TimMcC
Tyre Kicker
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- Drives
- BMW i3S & Jaguar I-Pace
Since it's a worry for most thinking about going the electric route, I thought I'd write up my first longish drive in the I-Pace. This was a couple of weekends ago shortly after it arrived. Obviously since the I-Pace is a Jaguar it cannot (currently) make use of the much lauded Tesla Supercharger network.
The trip was from the New Forest area of Hampshire to Southwell in Nottinghamshire. A distance of around 190 miles. Whilst within range I knew I'd only be able to use a 3-pin plug to charge at my destination so I planned a charge stop both ways. So whilst this isn't a huge trip, I think most people would consider it a proper 'journey'.
I left with my son at about 9.30 in the morning, and I drove at 'normal' speeds up the M27, M3, A34, M40, A43, M1. At almost 11.45ish we were approaching Rugby where I knew there was a relatively new hub at a brand new services just off the M1 on J1 of the M6. There are 12 Tesla chargers and 12 Gridserve 350kW chargers.
Pulling into Rugby with about 25% charge there was one free charger, although a couple of cars were finishing up and moved on shortly after. Unfortunately once I plugged in I found the card reader was dead, so I couldn't start the charge. Phoned the number on the front of the unit, and got through after a couple of rings. The person in the callcenter connected to the unit remotely and started the charge at no cost. Fantastic service and whilst initially I was frustrated, this became a good experience quickly and the whole phone call only lasted for 2 minutes.
Spent about 45 minutes at the services (about 20 minutes waiting for food!), eating it, then emptying bladders. On return to the car it was up to around 90%. I stopped the charge and we went on our way, arriving later at Southwell with still around 75% of battery. Didn't plug it in.
Later that day we made a return trip to Bardney near Lincoln, which was about 70 miles return. When we got back to Southwell that evening was going to plug it in to the 3-pin, but a neighbour with an EV invited us to use their 7kW charger overnight since their car was full already. I took them up on this generous offer in exchange for a bottle on wine which they were loathe to accept. This meant we had 100% charge the next day rather than about 50% which meant I shouldn't need to stop on the way home.
The trip home was much the same, except this time we got hungry near Highclere a bit south of Newbury. Car sat nav reckoned there was a charger there, and I found 4 high powered chargers at the Shell services on the A34. Took my son over to McDonalds to eat, where I noticed Instavolt were putting in 2 more chargers which were still in their bubble wrap. Will remember this stop for the future. In this case I didn't think I needed the charge, but since the car reckoned I'd only have 20 miles spare I thought I'd put some in anyway whilst we were eating. Car got up to about 75% again by the time we were finished and we arrived home with 50% charge.
All in all, this was an incredibly easy trip. According to the trip information the car records, over that weekend we covered 445.4 miles at a cost of £24 and a bottle of wine. In the 530d it'd have been about £100 of diesel and logistically the trip would have been identical - although we would have probably stopped at a different random M1 services rather than Rugby. Total time driving was 8.5 hours. Temperature for the drives was about 7C, and quite windy.
From a comfort point of view the Jag was phenomenal. Very very relaxing to drive, munched up the miles without any drama and was even more comfortable than the 5 series which I also rated very highly.
The trip was from the New Forest area of Hampshire to Southwell in Nottinghamshire. A distance of around 190 miles. Whilst within range I knew I'd only be able to use a 3-pin plug to charge at my destination so I planned a charge stop both ways. So whilst this isn't a huge trip, I think most people would consider it a proper 'journey'.
I left with my son at about 9.30 in the morning, and I drove at 'normal' speeds up the M27, M3, A34, M40, A43, M1. At almost 11.45ish we were approaching Rugby where I knew there was a relatively new hub at a brand new services just off the M1 on J1 of the M6. There are 12 Tesla chargers and 12 Gridserve 350kW chargers.
Pulling into Rugby with about 25% charge there was one free charger, although a couple of cars were finishing up and moved on shortly after. Unfortunately once I plugged in I found the card reader was dead, so I couldn't start the charge. Phoned the number on the front of the unit, and got through after a couple of rings. The person in the callcenter connected to the unit remotely and started the charge at no cost. Fantastic service and whilst initially I was frustrated, this became a good experience quickly and the whole phone call only lasted for 2 minutes.
Spent about 45 minutes at the services (about 20 minutes waiting for food!), eating it, then emptying bladders. On return to the car it was up to around 90%. I stopped the charge and we went on our way, arriving later at Southwell with still around 75% of battery. Didn't plug it in.
Later that day we made a return trip to Bardney near Lincoln, which was about 70 miles return. When we got back to Southwell that evening was going to plug it in to the 3-pin, but a neighbour with an EV invited us to use their 7kW charger overnight since their car was full already. I took them up on this generous offer in exchange for a bottle on wine which they were loathe to accept. This meant we had 100% charge the next day rather than about 50% which meant I shouldn't need to stop on the way home.
The trip home was much the same, except this time we got hungry near Highclere a bit south of Newbury. Car sat nav reckoned there was a charger there, and I found 4 high powered chargers at the Shell services on the A34. Took my son over to McDonalds to eat, where I noticed Instavolt were putting in 2 more chargers which were still in their bubble wrap. Will remember this stop for the future. In this case I didn't think I needed the charge, but since the car reckoned I'd only have 20 miles spare I thought I'd put some in anyway whilst we were eating. Car got up to about 75% again by the time we were finished and we arrived home with 50% charge.
All in all, this was an incredibly easy trip. According to the trip information the car records, over that weekend we covered 445.4 miles at a cost of £24 and a bottle of wine. In the 530d it'd have been about £100 of diesel and logistically the trip would have been identical - although we would have probably stopped at a different random M1 services rather than Rugby. Total time driving was 8.5 hours. Temperature for the drives was about 7C, and quite windy.
From a comfort point of view the Jag was phenomenal. Very very relaxing to drive, munched up the miles without any drama and was even more comfortable than the 5 series which I also rated very highly.