do you have an option to hold the battery charge and manually switch to the combustion engine?

Drive to school and work using 80% of battery, plug it in, drive home later using another 80% of battery that work paid for, result.

Would be great if I had any where at work to plug it in….

do you have an option to hold the battery charge and manually switch to the combustion engine?

No, although people are finding a work around. You can take the car out of auto mode manually change gear. This starts the engine, but it is a faff.

It’s possibly a marketing / trades description issue although tbh it’s more you overestimating the units functionality and/or not using it correctly

I could see that could be the case, as you are right to some extent I may have made the jump for using Sat Nav to do a route. However this was reinforced by sales staff, and even BMW Product Marketing team thought it could do it last week….until I pointed out it couldn’t…hence why they are now updating all staff.

You come on to STW to slate a BMW and no one has said it yet??????
Should have bought a t5/Skoda Octavia.

Was this with or without the optional indicator pack?

Was this with or without the optional indicator pack?

Well done you win a prize 🙄 but it only took 3 hours…

I live in a hilly area and travel to a flat area

Downhill should charge your battery for nuffin anyway.

Drive kids to school on electric engine, put bike in the boot.
Park car on yellow lines outside school entrance.
Cycle to work.

A friend of mine used to work at a BMW dealership and said their customers were the most petty fault finders you could imagine!

Told me some amazing stories, such as the customer who complained that his carpet mat clips did not line up, a customer who returned a car because the indicator click was to loud and a guy who went over his paintwork checking the paint thickness to find a minuscule difference in thickness!

He used to be a wind up merchant mind, would give a customer dropping off a MINI for a service a M3 as a loaner and a M3 owner doing the same would get a MINI just to see their reaction 😉

BMW motorcycle owners have the same kind of reputation. I once had a bloke checking the straightness of some stitching with a ruler.
The stitching was on a green canvas bike cover!

If nothing else, this thread is putting me off getting a “smart” car since this is the kind of crap that would drive (pun intended) me potty.

Does the car not recharge the battery during braking etc? Surely it must do for that not inconsiderable outlay. :/

I’m sure some folk in Africa who have to walk tens of miles everyday to collect dirty drinking water are deeply concerned about your plight. I imagine right now they are selling off their half dead cattle so they can raise funds to buy you the upgraded sat-nav system. What amazing selfless souls, the spirit of Christmas is truly alive!

I’m not sure the phrase “first world problem” does justice to the anguish this must be causing

Absolutely!

I think it’s disgusting!

OP should demand, not “ask for”, but *demand* a full refund with compensation for his pain and suffering 😡

Then he should park the car tight up against the door of the dealership and stick the key into a turd he’s coiled out on the driver’s seat.

That’ll teach them!

You really need to find out if the navigation does do the efficiency thing but only with one destination.

If it does then BMW haven’t marketed it incorrectly, if it doesn’t then they should have specified you need the Pro and you should be able to challenge them on that.

a guy who went over his paintwork checking the paint thickness to find a minuscule difference in thickness!

When I was a detailer we had a lot of requests to do this for customers of expensive cars. It’s common for them to be damaged on delivery and need re-painting, some customers aren’t happy with that as there could be other damage being hidden and the PDG would help spot the re-paint.

I like these threads…

I’ve had my 330e since June. If you want to save the battery you can either put it in battery save mode, or push the gear selector to manual (you don’t have to manually change gear in this mode.).

That’s said, just drive it in Auto mode, and charge it when you can. Lets be honest, like me, I’m sure you got it for the very low BIK, so you are probably £200+ better off each month..? So just enjoy!

Why not use the sat nav set to your ultimate destination, but drive your own route there rather than following theirs? surely it’ll learn that this is a route that you do and will then make it all good for you.

How about charging it at work? Turn up with battery almost empty, use works electricity, drive home on their free fuel. Win win.

^ this is what I do – even arranged for an external power point to be installed where I like to park. Free charging and a reserved spot! #winning

I reckon your mate was telling porkies

LOL @ Houns

Lets be honest, like me, I’m sure you got it for the very low BIK, so you are probably £200+ better off each month..?

This is why my brother in law has a Merc hybrid. Apparently it goes like stink as well. It supposedly does all this while saving polar bears too.

Good god man it’s a BMW!! You tell people, they don’t tell you (except at junctions obviously, or elsewhere that indicators might be helpful).

I appear to be the only one who thinks it astounding that you actually thought this system was a GoodIdea(TM). Seriously, you really thought some sort of live traffic update would save you any money or kill fewer baby robins? It’s just a system that allows BMW to work around various emissions legislation/charges and buy themselves a conscience without cheating like VW did. Did you really think it made any material difference to anything that isn’t a standardised emissions test?

