Any 330e owners?

AsaTDi

AsaTDi

AsaTDi

Associate
Joined
25 Oct 2007
Posts
198
Location
South Yorkshire
OK, so who has a 330e and which derivative? What is your experience been like? Any issues?

Just ordered my 330e 'Shadow Edition' in Alpine white.

Gone for the following packs;

- Interior comfort pack - 3 Series 330e
- Media pack - Professional plus - 3 Series

With the following additional options;

- Exterior mirrors - electrically folding with anti-dazzle
- Windscreen with grey shadeband
- Driver + passenger electric lumbar support
- Electric front seats with 2 position memory on drivers + drivers mirror memory + auto dip park function on passenger mirror + heated door mirrors
- Rear View Camera

Placed the order with Lex yesterday, so hoping to get the final lead time early next week - Talking to a BMW dealer they are saying it is anywhere from 8-12 weeks, in order to be allocated a 'build slot'

Going from a A4 2.0TDi (140ps), I can't wait :D :)
 
Last edited:
Good choice on car. However, I had to cancel my 530e order as it kept getting delayed further and further. As all other 5 series were coming out quickly from the factory, I assume it's relating to the hybrid elements as 330e orders have been similar.

I'd realistically expect it in 2018, but you will enjoy it :)
 
330e M-Sport Esotril Blue here. Got it June last year and it's great. Charge at work and at home, great economy / performance and the refinement of hybrid is a real step up. Preconditioning is a fantastic feature few seem to consider aswell.

Any questions fire away
 
Chris1712 said:
330e M-Sport Esotril Blue here. Got it June last year and it's great. Charge at work and at home, great economy / performance and the refinement of hybrid is a real step up. Preconditioning is a fantastic feature few seem to consider aswell.

Any questions fire away
Click to expand...
What sort of MPG do you get on your daily commute? BMW claims up to 140-150mpg, that's crazy...
 
IC3 said:
What sort of MPG do you get on your daily commute? BMW claims up to 140-150mpg, that's crazy...
Click to expand...

It depends entirely on the journey length and type. My average over 17000 miles has been 92.3mpg. Happy with that, lots of long journeys in that with no charge.
My daily commute is 16.8 miles each way, and I used to be able to charge at work (Landlord has thrown a strop so it's up in the air atm) - In summer I can easily get home on full electric and some days get to work on full electric (must be that way home is marginally more downhill!). Now I can only charge at home I average around 220mpg per day, but this will come down a lot in winter.
When I commuted a bit further (28 miles each way) I averaged about 150-160mpg.

You really notice how inefficient petrol/diesel is compared to hybrid in the winter/dark/rain. The difference between having the AC on or not is like 30% mpg, something which would barely make a difference in a normal car. If it's OK temperature wise but raining? That's 10-15% loss due to drag, no way you'd notice that in an ICE.

For me it's perfect, better than diesel mpg when you can plug in with better refinement than petrol (though I do miss 6 cylinders). Unless my commute changes my next car will 100% be Hybrid/Electric.
 
Surely these mpg figures are misleading - he's averaged 92mpg because he's done a number of miles at effectively N/A MPG running entirely on electric power.

For the sake of argument if you do 500 miles on electric only and 500 miles on petrol only at 40mpg does the car do 80mpg? Well technically yes but it completely ignores the cost of the electricity you used to cover half those miles.

Remember that this car is a 320i when not running in electric mode or when the electric power is mostly depleted.

So if you spend most of your time doing short trips around town you'll get almost inifinty mpg - you may never use a drop of petrol -but if you drove 500 miles to Scotland it'll surely end up being quite similar to a 320i as it will mostly use the petrol engine to sustain Motorway speeds and there won't be much regenerative braking going on to replenish with no penalty the electric you'll initially use up.
 
Yes Fox that's right, whilst electric is on the mpg is going up and vice versa when the petrol engine is on the mi/kw goes does up. On long motorway runs with no initial charge I usually end up around 45-50mpg which is pretty good imo, not idea how a 320i would compare. It's also worth stating you never have no electric power, even when tootling along the motorway it uses the electric motor to provide torque and allow the engine to run more efficiently. For example @ 70mph the engine will be wedged at say 1800rpm, with the electric motor taking up the slack on inclines and charging a smidge on declines. It's a great system.

Electricity is still cheaper than petrol, so overall I'm very happy with the running costs. I've done 17000 miles on approx £800 of petrol and £250 of electric.
 
I can get the 2018 330e/530e m spprt for under £400 a month on lease through work. Seriously tempted. How good are the base spec m sports? Does the 330e come with folding rear seats as standard and does anyone know how much the digital dash option is on the 330?
 
