#BerlinChallenge

[@agentlexe]

Very interesting video! 2 questions: 1) it is fascinating to see your extreme approach to keep the battery on a minimal SoC to enable faster charging. However, it triggers the question whether having so many charge stops for the last half of the trip actually pays off time-wise? Taking into account the ‘overhead’ of each charge stop (slowing down and taking the exit, parking at the charger, authenticating, waiting for the charging to start), compared to fully charging at the first stop (a longer/slower charge of about 50min in the ix3) which might take you to Amsterdam with only 1 charge stop: can you share some of your experiences on that? 2) it seems from your vids that it is not uncommon for chargers to be malfunctioning. Do you always have a plan B (given you always arrive with minimal SoC)? In case not, what medication do you recommend to stay so calm and overcome range anxiety ;-)

[@electricfelix]

Thanks for your words! I guess the only way to really find out would be to do another ride and then take the "long charging stop approach". The thing is that while "charging to 80%" sounds nice on paper, with many vehicles it will take quite a while. And I do not believe you can drive 130km/h and actually make this trip with one stop, if that would be the case, it would indeed become a seriously close call. I indeed love the thrill of low SoC and speculating on what I can gain from it. Now to be fair: it's probably not "worth it" if you're on a family holiday to drive according to this extreme scenario, my clients also do not receive advice to drive my style. They decide on their own pattern (charging at 10%, 20% whatever you prefer). My videos are meant to show what's possible and trying out the latest (and hopefully greatest) charging infrastructure is part of that. It's really rare to arrive at a charging location where _none_ of the DC chargers are working. I think it was last summer at Shell Recharge (NL) that this happened, it was horrible. Luckily I was not in a rush, or wait I was. The best medication is experience (I think), and getting to know your vehicle. Which is the downside for me: I'm always trying something new (or not always but mostly) and then you will have to "go with what you know". The iX3 proved quite worthy but it would be nice to have an actual SoC % while driving of course. I now had to "game to GoM" to survive. And you're right of course, as soon as you have to leave the road for a charger it might become problematic to prove it's quick to use. That's why Fastned and IONITY are amazing: their locations are so quick to arrive at. Quick to auth with your charging card (or autocharge at Fastned even more speedy). Hope this gives you some insight into my mind games ;-] #alwaysbecharging

[@DjTonioRoffo]

As a Kona owner, I wouldn't mind your disastrous charge speeds. :D

[@electricfelix]

That makes sense Yves, haha ;-}

[@pqvid]

The Efacec chargers are super misleading Felix - if you look more closely, you will see that 320kW are only available at 800V. As the iX3 is a 400V system, the max charging speed would be 140kW. But even that again would only be available close to the max voltage - which is close to the max capacity of the battery, where the iX3 will limit the charging rate on its side. So I'm pretty sure you were getting the max possible charge from this kind of charger on a 400V car.

[@apocreg11]

Cool idea!

[@willielarsson9651]

I'm getting worried..why are so many of these charges out of order

[@chriswithey3618]

Looks pretty impressive. How did you find the IX3 to drive and it’s comfort?

[@steffenkirsamer4688]

Yeah the car looks great. Thats what my feeling also was.. when I saw review

[@electricfelix]

The result for me was unexpected! And the comfort is simply BMW: Heads Up Display might be the best one in any EV (and it mattes). It even includes Waze (CarPlay) navigation. To drive what I was most impressed about is something so simple: Field of view. I can actually see bikers around me when driving in the city. Highway overview also great. This is not common in EV's (unfortunately). The chairs give good support even being a bit sturdy though. ACC is smooth: above average when "racing into somebody going slower" or when changing lane and so on.

[@chriswithey3618]

@@electricfelix many thanks for your reply. I was hoping you would say that as I have just ordered the premier pro edition.

[@shortfattoad7317]

I just don't get BMW, they load the car up in the premium model but no tinted rear windows (privacy tint, extra cost)??? We are getting one as a company car, but he charging is a pain in the ass, need to charge it every night to top up as the commute is 140km round trip... I really don;t want to spend 30-60 mins on the way home charging the thing after a long day. So let me know what you think? Am I over thinking it? Why can the governments make all EV charging stations use 1 type of connection and one payment type. I never have this issue with diesel, and wtf is roaming with payments?

[@steffenkirsamer4688]

You say in video it was your fastest berlin challenge. But with Taycan you was faster? And the id3 was also not very slower?

[@electricfelix]

Did I really say that? Should come with an asterisk for "fastest in 2021" or so ;-] The Taycan is in a league of it's own with 800V charging. But not for long! I guess the BMW still feels like a car that we'll see on the road more than a Taycan, so in general I was surprised by the performance.

[@steffenkirsamer4688]

@@electricfelix the taycan can charge very fast but range is bad.. i like cars going up to 350 km one charge on highway like my tesla model s rav. Perf.. if it charges 10 min more its for my not that important.

[@jurgendruyts]

Does waze also indicate charging stops ?

[@electricfelix]

No I look those up manually on my route, easy if you plot using Chargemap (for example) with 100kW+ filter you get a birds view of available chargers

[@christianweigl4467]

The Chargers at McDonalds are 2x 75kw ... 75kw at 400V... the IX3 has less than 400V 😉 You need the fat Hyperchargers 😜

[@electricfelix]

Totally correct Christian they (EWE Go) even replied to my Instagram story! They "might" upgrade some of these in the future.

[@steffenkirsamer4688]

You liked the car? Good range and speed? Was fast the journey?

[@automatix5]

The problem are the 200A-cables on this charger. I charged last Sunday on another (small) EWE Go hypercharger with 400A cables and got 100kW which is max speed for my car.

[@electricfelix]

@@automatix5 Yes it's all in the cables. Then again these charging locations will get busy quickly so as soon as there are two cars, if the power supply in total is 150kW it doesn't even change anything. Video incoming of a EnBW Shell Recharge where this happened.

[@electricfelix]

@@steffenkirsamer4688 Over 300km of range on a "cold" day on the Autobahn: consider me happily surprised with the big heavy car it still is. Charging is fast, I didn't try max speed of the vehicle because I don't expect it to pay off in the end. But it might, should ask BMW to retry in summer at full speed. Haha ;-]

[@leopoldsaroyan927]

and you need to paid to lose your time ?

[@shortfattoad7317]

So we now have the facelift iX3, delivered last week. Drives well but to be honest, who wants a car that wants to be treated like a woman? You cannot just stick in the juice, no! you have 'warm' it up first, then watch to make sure it feels ok before it allows full juice mode.. And if you forget to warm her, I mean the batteries up then when you stick in the full 150kwh, nothing happens, just wants to take it slow. My diesel Santa Fe, fill up, 5 minutes, drive 850-1000kms, fill up, drive. No warming up, just ram in the fuel and she is happy.