EDIT – fixed less/fewer because, well, yes some standards are worth ninja editing for.

or kill less baby robins?

Fewer darling! They’re small enough as it is.

Some real heros on this thread 😕

I work in the automotive industry, and if my experience is anything to go by, don’t buy any car on the basis of anything software related. No-one understands it and they are rushing stuff out without testing it properly, even if it’s safety related (e.g. Driver Assist stuff). Premium brands might even be worse, as they all want to have the latest (i.e. the least tested) features.

Should have bought an outlander PHEV, obvs.

My MD bought himself a brand new Fiat Panda to save fuel – his other cars are a big Merc, 3 series BMW and a Porsche 911.

He drives the Panda the most!
Even the humblest Italian cars are more fun than German Company lease fodder. Pandas are brilliant little cars that just beg to be thrashed. Looks like I might be getting another having sworn “never again”…

I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn’t recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional “get you home motor”. BM are still slacking a bit.

How much battery is the satnav using,? Maybe turn the heated seats off, refrain from using the wipers, heating and radio. I think you may get a bit more out of it if you fold in or take off the wing mirrors. 😆

I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn’t recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional “get you home motor”. BM are still slacking a bit.

My RC cars back in the 90’s used to have regenerative braking built into the ESCs so I had expected it to be built into every electric and hybrid car.

I was tempted by an i3 on business lease. In the end I stuck with my 15 year old peugeot estate after doing the figures.

It’s just a system that allows BMW to work around various emissions legislation/charges and buy themselves and their customers a conscience without cheating like VW

FTFY

I’ve had my 330e since June. If you want to save the battery you can either put it in battery save mode, or push the gear selector to manual (you don’t have to manually change gear in this mode.).

Thatscold – BMW have updated the battery save mode since you got yours. Instead of recharging to 50% it recharges to 90%, so now its cold, all you need to do is have the heater on and it keeps recharging.

How are you not having to change gear when you put it in manual? If I put it in manual and then don’t use the paddles to change gear it just redlines it….which isn’t very efficient.

I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn’t recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional “get you home motor”. BM are still slacking a bit.

The i3 I drive at work now and again has regenerative braking. The “range extender” motor does just that though. So when the battery reaches a certain level (which I believe can be adjusted in settings) the motor kicks in and charges the battery so the car still runs as normal as the car is still running on the electric motor rather than a little 2 cylinder motor.

I had an i3 on hire/test from BMW 5 weeks ago. I’m thinking of getting rid of the XC60 and replacing it with a hybrid, I’ve had a Prius and that was woeful, I don’t want a CT200h either because that’s just a posh Prius.
So since I’ve owned a brace of 530d spot tourings, I thought I’d try this i3 out.

It’s a nice place t be, nippy, quiet, comfortable. The range was about 240miles before it popped, it had the engine in to recharge the battery, but I left it feeling £32k on a small car is stupidity.

I’ll end up getting another XC60 no doubt.

My Macan can’t do this either

Might have to trade it for the new Bentley Hubris

Most hybrid have some sort of manual override where you can tell the car if you want it to be battery only / engine only etc etc.
Can you not just do this on the sections of your journey where its most appropriate?

I borrowed a 330e a few weeks ago for a weekend trip to the lakes. Was quite amused how quickly it was to drain the battery in comfort mode. Ended up leaving it in sport mode for the remainder of the trip.

-Electric mode was great round town
-Comfort mode couldn’t make its mind up what it wanted to do unless you punched in a destination, then it worked(ish). It would also hang onto the gears rather than changing up early which I found a bit odd.
-Sport mode made the car work as I expected. Electric motor supplementing the engine where needed and recouping energy through the brakes. Also seemed to return better economy than the comfort mode (probably due to changing up early as I would expect it to when on a light throttle)

At the end of the day, a cars economy is judged on a drive cycle (NEDC, etc) which arn’t really representative of how we drive, only way is to demo a car and judge for yourself. Highly likely I will be replacing my Golf Mk7 with a Mk7.5 GTE.

Funkydunc, I think Thatscold is talking about pushing the gear selector left into “M/S” IIRC this will put the ‘box into sport mode (quicker shifts) but will not be manual until you override with the paddles (or push back or forward on the stick). That’s how the ZF ‘box works on my 1 series anyway.. Never driven a 330e so it may be different.

Also – 20mpg at best on the IC engine?! That is pretty shocking.. it’s a 2.0T right? Is this so low because of re-charging and the electric gubbins being so heavy?? You should save some money on fuel and get an M135i… (not sure the BIK advantages will be the same mind..)