[hollpe]

Another long(ish) journey today down to Gloucestershire from South Yorkshire. It’s just me, the boys and the dogs as the wife is working all week.

The journey is about 170ish miles door to door. First up the weather was horrendous all the way down! VERY heavy rain all the way! Two crashes where cars had aquaplaned and ended up in the central reservation. Some people were still doing 80mph+ in treacherous conditions even after they’d past some of the accidents! Utter madness, especially considering the deep standing water.

Anyway enough of that. The car was fantastic, sure footed, despite the conditions and managed an average of 2.8miles per kWh. I didn’t think that was too bad considering the wind, wipers on constantly, aircon on, heated seats etc. I was mostly in B mode for the entire journey, it seems to be way less power hungry than adaptive mode. How do you guys find the different modes?

The sat nav worked well and whilst we didn’t need any charging stations (I was on 100% and 210 miles range when we set off), when it got to 37 miles left the car suggested a number of charging stations, in addition to this I was using CarPlay at the time and that also suggested a list of charging stations. I hadn’t noticed this before.

I did select one that the Nav suggested as it was literally at the side of the road en-route. Unfortunately it was occupied by a Tesla, who seemed hell bent on maxing out to 100% charge so I decided just to carry on to the destination, as it wasn’t far. I wish there was a built in function in the Nav that had realtime info for the charger availability. I might try the free Zap-Map subscription for a month and see if that notifies me. Has anyone else tried it?

We arrived with about 25 miles left on the range. The hotel we’re stopping at has a rapid BP Pulse Charger, which worked flawlessly with the BMW charging card. My school boy error was that I forgot about the extra £10 after 90mins! I was too busy enjoying a pint of IPA and it ticked over to 97 mins! Oh well, lesson learned there I guess.

A couple of observations.

- Switching between comfort and eco-pro mode in those conditions made about 7 miles difference to the predicated range, so hardly anything really!

- The car felt very safe and didn’t put a foot wrong in some pretty exceptional driving conditions.

- The seats really are superb. I haven’t had a single twinge of back pain on any of the long trips yet

- I noticed a new cool feature tonight. When you open the door at night the ambient strip in the door that has been opened flashes red

- I had a lot less range anxiety on this trip. The re-programming of my brain to be comfortable with a range 100’s of miles less than a diesel is almost complete! A 200 mile range in this weather and temperature is more than acceptable and the iX3 continues to be extremely accurate. I haven’t experienced any significant fluctuations.

- The more time I spend in the car, the more impressed I am with and I liked it a lot to start with!

- The only small negative is the really cheap and nasty storage compartment for sunglasses etc on the right of the drivers side dash. It was the same in the 5 series as well. It’s not even easy to close it without it feeling like something is going to break! It’s only a very minor gripe and not really noticeable as I hardly ever use it anyway!

Hope that is helpful for some of you folks. Any questions, just ask We’re heading back on Thursday, hopefully after the predicated storm has passed!

[JAV64]

Hi thats a great review. I too went from Sheffield to Harlow and yes the weather was atrocious. there were some accidents on the A1 too.

I drove the car in comfort mode and on the way down found adaptive mode does consume more energy whilst in B it works best. I agree. I tried to coast in adaptive mode but I did have to keep pushing the throttle more often than I would have liked to and so preferred the B mode. I managed 2.5kwh so a real world range around 185 miles with 4 passengers and some luggage.

With out doubt a superb car and very comfortable cruiser.

[EVFan]

Interesting that you both found adaptive mode using more energy than "B", I thought adaptive was promoted as the most energy-efficient.
I will no doubt try adaptive when I get my car, but I expect to use B mode most of the time anyway.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by EVFan

Interesting that you both found adaptive mode using more energy than "B", I thought adaptive was promoted as the most energy-efficient.
I will no doubt try adaptive when I get my car, but I expect to use B mode most of the time anyway.

Mine is set to the highest setting as well. I'm going to leave it on adaptive on the way back tomorrow and see what it's like over the whole journey! I suspect I'll need a charging stop, unlike the way down, but it will be a worthwhile test!

[t41l589]

Great write up.

Don't forget that when in Eco Pro mode and D on the drive selector, the car will tell you when to lift off the accelerator in order to coast as much as possible on approach to junctions, roundabouts and lower speed limits. I use this a lot and it's surprising how accurate it is. You don't get this function when driving in Comfort mode.

[Hud78]

Originally Posted by hollpe

- The only small negative is the really cheap and nasty storage compartment for sunglasses etc on the right of the drivers side dash. It was the same in the 5 series as well. It’s not even easy to close it without it feeling like something is going to break! It’s only a very minor gripe and not really noticeable as I hardly ever use it anyway!

