Post by johnc on Sept 14, 2020 9:29:32 GMT
We have taken a couple of trips down the M74/M6 and A1 over the past few weeks so I can give you a flavour of living with an electric car and the i-Pace in particular.
I’ll start by saying that I am very impressed by the i-Pace in many respects but it does have a few issues that JLR need to address. The worst aspect of the car is the satnav and the touchscreen. In comparison to the nearly 4 year old X4 that the i-Pace replaced, the satnav feels about 10 years old: it takes ages to obtain a signal, its voice control is at best sketchy and even when it is on, it does daft things. For example, we came off the M6 for a few miles to look at a shop my wife wanted to see. After her shopping we decided to go back on to the motorway and stop at the first service station to get a recharge – the satnav took us off down a road I thought was the wrong direction and then tried to tell us to turn into the service station, service exit, through a no entry sign. To get the satnav to recognise voice commands requires my wife to put on a London accent and it just about seems to understand. However with the BMW you could just ask the car to take you to a hotel and it would sort it all out. The Jaguar really struggles with similar commands and it is quicker just to type in the postcode.
Typing though is a near impossibility on a touch screen whilst on the move especially if you are the driver – it just isn’t safe and with the best will in the world it isn’t always possible to stop and deal with it whenever plans or destinations change.
Even with me in the passenger seat trying to find functions, the logic of the system resulted in me giving up a few times and resorting to my mobile.
I have said before that we have a slight gripe with the size of the cup holder on the passenger side of the centre consul which is smaller than the one on the driver’s side – it grips the cup a bit too tightly and sometimes pops the lid which isn’t great when you are not fully concentrating.
Rear visibility is fairly poor through the tinted and small rear window but it isn’t greatly different from the X4.
I would also like the seats to go a bit lower. It’s not really a problem but when I adjust the seat I always feel as if I could do with sitting half an inch lower. There is plenty of headroom and my daughter is comfortable in the back with her heated seats. However she does complain that if we corner quickly she can slide off the edge of the back seat. I thought she was joking until I had a look – the base of the back seat, unlike most cars does not extend all the way to the door and there is a gap which is big enough for a skinny 16 year old to lose a leg down.
That is pretty much the bad news and in daily use there is lots of good news. The car is really quick with a take off from a standstill that feels quicker than the claimed 4.5s to 62. We had two guys in a Mk6 Golf GTi who were giving my wife hassle as we approached a roundabout onto a dual carriageway and as they dived for the outside lane on the roundabout she left them for dead both in the corners and along the beginning of the dual carriageway before they came past at some highly illegal speed. The car sits very flat and has serious grip but also has great comfort and composure. As a driving machine it is actually great fun. It really feels like a car with a wheel at each corner with pretty quick and accurate steering and it can be hustled along at a fair pace. Given its width, it is not perhaps best suited to a B road blast but it is superb in almost all other circumstances.
The adaptive cruise control works brilliantly but the lane assist will remain turned off after my wife said she couldn’t physically get the car to change lanes without indicating: she felt unsafe in that she was unable to quickly move over if for example someone started to pull out on her or she had to take evasive action. The adaptive headlights are also very good, if not as noticeable as those on the BMW. When the light patterns are changing to accommodate other cars it appears to be much more subtle than the Xenon powered X4 or my LED equipped car.
The front seats are comfortable and the seat heating and cooling feel as if they have been designed for the Arctic or the Sahara – there is little chance you would want them to go hotter or colder at any time.
The (heated) steering wheel is a nice bit of design with an attractive heavy dish look and something I notice immediately after stepping out of my car, a thinner rim – I do think it aids accuracy a bit and doesn’t leave me exercising my hands so much after a couple of hours.
The rear boot is more than adequate for most of our needs and swallowed up our cases with ease. It might not be quite as tall as the boot in the X4 but it should be more than adequate for most people apart from perhaps BB on his annual trans European trip. The front boot on the other hand, stores a blanket and a charging cable and that’s it full.
With motorway cruising in the 70 - 75 region the range did start to fall a bit and we reckon on about 210/220 miles as a maximum. On our first trip south and having fully charged at home we pulled in to Southwaite Service station (after about 115 miles) because they had a rapid charger. We had already loaded a few Apps onto our phones and registered with a few charging companies. It was all very easy: we logged in on the app, plugged the charger in to the car and went for coffee. About 8 minutes later Susan got an e-mail sending her a copy of the invoice for charging. We thought that odd so I went out to check it and it said on the screen that it had effected an emergency stop. I just thought someone had pushed the emergency stop button so I went through the log in routine again, plugged it in and all seemed to be well. I had only managed another few mouthfuls of coffee when the same thing happened again.
We decided to cut our losses and go to Scotch Corner where there is another rapid charger. Thankfully it was free and we were able to plug in for the full 45 mins (max allowed) and it gave us about 130 miles. If only all chargers were in working order and there was a free charger available when you needed it, I could live with a few 45 minute stops along the way.
However on our second trip back up the M6 we had planned where to stop to ensure that we could get home in one after our last charge. We pulled in to Tebay North and made our way to the chargers. There are 4 bays and two chargers but each charger has at least 2 charging cables so being electric virgins, we assumed that we could charge two cars at the same time from the one charger – I’m afraid not. Each charger can only cope with one car at a time. The car attached to the rapid charger had only arrived a couple of minutes ahead of us so we were in for a 45 minute wait at least. There does appear to be a courtesy amongst electric car drivers that brings them back to their car around the time of the end of the charge so that someone else can plug in. (it isn’t possible just to start another charging session after the 45 mins because the charger recognises the car and just shuts off)
Instead of waiting we decided to head further north to Todshill service station and about the last bit of civilisation for nearly 100 miles – there was only one charger and again there was someone on it. Thankfully he only had 6 or 7 minutes to go so we waited.
When we tried to log in through the app, it came up with an error and wanted us to use the buttons on the device, which we did and it started charging without us having to pay anything. Unfortunately the machine ended the charge after 30 minutes leaving us with 121 miles range and about 110 miles home. We headed out on to the M74 and cruised at 70 but it became clear that we wouldn’t have enough power to get home so we reduced the speed down to about 60 and just sat in the inside lane. We could have stopped at Hamilton but at midnight neither of us felt like spending more time at the side of the road so we just drove carefully and slowly, making it home with 3 miles of range left.
My wife wasn’t too happy with the charging etc but I didn’t find it a great burden. It certainly isn’t as easy as filling up with petrol or diesel but it isn’t the end of the world when you might stop for a coffee and toilet break every 2 hours or so in any case.
The biggest problem is the availability of rapid chargers. A fast charger is a misnomer – it takes 9 hours to charge the i-Pace. The rapid charger will give a full charge in about 2 hours and if you stop every 1.5/2 hrs or so and top up for 45 mins, you can get to most places reasonably easily.
The biggest issue I see is that there are nowhere near enough rapid chargers and they should just forget any other kind of charging apart from rapid. When we left Tebay North there were 2 Nissan Leafs (leaves?) and a Kia waiting for the chargers which were occupied by an i3 and another Kia – it could easily have been 2am before they all got to charge their cars and that really isn’t acceptable as a solution.
If there were 10 or more rapid chargers at each service station, travelling long distances by electric might take a bit longer but it would be relatively stress free and drivers would probably be a bit less tired with an extra stop or two.
One thing I have noticed since we scraped home with 3 miles left, is that the battery is now showing it is 100% charged with only 239 miles range. Previously it showed around 265 miles when full. I don’t know if this is something that requires a trip to the dealer or if the car has just decided to knock 30 miles off the range so that we don’t get so close to the wire again.
For daily use to work, the shops and school the electric car is fantastic. We can make it to St. Andrews and back with about 50 miles left so again relatively stress free and all in all about 95% of our journeys could be covered without having to charge up away from home. The infrastructure is improving and the ZapMap app gives details of all the charging stations and details of any issues with the chargers so with a bit of planning most journeys should be possible. We just need more chargers and the days of electric freedom could arrive more quickly than expected.
