One month with the C Evolution - BMW made a Dream Electric Machine !

I got the new BMW C Evolution electric scooter 4 weeks ago now exactly and rode it almost every day, to commute and to go out in Paris at night and during the week end



To summarize my experience I must say that I am delighted with it, and always excited to use it every morning and every night when I turn the ignition key :-) and never used the LEAF ever since

First the power and acceleration are awesome and I am quickly at 100 km/h in town if I leave it full throttle, which is a lot ! It can be very quickly dangerous for a newbie and also a drivers license killer in seconds, so let's be careful ...

I commute with it and do 90% freeway every week day, which is new for me on a scooter: it is fully adapted to this thanks to the great handling, braking and of course acceleration capability to do whatever I want whenever I want : merge into traffic, overtake, etc

I always use the SAIL Mode, allowing freewheling / coasting, I like to accelrate and then let the scooter continue without having to fight automatic regen. Anyways when I need to slow down, anticipation is key and the motor has some drag / brake of its own that will eventually stop the bike; Also when you touch the brakes, it will engage regen, and you can hear it (when in a silent environment like my parking) and see it on the LCD dashboard ...

The 129 km/h limit - on the display - is fine since freeways I use are mostly 90, 110 and maybe 5 km at 130 km/h max



The range is great with a real 100 km, at freeway speed this time - which is never the case with EV range figures - ! I very often see 50km on my daily trip gage when I get home, and 50% charge left in the battery pack :-) So I can commute, get home and go out at night anywhere in Paris and return home with like 20% maybe, all this on a single charge: Perfect !

Over the week end, fully charged, I experienced 130km of range capability going around town in Paris, without limiting myself at all, with plenty of full trottle green light accelerations



I get a lot of positive feedback/reactions cruising at low speed in the street, at the red light, when parking, on the freeway (from BMW owners too), get into a lot of chat with scooter owners ...


Braking with ABS is also new for me on a two wheels and is very effective and reassuring in case of emergency, even if I am always extra careful especially at high speed, even more when the road is wet

TCA - Torque Control Assist - is also a mandatory feature with this much power and torque, and it is triggered very easily even on dry pavement; It works exactly like on the Tesla Model S to avoid spinning the rear wheels and slide sideways



Charging is also very well done, quick with the onboard 3kW charger and the current 6-10A limiting EVSE provided with the scooter. I use the LEAF's just because it is already there mounted on the wall in my parking and of course because it has the same J2772 plug, which can be found in many places, like at Autolib charging stations all over Paris ... I always charge at 10A which is 2200W





But wait there's more ! It is 3 times more efficient than commuting with the LEAF ! so everything can be improved, even if you already drive an EV :-) : 4kWh round trip instead of 12


BMW made a Dream Electric Machine I think, in terms of power, acceleration, range, charging, handling, security ... I mean I can not find a defect, maybe the size of the trunk, but that's it :-)

It is now for sure the new world reference for Electric Scooters !

Let's test this New J1772 Extension Cable to Charge our LEAF at an Autolib Station

Now that we have received this J1772 Extension Cable, we took it down to the parking to put it in the LEAF trunk, its new home ...

Any volunteer ? Yes, Clément :-)

He was coming to the Tesla Store with me anyways





When we got there, I thought, let's try it right here, between our wall mounted EVSE, and the LEAF => works like a charm :-)


and charges the LEAF - after turning OFF the charge program -



Remember my wall mounted second original EVSE, well it has been charging our LEAF for almost 2.5 years now ...



Clement filming his dad's experiments



Close up on the J1772 plug - extension -



On the ground, the EVSE 1772 plug is simply plugged into the J1772 extension inlet



Let's go to the Tesla Store ! 

....

Back in Paris, the Tesla Store is actually in Gennevilliers, close to Saint Ouen where I used to work, outside Paris, but in the relatively close suburb

So here we are, at one of our favorite charging locations, in Marais, behind Hotel de Ville, and one spot out of two is taken by a Renault Twizy, the other one, by a Bluecar / Autolib

Twizy and its telephone curled up blue cord


What is it doing here ??! ICEd by an Autolib - Take 2, not the first time -

Guess what, we just had to go 2 spots ahead and parked at the Autolib station :-), not a problem anymore with our new cable !

This cable is just perfect :-)

Locked up



Autolib charge cable extended

J1772 Extension Cable arrives from Tucson - Unboxing ...

The cable ordered a week ago arrived last thursday, right on time for a trial this week and; as you probably already know, it is the solution I chose to be able to Charge from Autolib stations in Paris ...





















































papa ! It connects to itself !


It seams so long !











It took 10 days more or less

LEAF Charging at Autolib Stations - I finally ordered a J1772 extensioncable from Tucsonev.com

After looking for 2 weeks, I finally went back to my first idea and ordered a J1772 Extension Cable, from TucsonEV.com




Made by a person building EVs, attending Jack Rickard's EVCCON, it should be good

It looks like a quality strong build, with good components and these are not cheap: the plug, outlet, cable rated for 30A ...

Measures 22 feet long, 22 x 30cm = 6.6m, perfect from the end of the LEAF to the front charge port, and has the J1772 hole for the padlock (perfect)

I will plug the Autolib J1772 plug into one end and plug the other end into the LEAF charge port, with one padlock on each, nobody is going to unplug me now !  :-)

Here is the invoice


Not cheap, but in Euros it comes to right under 290, and it is about the only spending I had for the LEAF in 2 years of use, so it's OK


Here is the direct: linkhttp://tucsonev.com/J1772Extension.html

Charging the LEAF at an Autolib Station - Take 3

Last saturday, with my son, we did charge the LEAF at an Autolib Charging Station in La Defense ...

It is finally plugged in and charging after a few problems with the charging program I forgot to override before plugging in the J1772, so I had to unplug, charge timer off,  and replug


Of course we know that this is forbidden: we are using 2 charging spots here; one to park, and the one upfront because we plug into its charge port



About the Blue color code: it was green before we plugged in, and became Blue right after, so this Blue ALSO means: Third Party EV using the spot, not only spot booked 






Again, this spot configuration is very tight for the LEAF, and it was kind of difficult to get in without touching the charge ports, because we had to climb on a sidewalk to get in ....



A Model S would not fit at all, don't try :-)



I did not touch thanks to the backup camera



First text message from Autolib billing me for 20mn of charge (that is the minimum even if you charge few seconds) :-(



We are charging



thee was a beautiful sky ...







I used to work in this tower in the back







A little shopping for breakers for the DIY ESS Kit #2



I wanted to find the exact same enclosure, small, to fit on the Control Board







Back at the car, as soon as I unplugged I got an text message from Autolib: 83cts for almost and hour, kind of cheap for a 3kW charge :-)



And on their iPhone app, I can now see the invoices for these lats two charges