Amraam said:
I can get the 2018 330e/530e m spprt for under £400 a month on lease through work. Seriously tempted. How good are the base spec m sports? Does the 330e come with folding rear seats as standard and does anyone know how much the digital dash option is on the 330?
Click to expand...

Anyone? Various sites/reviews have said that the 330e comes with the folding 40/20/40 seats to make up for the loss of 110L of capacity, but on the NHS fleet solutions and BMW car builder it's still a £200+ option.

On the same note, can anyone tell me the depth of the boot with the seats up? I know I'm making a big deal about the boot, but I fly large RC helis which are about 1.5m long.
 
Does any of the above owners have updates on their MPG experiences now with the 330e? My work is making me have one instead of my 320d M Sport and I'm concerned I won't be able to get a high enough MPG to cover the 14p per mile I can get for business trips. My job entails mostly trips of 50-150 miles with only my personal trips under 50 miles or so at the weekends. It feels like the car should be plugged in at the weekend and driver without any electrons on the long journeys during the week.

Specifically then, if I do a 100 miles trip mainly on the motorway, with a light foot (65mpg cruise) but no charge up front, what would I likely see; my 320d gives me 55-65mpg on these sorts of days currently. Basically, I haven't paid for private fuel for years because the return at 1200 miles per month (@ 0.11p) from the business miles has always covered any private trips I do.
 
Khrest said:
... I'm concerned I won't be able to get a high enough MPG to cover the 14p per mile I can get for business trips...
Click to expand...

I can't comment on the 330e mpg, but do you know you can claim the gap to 45p (+income tax paid) per mile back from HMRC?

I.E. if your employer only pays 14p, you can fill out a P87 online and HMRC will pay you 31p/mile plus they refund the income tax you would have paid on that expense. You can also claim for recent previous years (5?).

I can't remember the exact details on the payment split, but some they send to you by cheque/BT and the rest is credited by changing your PAYE tax code so you get it paid back over the year, tax-free by your employer.

You could legitimately be able to claim back thousands if you've been doing 1200 business miles a month at only 14p.
 
Last edited:
vertica said:
I can't comment on the 330e mpg, but do you know you can claim the gap to 45p (+income tax paid) per mile back from HMRC?

I.E. if your employer only pays 14p, you can fill out a P87 online and HMRC will pay you 31p/mile plus they refund the income tax you would have paid on that expense. You can also claim for recent previous years (5?).

I can't remember the exact details on the payment split, but some they send to you by cheque/BT and the rest is credited by changing your PAYE tax code so you get it paid back over the year, tax-free by your employer.

You could legitimately be able to claim back thousands if you've been doing 1200 business miles a month at only 14p.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that HMRC don't pay you the difference between the approved rate and whatever you actually get, you just tax relief on that amount

https://www.litrg.org.uk/useful-lin...rm-p87-–-claim-tax-relief-expenses-employment

John drives his own car for work, and he has to travel most days between different retail locations. In 2017/18 he does 12,000 business miles. His employer pays him mileage at the rate of 25p per mile, so he receives £3,000 in total. The HMRC mileage rates are 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p thereafter, so he can claim an extra 20p per mile for his first 10,000 miles (£2,000).

He will not receive a repayment of £2,000 – he will receive tax relief on the amount claimed. As John is a basic rate taxpayer, he will receive tax relief at the basic rate of tax of 20% on £2,000, i.e. £400.
Click to expand...
 
Can anyone who has been driving one of these for a while tell me what their pure electric range is?
I know the official is about 25 but I've been reading that people have been getting closer to 15.

I'm driving an Optima PHEV which claims 31 miles and actually gives around 30 most of the time. The downside to mine is the gearbox is very slow and ponderous which I believe is better in the BMW.
 
Thanks for the replies to my query but i think i probably did not make it clear that i am driving a company car but claiming business miles and the 14p is the revenue recommended rate, i believe 45p is for using your own vehicle?
 
vertica said:
I can't comment on the 330e mpg, but do you know you can claim the gap to 45p (+income tax paid) per mile back from HMRC?

I.E. if your employer only pays 14p, you can fill out a P87 online and HMRC will pay you 31p/mile plus they refund the income tax you would have paid on that expense. You can also claim for recent previous years (5?).

I can't remember the exact details on the payment split, but some they send to you by cheque/BT and the rest is credited by changing your PAYE tax code so you get it paid back over the year, tax-free by your employer.

You could legitimately be able to claim back thousands if you've been doing 1200 business miles a month at only 14p.
Click to expand...

Wish this were the case to claw back some of the tax I pay but alas it’s the tax relief on the difference that you get paid back. Reminds me I need to claim for last year :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom