BMW have recently brought out the 330e hybrid. Reviews look good apart from it weighs more than the a standard 3 series.

Has anyone driven one and got any real world feed back as not many decent reviews as yet.

Also how do hybrids work in general? Our village has s plug in point, do you just plug in and pay by the minute using a bank card?

Also it says it’s home mains chargable, again do you just plug in an extension cord or is it more involved than that? How much does it add to home electric bill ?

The car appeals to me mainly as it’s very low company car tax bracket so would be cheaper to run than my existing slower 320d.

Ta

A colleague of mine has the Mitibushi Outlander Phev.

He says its great – with the exception that it no way meets the manufactors stated MPG. He gets about 78mpg not the claimed 128mpg, although he’s said he got 95mpg once on a motorway journey.

He also said the technology has come a long way and in the main he doesn’t notice the electric/diesel engine switch, but where it really works is for school runs – his Mrs potters about in town on the electric engine only, saving them loads of fuel. He also states that after a while you forget about driving to a particular “style”, you just drive and the car switches as necessary depending on the power demand – e.g. his wife just does those school runs without thinking about how to drive.

He says he gets about 75 miles or 10 days of school runs on a single full charge which he’s calculated £1.10 overnight from empty.

I asked the same question about the power – he said the lead comes with a transformer that allows plug into the fuel station electric supplies but also an extention which ends in a usual UK mains plug. The whole things is stored in the boot if necessary, and he leaves his on charge overnight in the garage.

HTH a bit.

Funkydunc.

Hybrid cars

It’s not hard.

Thanks Larry, most unhelpful.

Kryton interesting what you are saying my commute is part school run, then fast country then town again. Does concern me that the country driving bit would be wasting the cars potential with it being heavier and a 2.0 petrol engine

Well, bearing in mind what the above car was, he does a 44 mile journey to work from Weston-super-mare to a country lane based office. He says once you put your foot down with both motors engaged its pretty quick.

I can only imagine that the BM (bearing in mind what it is designed for), would be pretty rapid. I was looking at the two series “e” to replace our family Kuga and it comes up qute sprightly on paper. Maybe test one, but importantly test one with the ‘leccy disengaged so you know what its like without the backup. Those 2.0d’s are pretty pokey on thier own, not sure if your’s would be the 184bhp or 200bhp derrative with twin turbo? I have the former in a current shape 120 and its like shit off a shovel TBH, massive torque too.

Apparently it’s 184bhp, electric motor takes it to 250bhp 0-60mph 6 seconds!

his wife just does those school runs without thinking about how to drive

Yep, that pretty much sums up most of them round here

I have a golf gte which is a plug in hybrid. Charging is easy at home using either normal plug and adaptor or you can use one of the many free or paid charge points.

Whether it is economic really depends on your journey. I can do a whole week of commutes on electric only so theoretically infinite mpg. However longer journeys then you are mainly in the petrol engine so less good. Thing to remember with the outlander is that when you are on the petrol engine you are in a heavy 4×4 so it is never going to be economical.

Also don’t trust the electric range figures as they are the maximum possible. Drive with the heater on or at motorway speeds then range will be half that claimed especially in winter.

I have a lexus is300h hybrid. Fast amooth quiet and i get 45 ish mpg. This from a 2.5l petrol engine. 109co2 so mega cheap co car tax. Love it but wish it had more electric range(2miles) and speed(30mph)

Guy – just realised that the charging point in our village is free to use.

It looks like at one point you could also get free charging points installed at home, looks like you can now get it done for about £200…

I looked at installing a charging point at home and it only made sense if you had a battery only electric car that takes longer to charge. Plug in hybrids have smaller batteries so it did not seem worth it for me.

Guy,
Any other info. about the GTe? I’ve got one coming in March (& probably going in April when the fleet manager notices the lease costs)

Impressed with it so far. Really fun to drive with the GTE button on and rapid too. Economy wise I have around 60mpg over 3000 miles but I have not really been careful. Range not good if driving it quickly and at motorway speeds will struggle to get 15 miles but that is fine for my trip to work.

Best thing is switching the heating on before I get in the car. No de icing which is great!

Mine did have to go back to VW for 4 weeks due to an engine fault but they dealt with it well and this is probably rare.

Just done a quote on a GTE for me and comes out way more than my current 320d. 330e prices not available yet.