Exactly the same feeling here, including our previous 5 series! We store a microfibre cloth for screen/window/dash wiping in it - damps the noise from the cheap plastic when it closes!

[GDEvans]

Originally Posted by Hud78

Exactly the same feeling here, including our previous 5 series! We store a microfibre cloth for screen/window/dash wiping in it - damps the noise from the cheap plastic when it closes!

I use it for storing my TomTom when I'm not in the car. The £100 TomTom does a better job of route planning and live traffic alerts than the built in system!

[Mobeam]

Hi Hollpe,
Another great report and very interesting in your findings and experience. Hope you all get back safely tomorrow as storm warnings getting worse by Friday.
Nice to hear that you don't have the "range anxiety" as mentioned before....!!
Just a few questions please;
You mention that the sat nav gave charger suggestions en route when at low milage, what info does it give ? where it is, size/type Kw, wether available and which network. Or do you use Zap Map/ Car play in conjunction to obtain more info that the sat nav does not provide?
Before setting off on a long trip would you suggest that careful planning is still required and to use some form of back up system to try and manage the 'anxiety"
Sorry if I am going on about this but it is the main worry I have in relation to EVs ...and as my partner suffers with a certain health condition then maybe you will understand my concerns.

Mentioned this another question on another post earlier;

Haven't actually seen the space under the bonnet but is it possible to store a few small items in say a plastic/cardboard container assuming that it will not fall through !

Thanks again for your review

[JAV64]

Right, so if you set Eco mode it will let you know when to lift the throttle? I did not know that. Thanks will try that.

[Gintoss]

I have M Sport Pro. Since I collected on 28th December I do all driving in Eco mode D setting, with full assisted driving. Works a dream and good range typically 240 miles in current UK weather.

Hoping for more range in the summer.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by Mobeam

Hi Hollpe,
Another great report and very interesting in your findings and experience. Hope you all get back safely tomorrow as storm warnings getting worse by Friday.
Nice to hear that you don't have the "range anxiety" as mentioned before....!!
Just a few questions please;
You mention that the sat nav gave charger suggestions en route when at low milage, what info does it give ? where it is, size/type Kw, wether available and which network. Or do you use Zap Map/ Car play in conjunction to obtain more info that the sat nav does not provide?
Before setting off on a long trip would you suggest that careful planning is still required and to use some form of back up system to try and manage the 'anxiety"
Sorry if I am going on about this but it is the main worry I have in relation to EVs ...and as my partner suffers with a certain health condition then maybe you will understand my concerns.

Mentioned this another question on another post earlier;

Haven't actually seen the space under the bonnet but is it possible to store a few small items in say a plastic/cardboard container assuming that it will not fall through !

Thanks again for your review

Cheers, we’re setting off early tomorrow so we should miss the worst of it!

So, when the range warning came up the nav listed out the nearest charging stations, for some of them it gave the type of connector, provider & contact details, address, charging speeds available and I think it said whether or not it was free (I’ll check this tomorrow). What it didn’t do was update the availability of the charger once we were on our way there. I did use ZapMap to check the status of it just to be sure!

For the long trips before I set off I do use ZapMap to plan out where I might want to stop to charge and also have some backup options as well. That works well for me. I generally plan to stop half way and top up or at the most with about 50 miles range left.

Another tip someone gave me (on here I think) was to ‘graze charge’. Basically if you’re popping into a supermarket or somewhere else that has a charger. Just plug in for the time you’re there. Sounds obvious but when you’re away from home it does help as it reduces the need for long charges. For example we popped to Lidl tonight just for 10 mins to get a few bits and it added about 10% to the battery (that was on the rapid charger). If you’re parking there anyway you might as well plugin! Tesco normally have two types 7kW that are free or if you want to pay 50kw. PodPod seem to be quite popular with supermarkets (you’ll need the PodPoint app for those!)

With regards to the under bonnet storage. I don’t think the cover lifts up easily on the LCI. I tried a few days ago and it certainly did open in the same way as the Pre-LCI I test drove. I’m sure it will open, but I didn’t want to snap anything on the cover! When I looked on the pre-LCI there is space there but I’m not sure I’d want to put anything there without any proper storage container. It does seem a bit odd BMW haven’t added any there. The plastic would probably cost no more than a few £! I wonder if it needs the space for some sort of cooling (rather than BMW being lazy)? - does anyone else have any theories on this?

Going back to the charging stuff. Some of the other EV forums will have you lying awake at night and breaking out in cold sweats for lack of chargers, broken chargers, blocked chargers etc. However in my very limited experience that doesn’t seem to be the case, but that is a very subjective view with many factors involved! A bit of planning up front will always go a long way to stop that anxiety! And don’t forget that for many of us the vast majority of the charging is done at home or very near the destination anyway.

