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We've had the 5 for nearly a week although, with one thing and another, we've done relatively few miles. Mrs Petriix has done most of the driving so far while I've done more of the fiddling with settings and working out the idiosyncrasies. I thought I would post some initial observations...
- We've covered 132 miles and used around 44kWh of energy which correlates exactly with the car's 3 miles per kWh calculation - we picked the car up 97% charged, the Zappi has added 33.5kWh and the SOC is currently 74%.
- I estimate that the heater has used around 7kWh of that energy, averaging 1kW for the 7 hours the car has been 'on'. That would make the driving efficiency around 3.5 miles per kWh, which is pretty good considering the temperature and conditions.
- The heater is very power hungry, peaking at around 4.5kW if the car's power flow display is to be believed (around 12 amps at 375v when heat and blowers set to maximum) so there is a significant overhead to doing sporadic short journeys in the cold weather as the car heats from cold every time.
- Charging works ok, with a couple of quirks:
- the car is very slow to respond to the Zappi resuming charging. It initially says 'plugged in, uncharged!' while the Zappi says 'Charge delayed' or 'Waiting for EV', then the Zappi says 'Charging' but with power showing as 0 then, after around 60 seconds, the car finally starts to charge. That makes the Eco+ mode a bit painful when there's a few clouds about and seems to break the 'Smart Boost' functionality - I believe because the car doesn't respond fast enough during the test phase so the Zappi calculates that infinite time is required to achieve the selected amount of charging and therefore starts right away.
- Scheduled charging seems to work fine.
- when the car is unlocked, charging 'pauses' which makes the Zappi think that the charge is complete so it wouldn't resume again. Thankfully there are some compatibility settings in the Zappi advanced options which can prevent this from happening. After a minute charging resumes.
- Plugging in when the car is unlocked can be a little temperamental, sometimes the cable lock mechanism whirs a few times before finally charging, other times it starts first time and a couple of times I have needed to unplug and then reconnect the cable.
- There is no obvious indication that the car is charging, but if you press the lock button on the door (without the key in your pocket) then it displays the current SOC percentage, GOM range and estimated time remaining on the driver's display.
- The only method of preheating the car is very clunky but can be done while charging. You have to turn the car on manually and, if you want to lock it and leave it unattended, you have to wind the window down then use the lock button inside the driver's door before winding the window up again (be quick to get your arm out of the way!); then the only way of unlocking it again is with the physical key after removing the end piece of the driver's door handle. I don't think I'll be doing that very often!
- There doesn't seem to be a way of displaying the tyre pressures in PSI so I'll have to get used to BAR.
- The USB ports are quite low powered so phone charging is slow.
- Android Auto can be fiddly to connect but seems to work well once you have the correct settings:
- make sure developer mode is enabled to allow USB debugging
- pair the phone to the car with Bluetooth before first connecting
- set the default behaviour to 'transfer files'
- unlock your phone before connecting the cable
- if it's not working it's usually because it's switched back to 'USB Accessory' mode so drag down from the top of your phone, tap on the USB connection and change it back to 'transfer files'.
- The DAB aerial is built into the bottom of the rear windscreen as an apparent continuation of the rear demister; those bottom few bars won't clear because that's not a heating element.
- Some perfectly passable mats are available from Home Bargains for £4.49. They also sell a boot liner and a seat cover.
- Those roof rails are pretty flimsy and clearly under engineered. I suspect that they could easily fail if loaded up. However, the Thule Aero roof bars from my old Peugeot 206sw do fit perfectly so I am likely to come up with a way of using them to transport our canoe; I will ensure that there is an adequate amount of additional support that provides a fully redundant connection to the car so that nothing would come loose even if the roof rails broke or became detached.