Is it the 1.4 you have? I assumed GT would be 2.0? (I only get option for 1.4)

Sounds promising – thanks for sharing. I miss the pre-heating of my old LR.
Have a slight issue in home charging (no space on driveway), but may see if I can run an extension cord out of a window at work and conjure up a RAMS to prevent the H&S officer having a head fit.
I think the monthly payment on a full service & 48 months at 2K per was just under £400.

Yes, GTE are all 1.4 but that produced 140/150bhp (can’t remember which) with electric adding an extra 100bhp.

There are a few videos of 0-60 in 6 ish seconds but I get around 7.1.

Never driven one, but watch out for floods, recently a BMWe got stuck in a flood (smallish depth) and a went into safe mode, locked into Park so could not be pushed out of the way, of course it ended up in middle of the road blocking folk, who had to drive up over the footpath. Everyone offered help but car could not be moved, it had to be lifted onto a lorry.
Sorry not much help, perhaps all modern cars are like this!

I have had a plug in hybrid as my company car for about 2 weeks. It’s a Mercedes C class estate. The 350e which has a 2 litre petrol engine & an electric motor. The biggest attraction is the tax liability. The CO2 emissions are just 49 g/km so it’s in the 5% bracket so for a £42k car I pay just £60 per month which is amazing.

I’m getting around 45 mpg which I am happy with.
It definately feels heavier than the standard c class estate but is very relaxing to drive & a lot more comfortable that the BMW 330D I have just sent back (a different beast all together!)

I plug in every night at home & charging takes 3-4 hours. Not sure how much it will cost me in electricity yet. I have a standard outdoor plug which is working fine. I did consider having an electric car point installed (£185) & haven’t yet ruled it out as they are subsidised at the moment.

All in all, I’m very happy & will definately notice the tax difference.

Hope this helps.

I’m on my 3rd Lexus hybrid, the electric motor does deliver a lot of torque in areas where the petrol motor is weak so it will be a different power curve than you are used to. It will take a while for your driving style to adapt to best use the system, get up to speed really quickly then coast on the electric for as long as possible, theres a lot less engine braking so you roll a lot longer when you lift your foot off the pedal, but its charging the battery so again you start to factor it into your driving.

Brake pads/discs last absolutely ages as when you first brake it’ll use regen braking before using the pads/discs as a last resort. My Gs450h which had 340bhp didn’t need its pads changing until 47000 miles.

The current IS300h gets about 47mpg unless I stick it in sport and have some fun in which case it gets down to about 38mpg.

Spacecadet, I have looked briefly at the Merc, but I like sporty cars, and although I have not driven a recent Merc, I assume it’s still like a posh sofa than a nimble car, compared to the 330d?

Funkydunc, based on all your previous car posts it is a BMW so must be absolutely the best thing ever, the greatest vehicle on the road, all else is inferior so it must be good, right?

Just about to get rid of our bmw after only 9 months as I have never owned a car with so many problems. Once it comes back after a long list of warranty work it’ll be gone, along with around 3k we’ll lose on it.

Have looked at a hybrid or electric car but I don’t think they’re quite developed enough yet for our needs. Maybe after the next car.

Oh, and the bmw was approved used from a bmw franchised dealer.

There are many different hybrid systems. The Toyota or lexus ones are a different beast to the ones you plug in. Although there is a plug in Prius which is a different model. Their system is designed to recover wasted energy, hence the batter is small. Stuff like the golf GTE has a big battery for driving on electricity alone.

hence the batter is small.

I have the same issue, seems to be age related.

I have had a plug in hybrid as my company car for about 2 weeks. It’s a Mercedes C class estate. The 350e which has a 2 litre petrol engine & an electric motor. The biggest attraction is the tax liability. The CO2 emissions are just 49 g/km so it’s in the 5% bracket so for a £42k car I pay just £60 per month which is amazing.

Watch out though, how long is your contract? At the moment even the £51k (!) Volvo hybrid is doable on tax, however in 19/20 49g/km goes up to 16%, 51g/km is 19%

With such high list prices I’m steering well clear.

Ah Pictonrod that’s fair comment I need to look more in to that, it would make a massive difference.