I’ll start by saying that I am very impressed by the i-Pace in many respects but it does have a few issues that JLR need to address. The worst aspect of the car is the satnav and the touchscreen. In comparison to the nearly 4 year old X4 that the i-Pace replaced, the satnav feels about 10 years old: it takes ages to obtain a signal, its voice control is at best sketchy and even when it is on, it does daft things. For example, we came off the M6 for a few miles to look at a shop my wife wanted to see. After her shopping we decided to go back on to the motorway and stop at the first service station to get a recharge – the satnav took us off down a road I thought was the wrong direction and then tried to tell us to turn into the service station, service exit, through a no entry sign. To get the satnav to recognise voice commands requires my wife to put on a London accent and it just about seems to understand. However with the BMW you could just ask the car to take you to a hotel and it would sort it all out. The Jaguar really struggles with similar commands and it is quicker just to type in the postcode.
Typing though is a near impossibility on a touch screen whilst on the move especially if you are the driver – it just isn’t safe and with the best will in the world it isn’t always possible to stop and deal with it whenever plans or destinations change.
Even with me in the passenger seat trying to find functions, the logic of the system resulted in me giving up a few times and resorting to my mobile.
I have said before that we have a slight gripe with the size of the cup holder on the passenger side of the centre consul which is smaller than the one on the driver’s side – it grips the cup a bit too tightly and sometimes pops the lid which isn’t great when you are not fully concentrating.
Rear visibility is fairly poor through the tinted and small rear window but it isn’t greatly different from the X4.
I would also like the seats to go a bit lower. It’s not really a problem but when I adjust the seat I always feel as if I could do with sitting half an inch lower. There is plenty of headroom and my daughter is comfortable in the back with her heated seats. However she does complain that if we corner quickly she can slide off the edge of the back seat. I thought she was joking until I had a look – the base of the back seat, unlike most cars does not extend all the way to the door and there is a gap which is big enough for a skinny 16 year old to lose a leg down.
That is pretty much the bad news and in daily use there is lots of good news. The car is really quick with a take off from a standstill that feels quicker than the claimed 4.5s to 62. We had two guys in a Mk6 Golf GTi who were giving my wife hassle as we approached a roundabout onto a dual carriageway and as they dived for the outside lane on the roundabout she left them for dead both in the corners and along the beginning of the dual carriageway before they came past at some highly illegal speed. The car sits very flat and has serious grip but also has great comfort and composure. As a driving machine it is actually great fun. It really feels like a car with a wheel at each corner with pretty quick and accurate steering and it can be hustled along at a fair pace. Given its width, it is not perhaps best suited to a B road blast but it is superb in almost all other circumstances.
The adaptive cruise control works brilliantly but the lane assist will remain turned off after my wife said she couldn’t physically get the car to change lanes without indicating: she felt unsafe in that she was unable to quickly move over if for example someone started to pull out on her or she had to take evasive action. The adaptive headlights are also very good, if not as noticeable as those on the BMW. When the light patterns are changing to accommodate other cars it appears to be much more subtle than the Xenon powered X4 or my LED equipped car.
The front seats are comfortable and the seat heating and cooling feel as if they have been designed for the Arctic or the Sahara – there is little chance you would want them to go hotter or colder at any time.
The (heated) steering wheel is a nice bit of design with an attractive heavy dish look and something I notice immediately after stepping out of my car, a thinner rim – I do think it aids accuracy a bit and doesn’t leave me exercising my hands so much after a couple of hours.
The rear boot is more than adequate for most of our needs and swallowed up our cases with ease. It might not be quite as tall as the boot in the X4 but it should be more than adequate for most people apart from perhaps BB on his annual trans European trip. The front boot on the other hand, stores a blanket and a charging cable and that’s it full.
