by John Morrill, Volunteer Board Member
We’re finally getting some cars available in the U.S. which can hammer a nail into the coffin of Range Anxiety.
On the DEAZ Social Drive Event we took to Winslow, I reset my trip counter on my new BMW IX3 shortly after leaving home and checked it when I got back. [Technically a net “uphill” trip of around 400 feet since we live on the side of a mountain]. It was a total distance of just under 300 miles to Winslow and back home to Scottsdale involving elevation changes from 1000 to 7500 feet and a mix of both interstate and 2-lane state highway driving. We drove normally – sometimes in Efficient Mode (when I remembered) and other times in the default “Normal” mode. The average temperature outside was probably near 70 degrees (warmer near Phoenix and cooler up in the mountains). We ran the climate comfortably the whole way, played XM radio, and ran an Electric Cooler at all times plugged in back in the trunk. The BMW did much of the driving for me.
The overall efficiency recorded by the car for this trip was 3.9 miles per KWH. With the IX3’s 109 KWh battery, that represents a “real world highway range” of 425 miles!
The computer said I used around 78 KWh total for the drive. Which means that I COULD have easily made the whole journey on a single full charge and returned with more than 20% left.
We were fortunate enough to find FREE EV charging available at the hotel we stayed at. So, we didn’t do the whole trip on a single charge. With free fuel on offer, I charged my car from 40% to 80% at the hotel. I got 40% of my 109 KWh battery or 43 KWh of electricity replenished gratus from the hotel. Without that, my trip fuel cost (at my 8 cents per KWh SRP night rate) would have been:
$0.08 x 78 = $6.24
But, since I got 43 KWh for free, my actual fuel cost was:
$0.08 x 35 = $2.80
Had I needed to DC Fast Charge, there were multiple options up in Winslow for me: Pilot/Flying J, Walmart, and a Tesla site were all within a few miles. And the IX3 charges at rates up to 400KW – with it possible to add 250 miles in 10 minutes and 10-80% (340 miles) in 20 minutes.
This was all normal driving, at normal speeds, and normal comfort. There was no attempt to hypermile, no attempt to conserve, and no special planning. And what there was most strikingly none of …? Anxiety!