[Mark J Constable]

I decided to take a look at whether paying for the Rapid Charge option to be added to the REx paid back. Might be useful to someone else.

There are a couple of caveats:
- I may still choose it, given it increases my elec miles proportion and that is the aim after all
- One can't apply the calc to the BEV as there is no petrol backup, obvs

Assumptions:
Cost £650 (LP of £560, over 4 years)
ppm elec 2.9 (12ppu * 1.1 @ 4.5 mpu)
ppl 128.9
Mpg 50 in REx mode on motorway
MpRC 70
All RC elec displaces petrol, as opposed to slower charged elec

Turns out I'd need to cover 7469 RCd miles to cover the option cost. That's 107 RCs or 2.2 per month over 4 years if they were all 70 mile charges. That's unlikely for me, as I don't do those kind of trips that often.

Edit: added new assumptions

 

[Mark J Constable]

Andy, I suspect your requirements will turn out to be very close to what the mass market will want, based on the current technology that is available. I chose the i3 mainly because it fulfils the best template: 80ish mile range and can be brought back to life quickly and anywhere, via the REx. The Ampera doesn't have enough elec range, but if it had double what it did, I'd have considered it. The Leaf doesn't have a REx, but if Nissan had found a way to jam one and a 100 mile tank in, and priced it 5-8k lower than the i3, that might have been the no-brainer.

We're still at the stage where the popular vehicles mentioned fit their own usage cases and have distinct price points. When products become more homogenous in terms of capability - say a 100 mile range and a 150 mile tank (or vice versa) becomes 'standard', and price, vehicles will have to move away from marketing based on their usage case, and return to being cars again.

 

[Mark J Constable]

I have EV range and never rapid charge... my partner will have an i3 REx and will never rapid charge... when Tesla deploy Superchargers across Europe I will consider rapid charging but only if it's convenient.

I think RC is transitional/niche at best. A rough calc says one needs the power demand of Gatwick Airport (oto 24MW) to power 500 RCs in order to match the energy restoring capacity of a 20 pump motorway service station, which still only does 1000 cars per hour flat out.

Tesla can only offer it as free/standard because their volumes are low enough. I do genuinely hope they become popular enough to need to rethink it, perversely.