, but at the same time steps back in added weight for safety.
 
I’m now up to 6k miles in my new plug-in hybrid Range Rover, which involved a standard mix of long and short journeys. So far it’s averaged 64mpg, which I’m very pleased with given it’s a big lump of a vehicle.
 
Ewan said:
I’m now up to 6k miles in my new plug-in hybrid Range Rover, which involved a standard mix of long and short journeys. So far it’s averaged 64mpg, which I’m very pleased with given it’s a big lump of a vehicle.
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Plus the battery charging costs of course to acheive the increased economy.
Depending on the type of motoring, it's interesting on the Mrs Hybrid that over 30K miles, the split between EV and ICE running is approx 50:50 on the computer.
So if 64mpg is reported, if the split is the same at 50:50, the actual ICE economy would be half at 32mpg, for 3K miles, the rest of the cost being the charging for the remaining 3K miles.
 
With home charging at night, the cost per mile for EV use is only about 10% of the cost of when I’m running on the petrol engine. Hence always trying to use the EV element fully, before switching to petrol.
 
Ewan said:
With home charging at night, the cost per mile for EV use is only about 10% of the cost of when I’m running on the petrol engine. Hence always trying to use the EV element fully, before switching to petrol.
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and that is the crux of the matter, if you have access to low cost overnight grid prices or even better a "relatively" free solar power/battery set-up for charging a plug in can be the answer in some circumstances for some people. seen a report the other day suggesting that even public charging is now cheaper than petrol per mile given the recent hikes in petrol price, but wont be long till that is hiked too probably. we go to the shops almost every day (we are retired......what else is there to do lol) which is either an 8 or 24 mile round trip estimated at nearly 5000 miles yearly, Mrs H visits her mum twice a year which is 1400 miles yearly, that 1400 miles looks like it will cost 100 litres of petrol.......the 5000 miles shopping "daily outings" should cost us relative to zero petrol given our panel system even in winter produces around 1/4 it does in summer but still averages 6kw more than our house uses daily in winter so should be enough to charge the plug in from the solar batteries every 2-3 days over and above the house use. April to September not a problem, system over generates by about 30kw plus daily on average. being honest, I accept that hybrids are not a long term answer for transport, but for now, for us a hybrid just makes absolute sense if used wisely.
 
Very slow public charging on a EV that has good conversion rates (miles per KWH) may just about match petrol rates. But at c£1.00 per KWH at most motorway/A-Road fast chargers, petrol would have to go way up to make that case.
 
I'm getting 2.7 miles per kwh in the new PHEV. This is charged on a 3 pin plug on standard rate which for me atm is 25p/kwh, so roughly 8p a mile.
Around town my QP averages 15mpg. Petrol is around £7 per gallon, so roughly 50p a mile.
Sobering but some things don't need to make financial sense though!
Eb
 
Ebenezer said:
I'm getting 2.7 miles per kwh in the new PHEV. This is charged on a 3 pin plug on standard rate which for me atm is 25p/kwh, so roughly 8p a mile.
Around town my QP averages 15mpg. Petrol is around £7 per gallon, so roughly 50p a mile.
Sobering but some things don't need to make financial sense though!
Eb
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We are getting 30 miles out of 10 kwh, which costs 70p to charge overnight, on the granny charger. That covers most daily tasks running around locally on a typical day.
We could actually keep it charged up for 'free' off our 6.4kw solar array, but makes more financial sense to export at 12p, and buy in at 7p overnight.
 
Indeed, home charging is great and I do it all the time on the T8. However on holiday where I can't charge at the cottage (invalidates the insurance) the nearest charging place is just outside Penrith and was £0.97 a KWh...way more than the fuel used distance travelled, and I would not want to hang around for a hour and a half for 40 miles if range!
 
safrane said:
Indeed, home charging is great and I do it all the time on the T8. However on holiday where I can't charge at the cottage (invalidates the insurance) the nearest charging place is just outside Penrith and was £0.97 a KWh...way more than the fuel used distance travelled, and I would not want to hang around for a hour and a half for 40 miles if range!
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Is that because it’s insured as a holiday let or some other weird reason?
 
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