Just finished my first week with the electric car and certainly enjoyed myself with it. I’ve been using it for the last seven days driving in and out of the University of Limerick, and it’s been spotted by many interested students. First morning I pulled up with it, immediately I was approached by somebody asking me about my experience so far with it. All I could tell him was that I could confirm the electric car could make it from one side of the city to the other!
I’ve been trying to see how far I can get on a single charge. Through very frugal driving and avoiding use of the heater I managed 90km on Monday, around Limerick and out and back from Killaloe. It may have gone further too but I didn’t want to push it too far while it was flashing empty.
Plugging it in at night is still something I’ve to learn to remember! Looking forward to the next three months with it.
Daniel Mortell.
90km! That’s very impressive. We’ve had the car for about 5 days but as yet try a long journey. I reckon I could do a commute from Killeagh to Cork city and back on one charge (69.4 km). What mode did you drive in mostly? Economy or Brake?
Hi Daniel, What a lovely photo of your ecar at home for the night. We are very impressed at the fact that your reached 90km! Readers of the blog should be made aware that the iMiEVs that we are using as part of The Great Electric Drive trial are pre-production cars which means that the range is less than the iMiEVs which are on sale in Ireland today. Our pre-production cars typically have a range of 70km which suits most of the population perfectly, according to the Census, 70% of the population drive 50km or less each day! But the iMiEVs that are currently available have a range of 110-120km.
I was driving in Eco for most of the journey. Coming up to junctions or traffic lights, I just used Brake mode to slow the car rather that the actual foot breaks as I think Brake mode is more aggressive in terms of harvesting energy from regenerative braking than Eco mode. I haven’t looked it up or anything, it’s just the general impression I’m getting from the car. I also don’t know how much energy was restored during braking, it would be useful to see that data to see if it’s significant. I use ‘Drive’ mode whenever pulling out at roundabouts or junctions just as the faster acceleration makes that maneuver as safe as possible.