Mac's Tech car

[Mactech]

Second trip over to Bucks this week and I took the BMW i3. A real confirmation that the tyre and damper modifications made have made the car easily capable of relaxing longer trips.
Of course it required a massive planning ordeal to ensure it had the range required and I had to spend almost 20mins in a wildly overcrowded, nasty urban setting to refuel. Pictured here, the car charging outside its own garage for only the second time this year....


Arrived home with almost half a tank of sparks, but we do want to use the car first thing in the morning.

 

[Chrishazle]

Pictured here, the car charging outside its own garage for only the second time this year....

View attachment 160077

Is that your own charging station on your own driveway Alastair? If so that's impressive, 2 double chargers so quite an electrical feed to supply them! Must have been pretty expensive to get that much home charging installed, we have a 3 phase supply to the meter cupboard in the front porch and I've wondered about getting an EV charger installed - although I can't see me ever having an EV, it'd be a hybrid at best - but wondered about a charger being an advantage if/when we sell. Have not investigated cost though, as personal oppinion says H2 not elec!!

 

[Doodle]

Pretty sure I recognise that charging station, IIRC it's in a pub car park on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Methinks @Mactech meant to say….

”Pictured here, the car charging …..
from a charger that is NOT its usual home base ……
for only the second time this year....”

 

[fabes]

Must be.

He'd never let his hedges get like that!

 

[Mactech]

Methinks @Mactech meant to say….

”Pictured here, the car charging …..
from a charger that is NOT its usual home base ……
for only the second time this year....”

Well yes and no! The car normally charges inside its own garage. So it it is still technically just the second time it has charged outside its own home garage this year.
As was well spotted, that location pictured is the Swan pub in Milton Keynes Village, but I certainly could have worded it rather better

 

[Mactech]

Is that your own charging station on your own driveway Alastair? If so that's impressive, 2 double chargers so quite an electrical feed to supply them! Must have been pretty expensive to get that much home charging installed, we have a 3 phase supply to the meter cupboard in the front porch and I've wondered about getting an EV charger installed - although I can't see me ever having an EV, it'd be a hybrid at best - but wondered about a charger being an advantage if/when we sell. Have not investigated cost though, as personal oppinion says H2 not elec!!

No, as it is such a small 'capacity' EV, I decided to spend no money on a charger and just use a 3 pin socket inside the garage and 'Granny' charger supplied with the car.
Three 75kVa chargers at your own home would be a bit of overkill for a small EV

 

[Mactech]

Guilty as charged....indoors.
I find that charging in the garage is much more civilised than outdoors. Light, temperature and weather is under my control with my indoor charging set up.



....and of course, there is the very distant possibility that if the EV battery spontaneous combusts, it might take the Bentley (and the garage!) with it.
Having done the risk assessment, I'm going with convenience and comfort option

 

[Skd884]

View attachment 159515

First expense is a new 12v battery from Bmw £99.95 and £30 labour for my mechanic to fit and code it at my place.

 

[Mactech]

First expense is a new 12v battery from Bmw £99.95 and £30 labour for my mechanic to fit and code it at my place.

I guess that is routine maintenance at a certain age. For normal 12v car batteries about 6 years, although the i3 one will never have had the routine hard work of a starter motor which may make a difference. What age is your car?

 

[Dryce]

I guess that is routine maintenance at a certain age. For normal 12v car batteries about 6 years, although the i3 one will never have had the routine hard work of a starter motor which may make a difference. What age is your car?

My Touareg was 9 years and 8 months old when I traded it. Still on the original battery - which would likely be over 10 years since it was made.

I think modern setups with stop start systems and AGM batteries may well last quite well if you mainly do longer journeys - they are effectively over-spec'ed if you are not doing a lot of journeys that involve stop-start.

 

[Mactech]

I have no real data on how long 12v batteries last in an EV. Mine is just 3 years old and I would be miffed if I had to replace it now as there is an 8 year warranty on the main EV battery.
The battery on the BMW X3, which the i3 replaced, is still going fine with its new owners coming up to its 10th birthday. There certainly is a wide variation in battery life dependant on many factors.

 

[Skd884]

I guess that is routine maintenance at a certain age. For normal 12v car batteries about 6 years, although the i3 one will never have had the routine hard work of a starter motor which may make a difference. What age is your car?

They are quite common to fail at circa five/six years

Mine is a 2019 car

https://www.reddit.com/r/BMWi3/comments/w7uytn/psa_replace_your_12v_battery_after_445_years/#:~:text=PSA%3A%20Replace%20your%2012V%20battery,%2D4.5%20years%20%3A%20r%2FBMWi3

 

[Chrishazle]

In my experience, especially on "Sunday driver" cars, having the car in a garage with a power supply so main 12V battery is on a conditioner whenever in the garage makes a major difference to battery life. The battery on my 968 coupe was over 10 years old when I sold the car, and was still fine. On the 968 cab it was the same on a battery about 7 years old. However, the S204 which lives on the driveway here, we've had for 12 years and I've had to replace the battery twice already, I now have a Lidl battery condition monitor attached full time to the battery and visible through the tailgate, and when I see it show the single red rather than red and orange I run the extension lead out to it (as the tailgate will close over it) and put my SIP smart charger (or my cheapie Lidl charger/conditioner that is normally for the SLK when she's in her garage, which she's not been for a while now) on for the rest of the day and overnight!

 

[Skd884]

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[BTB 500]

In my experience, especially on "Sunday driver" cars, having the car in a garage with a power supply so main 12V battery is on a conditioner whenever in the garage makes a major difference to battery life. The battery on my 968 coupe was over 10 years old when I sold the car, and was still fine. On the 968 cab it was the same on a battery about 7 years old. However, the S204 which lives on the driveway here, we've had for 12 years and I've had to replace the battery twice already, I now have a Lidl battery condition monitor attached full time to the battery and visible through the tailgate, and when I see it show the single red rather than red and orange I run the extension lead out to it (as the tailgate will close over it) and put my SIP smart charger (or my cheapie Lidl charger/conditioner that is normally for the SLK when she's in her garage, which she's not been for a while now) on for the rest of the day and overnight!

The battery in my SL was fitted 20 years ago and is still working fine. That's kept on a maintenance charger.

I replaced the battery in our Vito last year at 16 years old and 160k miles. That had never been on a charger of any type ... it still worked OK but we had an occasional issue with the engine cranking very slowly when hot, which the garage couldn't trace. The battery didn't seem a likely cause (it's under the passenger seat, so not subject to temperature changes) but replacing it was a cheap option and the issue did then go away!

Our 2007 W203 was still on the original battery when we sold it in 2020. That had never been on a charger.

Our current 2019 W205 needed a new battery at 1 year old to address an Eco stop/start issue. It was an MB demonstrator during Covid and from the low mileage had been sitting idle most of the time, which isn't good for any battery. Fine since then (touch wood), even when not driven for a couple of weeks. It's never been on a charger.

 

[Skd884]

BMW i3 2013-2022 review | Autocar

Compact, upmarket and arguably revolutionary – is the BMW i3 a good used buy?

www.autocar.co.uk

 

[HappytalkAgain]

.

 

[Skd884]

The 10 best electric cars to buy if you want to avoid Tesla

Elon Musk turning you off Tesla? Here are 10 of the best electric cars, driven and chosen by our expert

www.theguardian.com

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

The 10 best electric cars to buy if you want to avoid Tesla

Elon Musk turning you off Tesla? Here are 10 of the best electric cars, driven and chosen by our expert

www.theguardian.com

View attachment 161035

£7k ? Sounds like a great price.

Quality reporting from the Guardian. Again