With motorway cruising in the 70 - 75 region the range did start to fall a bit and we reckon on about 210/220 miles as a maximum. On our first trip south and having fully charged at home we pulled in to Southwaite Service station (after about 115 miles) because they had a rapid charger. We had already loaded a few Apps onto our phones and registered with a few charging companies. It was all very easy: we logged in on the app, plugged the charger in to the car and went for coffee. About 8 minutes later Susan got an e-mail sending her a copy of the invoice for charging. We thought that odd so I went out to check it and it said on the screen that it had effected an emergency stop. I just thought someone had pushed the emergency stop button so I went through the log in routine again, plugged it in and all seemed to be well. I had only managed another few mouthfuls of coffee when the same thing happened again.
We decided to cut our losses and go to Scotch Corner where there is another rapid charger. Thankfully it was free and we were able to plug in for the full 45 mins (max allowed) and it gave us about 130 miles. If only all chargers were in working order and there was a free charger available when you needed it, I could live with a few 45 minute stops along the way.
However on our second trip back up the M6 we had planned where to stop to ensure that we could get home in one after our last charge. We pulled in to Tebay North and made our way to the chargers. There are 4 bays and two chargers but each charger has at least 2 charging cables so being electric virgins, we assumed that we could charge two cars at the same time from the one charger – I’m afraid not. Each charger can only cope with one car at a time. The car attached to the rapid charger had only arrived a couple of minutes ahead of us so we were in for a 45 minute wait at least. There does appear to be a courtesy amongst electric car drivers that brings them back to their car around the time of the end of the charge so that someone else can plug in. (it isn’t possible just to start another charging session after the 45 mins because the charger recognises the car and just shuts off)
Instead of waiting we decided to head further north to Todshill service station and about the last bit of civilisation for nearly 100 miles – there was only one charger and again there was someone on it. Thankfully he only had 6 or 7 minutes to go so we waited.
When we tried to log in through the app, it came up with an error and wanted us to use the buttons on the device, which we did and it started charging without us having to pay anything. Unfortunately the machine ended the charge after 30 minutes leaving us with 121 miles range and about 110 miles home. We headed out on to the M74 and cruised at 70 but it became clear that we wouldn’t have enough power to get home so we reduced the speed down to about 60 and just sat in the inside lane. We could have stopped at Hamilton but at midnight neither of us felt like spending more time at the side of the road so we just drove carefully and slowly, making it home with 3 miles of range left.
My wife wasn’t too happy with the charging etc but I didn’t find it a great burden. It certainly isn’t as easy as filling up with petrol or diesel but it isn’t the end of the world when you might stop for a coffee and toilet break every 2 hours or so in any case.
The biggest problem is the availability of rapid chargers. A fast charger is a misnomer – it takes 9 hours to charge the i-Pace. The rapid charger will give a full charge in about 2 hours and if you stop every 1.5/2 hrs or so and top up for 45 mins, you can get to most places reasonably easily.
The biggest issue I see is that there are nowhere near enough rapid chargers and they should just forget any other kind of charging apart from rapid. When we left Tebay North there were 2 Nissan Leafs (leaves?) and a Kia waiting for the chargers which were occupied by an i3 and another Kia – it could easily have been 2am before they all got to charge their cars and that really isn’t acceptable as a solution.
If there were 10 or more rapid chargers at each service station, travelling long distances by electric might take a bit longer but it would be relatively stress free and drivers would probably be a bit less tired with an extra stop or two.
One thing I have noticed since we scraped home with 3 miles left, is that the battery is now showing it is 100% charged with only 239 miles range. Previously it showed around 265 miles when full. I don’t know if this is something that requires a trip to the dealer or if the car has just decided to knock 30 miles off the range so that we don’t get so close to the wire again.
For daily use to work, the shops and school the electric car is fantastic. We can make it to St. Andrews and back with about 50 miles left so again relatively stress free and all in all about 95% of our journeys could be covered without having to charge up away from home. The infrastructure is improving and the ZapMap app gives details of all the charging stations and details of any issues with the chargers so with a bit of planning most journeys should be possible. We just need more chargers and the days of electric freedom could arrive more quickly than expected.