In theory I can swap out after 2 yrs 🙂

however in 19/20 49g/km goes up to 16%, 51g/km is 19%

Just checked my current car, and the 330e, on my details

Current Car 2016/17 = £109 per month
Hybrid 2016/17 = £40

Hybrid 2017/18 = £52

Hybrid 2018/19 = £75

Still cheaper than my current lease for a faster car with more toys than my current one.

What are these like as motorway mile munchers? I’m considering the Golf GTe or BMW 330e, not bothered about mpg figures, just want to bring my tax down and still be able to do 500 miles/ wk in relative comfort.

I’ve got a GTE coming (finally, hopefully) in a couple of weeks. Looks like it will be perfect for me: cheap, low emissions and quite good fun. The BMW e models and Merc have a smaller battery than the VWs, so less electric range. That matters to me, but won’t to everyone.

I’ve just had a home charger installed. As we’ve got 3 phase electric at home I’ve future proofed it so that I can upgrade to 22kw charging in the hope that it might be replaced with a Tesla next time.

Hugoagogo, they’re fine as motorway cruisers, but tax aside that’s kind of missing the point. There’s little environmental benefit. You’ll get about 45mpg on a run.

It’s worth having a read of the speakev forum if you’re interested in the details. Be prepared for some electric vehicle militancy though. Lots of EV drivers don’t approve of PHEVs at all.

Hugo – I can’t imagine a hybrid would work for you on that mileage. Both the Golf and BM get about 20-25 mile range on electric so you would end up using the standard engine for 3/4 of your journey.

I guess you need to do the maths on whether the tax saving works out cheaper than extra fuel costs. Probably in Yr 1 it’s a no brainer but further down the line I bet there isn’t much in it, certainly the press are saying for larger mileage a conventional more tax efficient diesel works out cheaper

I can see the militancy against PHEV. I’m not too sure what the environmental benefit is. I can certainly see what the company car tax benefit is though.

here’s little environmental benefit. You’ll get about 45mpg on a run.

On long runs, sure. But IF you stay within electric range most of the time you’re saving energy.

Depends on your usage innit.

Both the Golf and BM get about 20-25 mile range on electric so you would end up using the standard engine for 3/4 of your journey.

If you have a regular trip that is longer than the EV range, there might (ought to) be an option to have the battery augment the engine over a longer range so it would use less petrol. I know that some of them allow you to choose how the electricity is used.

Not sure about VW but the BM uses the Sat Nav to optomise leccy use, so although my total journey is 22 miles each way, I assume it would save the lecy for the built up bits at either end of the journey.

Still intrigued though as current car does approx 45 mpg round town and 60mpg on open roads, avg about 50mpg for the same commute. The petrol engine will only do about 40mpg max so it’s whether the shortish town driving at either end of the journey makes the difference. ??

If you plan and learn which modes are most efficient where, then you can eek the electricity out. You should certainly do a lot better than 45mpg on your commute, if you use EV in town and hybrid auto (or whatever BMW call their version of leaving it to its own devices) on the faster stretches.

You might find a dealer willing to do an extended test drive maybe?

You might also be interested in diesel hybrids. The Volvo and Peugot ones are diesel, however not quite as fancy as a BMW. There’s also the Audi A3 one that has a TFSI engine, might be more frugal.

Don’t know if this helps anyone but BM currently has £5k government cash contribution which will end late Feb. Lead times are mid May. Not in show rooms until March

Apparently the Merc 350e is a 6-7month lead time 😯

My brother ordered his Merc 350 e and is hoping to take delivery this month.Impressive syats but will be interesting to see how they translate to the real world. How more company cars will be plug in hybrids with the diesel emissions scandal ?

Even non-plug-in hybrids can compete on CO2, and wipe the floor with diesel in terms of NOx.

I looked at this in some detail when I changed jobs a little while back and increased my commute.
I test drove a Nissan Leaf and was impressed but the range was disappointingly low and even my wife who had less than a 50 mile round commute had range anxiety when she hit trafic, in the rain, dark etc and the estimated remaining mileage dropped quite alarmingly!

I bought a Mito 1.3 diesel which is nice to drive and i get 60+ mpg (according to the on board computer)

I also have a C class sport estate which is fantastic but only circa 35 mpg so at some point that will get traded in and I will certainly get a hybrid if not a full ev

The BMW will have a £2.5k grant from March I think.