Right, well I placed the deposit on the car 10 days ago and have spent a fair amount of the time since reading 3912 posts (to varying degrees admitedly)! A few thoughts, comments relating to what I've read (some of it going back a little).
I seem to be in a company car forum! Are there (m)any other private owners out there? I think I noticed one and another in the proccess of buying.
For my second charge I decided to stick a power meter on to see how much power it actually took. Around 5.4kWh from around 12% which corresponds with a total capacity of 6.2kWh. Cost to charge 65p at 12p/kWh - a bit less than the previously quoted over 70p figure which I think assumed a full charge which you'll never do. Although the brick consumes power even when not plugged into the car, but at 1.8W I don't think that's going to make much difference.
That too close to car in front light is very sensitive isn't it!
Is it possible to pre-heat the car with the key by unlocking the car? I can do it via phone, but can't see an option to set it up in the car.
Someone recently said you should get Command with Premium, is that right? I didn't! (Mar'17 car)
I found a use for the height raise and hybrid part of the car - deep puddles - no engine running to worry about sucking in loads of water and a bit of extra height to get through it.
Someone a while back was talking about the charge profile of the car with it slowing down as the capacity fills. This is normal for Li-xx batteries, they have a minimum voltage of around 3.6v/cell and a max of 4.2v, go outside of that and you'll likely trash the battery. So if the cells are at around 3.6 up to maybe 3.9v you can charge at the full rate, however as the battery gets closer to the 4.2 figure you can't actually apply a voltage of more than 4.2v / cell so the charge current slows. It effectively starts off at constant current and becomes constant voltage of 4.2v / cell. Ni-xx batteries don't have this problem as you can apply a voltage across them of a lot more than their nominal voltage.
People have spoken about what capacity you can get the battery down to. In my *very* limited experience (err, 4 days), I think very low. While driving it may stop at 20% or 12%, if you are in very slow traffic etc. and crawl without using the accelerator / engine I have a feeling it still goes lower still It's probably a case of it can support the minimal drain of a crawl but touch the accelerator and it will start the engine. As above a crawl may not require the battery to drop below 3.6v/cell but anything more would, so the engine is started.
Apparently we can locate the vehicle via M.Me - sounds a bit like a tracker to me. Has anyone had any experience on whether insurance companies regard this as a tracker or not?
My next read is the manual - it's surprising what useful information you can find in it! I'm surprised more don't appear to do it, although I guess if you are on a 12month lease it's hardly worth it.
Any suggestions for the best way to overtake please and get instant power? Running in hybrid mode normally, so if the engine is off there will be a bit of a delay there and maybe a bit more to drop a gear or two and get some torque. Drop a gear and start the engine using the paddle? Change to sport? What do others do for an overtake?
Thanks.
Jeddy