[ggla]

So does it not plan out your charge stops in the nav for you as others have seen it do? You seem to suggest it only recommends charge stops once you get low on battery?

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by ggla

So does it not plan out your charge stops in the nav for you as others have seen it do? You seem to suggest it only recommends charge stops once you get low on battery?

Hi. Sorry my post was a bit misleading. It does suggest the charging stops as part of the route planning. It was only because when I set off there was enough charge to do the journey before it got to the 37 miles (which it uses as the low battery range warning).

[ggla]

Ah ok, do you happen to know the software version your car is running? I still can’t get this functionality to work on mine.

[hollpe]

Originally Posted by ggla

Ah ok, do you happen to know the software version your car is running? I still can’t get this functionality to work on mine.

It's 11/2021.50

[supersebbo]

Originally Posted by hollpe

It's 11/2021.50

Pre-LCI cars are currently blocked from upgrading to this version. There is another thread on it.

[ggla]

I am an LCI M Sport Pro delivered in Jan and im on 11/2021.40 - when i check for updates it says none available.

Are you saying the navigation including charging point stops/recommendations is not available on 11/2021.40?

Thanks

[hollpe]

Well, it was a largely uneventful trip on the way home - in a good way! The weather was good and I even managed to clean it when we got back. It was absolutely filthy after the past few days of muddy, wet roads!

On the return journey it has averaged 3.2miles per kWh, which was an improvement over the 2.8 on the way down. The main differences were:

- no torrential rain
- temp was around 10 degrees, as opposed to 5-6
- adaptive mode on the motorway

I used the Assisted Driving Mode for about 90% of the journey with ACC set on 78mph and in adaptive mode rather than B mode this time. Whilst I'm convinced it's more efficient with regular driving in B mode I don't think it makes any difference at all in Assisted Driving Mode.

I'm pleased with the increased efficiency although it's hard to know what has contributed the most to the improvement. I suspect it's the temperature more than anything else.

My range today was about 230 miles and there was no need to charge enroute as I set off with 100%. Once the warmer weather arrives I'm optimistic that the car is going to get somewhere near the quoted WLTP range. After adjustment for passengers, luggage, dogs etc I reckon 250 miles is going to be achievable without too much trouble. BMW have done a good job with the efficiency and it's not bad for a 2.2 tonne EV that isn't built on a pure EV platform!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by hollpe

On the return journey it has averaged 3.2miles per kWh, which was an improvement over the 2.8 on the way down. The main differences were:

- no torrential rain
- temp was around 10 degrees, as opposed to 5-6
- adaptive mode on the motorway

I used the Assisted Driving Mode for about 90% of the journey with ACC set on 78mph and in adaptive mode rather than B mode this time. Whilst I'm convinced it's more efficient with regular driving in B mode I don't think it makes any difference at all in Assisted Driving Mode.

I'm pleased with the increased efficiency although it's hard to know what has contributed the most to the improvement. I suspect it's the temperature more than anything else.

One factor to keep in mind besides the observations in your comment, is wind speed and direction. Any idea of the difference in the two trips?

I've travelled Highlands to Wiltshire many times over the years, in different vehicles. Logging mpg every trip. Wind is one of the biggest influences in the 'high and low' figures I observed.

Keep that in mind, particularly at constant high speeds. Consumption between a head or trailing wind of 20mph, makes a big difference.

[R_Soul]

Originally Posted by hollpe

My range today was about 230 miles and there was no need to charge enroute as I set off with 100%. Once the warmer weather arrives I'm optimistic that the car is going to get somewhere near the quoted WLTP range. After adjustment for passengers, luggage, dogs etc I reckon 250 miles is going to be achievable without too much trouble. BMW have done a good job with the efficiency and it's not bad for a 2.2 tonne EV that isn't built on a pure EV platform!

I am amazed everyone seems to be getting this kind of range. Mine is more like 150 miles maximum! I drive like Miss Daisy, 70 mph tops on motorway, B mode, eco pro, no seat heaters and the absolute best I managed was 170.

Maybe I should drive harder with everything on…..

[GDEvans]

Originally Posted by R_Soul

I am amazed everyone seems to be getting this kind of range. Mine is more like 150 miles maximum! I drive like Miss Daisy, 70 mph tops on motorway, B mode, eco pro, no seat heaters and the absolute best I managed was 170.

Maybe I should drive harder with everything on…..

My other half would refuse to get in if I disallowed the seat heaters... And I can't leave her behind as she is the only person who can operate the kick opening on the boot!!!

[the_ape]

Few weeks back did home to London to home again, with 4% soc remaining. 230ish miles round trip with stop and go London traffic and motorways. On comfort 90% of trip till I gave in and popped on eco for the last 45 mins.