EXCESSIVELY OVERCHARGED

 I’ve been a reader of CM for as long as I can remember. Aged 10 in the ’60s I used to get every Car Mechanics, Practical Motorists and Hot Car – as I’m sure you have guessed I’m a life-long petrolhead.

In the past few years I’ve had really nice cars including smart fortwo, Audi Allroad, Volkswagen Touareg and Range Rover TDV8 – all high-milers and all of them superb cars, each with their plus and minus points. The Range Rover did give me sleepless nights.

As I head towards retirement, and loving technology, I decided it was time to explore electric. The first step was replacing my wife’s 2012 Ford Galaxy with a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. I have followed the Outlander for some time, taking Mitsubishi to task over its outlandish claims of 160+ mpg ,which is a complete fallacy. I even took up a case with the ASA against Mitsubishi, which was upheld. The Outlander is a good fit for my wife’s use. She travels to and from work every day, three miles each way but goes on longer journeys three times per week during the evenings. The PHEV is a very well-equipped truck and on the longer journey returns a creditable 45mpg (TRUE tank top to tank top).

Having been sold on electric motive power and being unable to afford a

Tesla, I researched for some time for a replacement for my Range Rover. I wanted a good range but feared the range anxiety of electric only. I wanted something that was more electric than hybrid, much more range than the Outlander and definitely not a ‘self-charging’ hybrid which is marketing hype and truly a waste for so many reasons.

I found my replacement in a Marmitetype car – the BMW i3. I opted for the range-extender version and the middlesized battery – this ticked most of my boxes. The BMW i3 is interesting in so many ways (carbon fibre body – no rust!). Range-extender is a generator that helps provide power to the motor; it doesn’t have any way of driving the wheels.

The technology onboard is staggering – the service record is built in to the car, it has a permanent 3G link to BMW and allows a lot of remote control. The driving experience is a big WOW – performance is stunning. It’s eerily silent and running costs make me smile. Range Rover almost £600 per year road tax, i3 free! Fuel: 12,000 miles on Range Rover £2700, on the i3 £120 assuming I buy the electricity – many charge points are free. Insurance is around half the cost of the Range

Rover. It’s an absolute pleasure to drive.

Features such as regen braking mean that you effectively drive with a single pedal, because the brake pedal is almost redundant. Average consumption works out at about 4.5 miles per Kw; and with special tariffs available to EV owners of 5p per Kw it’s cheap motoring.

The charging infrastructure is probably better than most people would imagine – many shopping centres and business centres provide free charging points.

My interest in EVS and my work in electronics has sparked an interest in charging units. Commercial units are expensive at £300-plus. There’s very little in them – they’re not chargers. They provide communications to the vehicle saying what amount of power can be taken from this outlet and they check earth safety, etc. I’m almost at the end of building a Diy-charger that meets all of the safety standard J1772.

The charger onboard the vehicle does all of the clever stuff – such as limiting the currents, etc. The system I’ve developed can cope with two vehicles simultaneously, will take renewable energy into account, adjusts charge rates when there is a surplus of power and can charge up to 22Kw.

John Bridgett