Electric BMW long-distance star
So electric vehicles are still pretty much city cars, right? I mean, excitingly expensive Teslas aside, they really don’t have the range to tackle something like a run from Auckland to Wellington in a single day, do they?
You really would have to be a bit stupid to even try.
Which might well be why I found myself doing just that.
Basically it was someone else’s bright idea to check out just how well the ‘‘electric highway’’ was progressing by taking a road trip from Auckland to Wellington in a pure electric vehicle, but somehow I ended up doing it.
bfThe mission – should we choose to accept it . . .
The idea was to do the 647km trip in one day, with no economy-run style antics, only using the fastcharging network.
We would stick to the speed limit, the aircon would be going full blast and we would regularly use the full torque-drenched properties of electric propulsion to dispatch slower traffic with ruthless full-throttle ability.
The car we used was a BMW i3S, the newly-released ‘‘sporty’’ version of BMW’s quirkily distinctive EV.
The i3S is more tweaked to open road driving than the standard i3, with an added Sport mode that ups the responses, making it even more responsive to those full-throttle overtaking manoeuvres. Like ‘‘aggressively push you back in your seat’’ responsive. Needless to say, it is a fun car.
But with its stated range of around 200km, some planning would be required.
The BMW’s navigation software helped in this regard, taking into account things like traffic conditions and terrain to give you a remarkably accurate real world range.
According to both Google Maps and the i3’s internal system, the drive time of our route was just over eight hours, going from Auckland via charge points at Te Awamutu, Taupo, Waiouru, Mangaweka and Otaki before arriving at Wellington.
6.55am to 11.20am: The optimistic beginning – Auckland to Taupo, 0 to 266km
Leaving Auckland at 7am, we headed directly down SH1 to Te Awamutu for the first charge of the day and, far more importantly, breakfast.
With a cafe handily located across the road from the fast charger, we plugged the i3 in and wandered across. In the time it took us to order and consume a coffee and muffin, (around 40 minutes) the i3 was fully topped back up and ready to go with an indicated range of 196km. An impressive start.
A similar experience in Taupo 125km and 1 hour 40 minutes later (lunch this time) had us predicting a faultlessly easy run to Wellington – after all, so far we had stopped twice in four and a half hours of driving and not had to wait around for the car to charge, as we had more pressing issues to take care of (ie, coffee and food).
Alas, that was not to be and at the fourth charge stop of the day at Mangaweka, disaster struck. Well, almost disaster.
12.15pm to 3pm: The dramatic detour (and the friendly dog) – Taupo to Mangaweka (and then Palmerston North), 266km to 506km
Plugging the i3 into the ChargeNet fast charger just threw up repeated error messages as the charger blatantly refused to work, despite the ChargeNet app insisting everything was fine with it when we checked on the way there.
This was not the sort of thing you want to experience in – not wanting to be unfair to Mangaweka – the middle of nowhere and the tightening knot of angst settling in my gut was only briefly assuaged by the adorably excited dog that clearly wanted to be my new best friend.
We considered the possible courses of action as the dog became a little too excitedly friendly and decided that we had enough range to make a small detour to Palmerston North to charge there, and that the dog was trying to move things along too fast.
3.20pm to 5.44pm: the mindnumbing boredom – Palmerston North to Otaki: 506km to 574km
Of course, there is a limit to how much coffee you need in a day, so spending 27 minutes wandering aimlessly around the centre of Palmerston North or leaning listlessly against a small red BMW was less than exciting.
The same would go for the quick top-up charge of the day in Otaki. Or more precisely, the supermarket car park in Otaki.
Again, not exactly exciting and hanging around in a far corner of a supermarket car park at dusk does feel a little dodgy.
6pm to 6.57pm: Are we there yet? – Otaki to Wellington: 574km to 647km
At 6.57pm, almost exactly 12 hours after we left Auckland, we rolled into Wellington.
Our driving time of closer to nine hours after our detour, meant that we essentially spent three hours stopping along the way to charge the i3, or pretty much a one-hour break every three hours of driving.
This meant that, despite the moment of stress at Mangaweka and the dragging boredom of the last two charges, the trip was actually rather easy and relaxed. And probably how you really should tackle a long drive.
Our average speed was 75kmh and the i3 was remarkably adept at long, easy open-road sprints, with a firm, sporty ride that was pleasant rather than gratingly harsh.
With a bit of planning, making a run down the country is a relatively simple affair in an EV, but don’t expect a lightning-fast run and potential problems do lie in the charging network.
While we were lucky that we were in an area with another charger within our range, it could have easily been a far bigger problem.
After all, if a petrol pump isn’t working, you can be pretty certain that the identical one next to it probably will be.
That said, the quick proliferation of fast charging stations is making this less likely, but that also fuels the wider adoption of EVs, meaning your chances of finding a Nissan Leaf at the charging station will also be higher.
A single day run from Auckland to Wellington is do-able and the first three quarters or so will be a great adventure.
The rest, like my experience, may well be an uncomfortable blend of brief anxiety and sheer boredom.
And the costs . . .
Total journey cost – $53.21 for charging over 647km.
ChargeNet chargers cost 25 cents a minute, plus 25 cents per kWh, except for the Taupo charger that was 40 cents per kWh, with no time charge.