I had the pleasure last Friday to attend the delivery of one of the UK’s first Hyundai Ioniq Electric’s to my friend and colleague Trevor Heale. I have to say I was impressed with the Ioniq Electric in the flesh.
Hyundai Ioniq Electric Handover (Image: T. Larkum)
Not only did it look good, but it had an impressive list of equipment including automatic cruise control, blind spot warning, electrically positioned driver’s seat, and so on.
Hyundai Ioniq Electrc (Image: T. Larkum)
The handover was lengthy but thorough and Patrick at Bletchley Hyundai did a good job of explaining most of the car’s features despite a lack of documentation from Hyundai HQ.
A Happy Trevor and his Hyundai Ioniq (Image: T. Larkum)
I have no doubt that Trevor will enjoy his Ioniq. He has promised to tell us about his experiences with it and we look forward to publishing his blog posts here soon.
As expected we got most of the way to our destination in Surrey without having had a chance for a proper rapid charge. The plan was to charge at Frimley Park Hospital, and if that failed to go to Church Street car park in Fleet. Driving an EV long distance is all about having a plan and a backup plan!
i3 charging at Frimley Hospital (Image: T. Larkum)
We needn’t have worried – Frimley turned out fine, eventually. We knew the charge point was in the covered part of the (very large) car park and found it pretty easily. However, things did then get a bit tricky. Zap-map indicated that there were two CCS-capable charge points there, with one of them offline. In fact there was only one (the other charge point could only do AC and Chademo) and it was showing an error on the screen; naturally I was worried that this was actually the offline unit.
I cancelled the apparent charge session and re-initialised it (just following instructions on the screen) and it seemed to clear. I started a new session using my Polar RFID card (it’s a CYC charge point, but CYC is now part of Polar). When I first connected the i3 and began a charge, however, it only lasted about a minute, and then stopped with an error on the dash. Anyway, I persisted and the second time it worked fine.
We were fully charged about 45 minutes later – that was longer than I expected, particularly as we plugged in with 32% charge, so that implies to me that the charge point may not have been giving its full 50kW power (perhaps as a result of the initial failed charge?). Nonetheless, it’s hard to complain when the charge was free, and even £3 for the parking seemed reasonable as we were able to pass the time sitting in the nearby hospital cafe with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.
The charge issues and long charge time notwithstanding, it was a pretty good experience and I’m sure we’ll use Frimley again. We left with 99% charge and had enough not just to get to Surrey but to show off the i3’s acceleration a few times while there, and then return all the way back to Northampton without a further charge. Hats off to the i3 once again!
We’re currently on our way in the i3 from Northampton to Surrey, to visit relatives for New Year’s Eve. It seems like most of the few CCS charge points operated by Ecotricity at motorway services are offline today.
I have therefore planned to charge at public charge points near our destination. However, since we always stop at Toddington services going south for the toilets anyway, I thought I’d try an AC charge here (Toddington has no CCS/DC cable).
The i3, of course, does its slow charging on AC (alternating current) like all electric cars and its rapid charging on DC (direct current) like all electric cars except the Renault ZOE. However, the new i3 (the ’94ah’) has a trick up its sleeve – it can ‘medium charge’ on 3 phase AC (a feature shared only with the Tesla).
After about 10 minutes of mucking about with the Ecotricity app on my ‘phone it finally loaded, and the car started charging from the Type 2 cable (intended for rapid charging a ZOE). About quarter of an hour later, when we were ready to leave, we had taken on 2.5kWh of electricity. 2.5kWh in 14 minutes equates to about 11 kW charging power, which is what the i3 can theoretically achieve so it’s encouraging to see it working in a real situation.
2.5kWh charge after 14 minutes (Image: T. Larkum)
Having said that, we only gained about 10 miles of range (so about 40 miles per hour). That’s certainly better than nothing, but doesn’t compete with true DC rapid charging where that’s available.
A very Happy Christmas to all customers of Fuel Included, and everyone who knows us.
Santa’s new electric sleigh, based on a Model X (Image: Tesla Motors)
2016 was a pretty rough year for many people, so here’s hoping that 2017 will bring you everything you’re hoping for. For now, have a great Christmas and enjoy your time with friends and family.
When we can, we try to show electric cars at public events, and it is pretty clear from talking to members of the public that perception and acceptance of electric cars is increasing fast. We have recently showed the i3 at Milton Keynes shopping centre, and a Renault ZOE in Kings Langley.
The Fuel Included i3 on show at the Holcot Car Boot Sale (Image: T. Larkum)
Ahead of either of those events, however, we showed the i3 at the Holcot Car Boot Sale. This is a very large event, known officially as the ‘Car Boot and Farmers Market’ and held at the Holcot Showground every Saturday and Thursday from April to October each year. Holcot is off the A43 about halfway between Northampton and Kettering.
At the time there weren’t actually any good offers available on the i3. However, that has now changed as we have arranged PCP deals on the i3 at very good rates. We are therefore in the process of contacting those people at Holcot who expressed interest in the i3 to offer them a test drive.
In our experience, with the i3 it’s a case of once driven, forever smitten!
Our compliments go to the Rugby Bodyshoppe for a job well done. It’ll be good to see the back of the courtesy car, a Lexus 300 hybrid, which was a rubbish drive compared to the i3.
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