BMW 330e

[TW]Fox said:
Someone who drives less than 30 miles a day, presumably. Which is quite a lot of people.

It's a shame they tend to pair them with thirsty petrol engines and small fuel tanks which ruins the range, a plug in hybrid diesel that gives huge range out of town and zero emissions in town sounds like a great idea.
Click to expand...

Don't know if I would. Remember to plug in every day and go to the effort of doing so, to save 3 litres of petrol a day? You also have to have somewhere convenient in the first place.

From memory they don't tend to charge all that quickly even for the low capacity batteries.

That's why they end up not getting charged. So therefore a gimmick imo, as the target market is almost nonexistent.
 
father-ted said:
Are these decent motors, what are the pro's and con's please?
Cheap tax with them been hybrid and looks good performance = is making me seriously consider it.
Click to expand...

To try and answer your questions, and avoid the bickering people seem to have resorted to I can say that the 330e is a very nice vehicle overall.

Can I ask what your typical daily mileage covered is, and do you do lots of long runs or many short runs?

The nature of this car is that with the plug-in part, if you use it as intended, then you can save an awful lot of fuel and quite a sum of money (if paying out of your own pocket), you can achieve between 20-30 miles of range on the battery mode only, as long as you aren't flooring it away from roundabouts and lights at every opportunity, and aren't doing 80mph on the motorway for the most of the journey.
The charging is easy enough, and given the relatively small battery you can use a normal 3-pin to Type-2 EVSE charger, or get a proper Type-2 installed at your home, assuming you have off-street parking you should also be eligible for a grant. Obviously the good thing about getting a charger now is that you will have it for your next vehicle ,which has a good chance of being a full BEV.

The fuel economy is lacking on long runs, which is obviously annoying if you do this a lot of the time and you should probably avoid this car if that is the case, but if you commute say 50 miles and you can do 30 of that using cheap 5ppkWh electricity, then it would still beat an efficient diesel car without issue on running costs.
 
[TW]Fox said:
That's basically what conventional EV owners are doing?
Click to expand...

They charge their car every day?

(Ignoring the fact charging a conventional EV via a regular house supply is ridiculously slow)

A conventional EV lasts hundreds of miles on a charge.

Its like saying a car with a 3l fuel tank is no different to a car with a 50l fuel tank (for someone that drives 30 miles a day).

It is actually even worse than that, even if you drive just 20 miles a day you still have to charge it every day. So the money saved to convenience ratio is even worse.

That's the reason why so few people bother to charge these vehicle for the 25 to 35 miles of range they give. It's not worth the inconvenience.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Someone who drives less than 30 miles a day, presumably. Which is quite a lot of people.

It's a shame they tend to pair them with thirsty petrol engines and small fuel tanks which ruins the range, a plug in hybrid diesel that gives huge range out of town and zero emissions in town sounds like a great idea.
Click to expand...

It’s not linear though EV then engine. The small events the engine starts and stops, petrol is both better for that immediate startup and easier to manage emissions without sounding like a Massey Ferguson.

Then for most the driving in EV why would you want to carry around a boat anchor and 60litres of diesel? Whilst also adding even more to the cost. Car design is always a compromise. Guess Mercedes do it but they aren’t BMW are they...
 
dLockers said:
This is one of the more bizarre exchanges I've had on OCUK. Your second paragraph is literally what the point of the conversation was that you kept replying to in an obtuse manner.

It's a PHEV with a pathetic range marketed at people eligible for company cars as it has a tax break. Hence the first few posts.
Click to expand...

30 miles isn’t pathetic
 
muon said:
They charge their car every day?
Click to expand...

I gather most do, yes?

Jonnycoupe said:
Then for most the driving in EV why would you want to carry around a boat anchor and 60litres of diesel? Whilst also adding even more to the cost. Car design is always a compromise. Guess Mercedes do it but they aren’t BMW are they...
Click to expand...

BMW expect you to carry around a similarly heavy 3 litre petrol turbo and 45 litres of petrol in some.lf their cars, so why not?

There must be something in it or the Mercedes E300de wouldn't exist. Shame it's a 4 cylinder.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I gather most do, yes? It's what you do wj
Click to expand...

EV owners I know, don't (edit: I do only know Tesla owners). Especially the couple I know with Teslas.

They use rapid chargers.

edit:

I also know a 330e owner. And they use the exact same logic I have just explained above. They don't have a garage and so it would add a ridiculous overhead to charge the car every day. They do enjoy the good fuel economy and not getting treated like crap in London (if they were to have a diesel).
 
muon said:
Don't know if I would. Remember to plug in every day and go to the effort of doing so, to save 3 litres of petrol a day? You also have to have somewhere convenient in the first place.

From memory they don't tend to charge all that quickly even for the low capacity batteries.

That's why they end up not getting charged. So therefore a gimmick imo, as the target market is almost nonexistent.
Click to expand...

It’s simply cos the company car clowns on fuel cards get free fuel and plugging in actually costs money!

that said planning where to park at home can be quite tough to think about on your way home...
 
[TW]Fox said:
I gather most do, yes?



BMW expect you to carry around a similarly heavy 3 litre petrol turbo and 45 litres of petrol in some.lf their cars, so why not?

There must be something in it or the Mercedes E300de wouldn't exist. Shame it's a 4 cylinder.
Click to expand...

SUV4 segment product in a space where 8 cylinders and higher retail prices exist. Merc 4cylinder as a 6cylinder with the battery mass would exceed the axle gross vehicle masses for the platform and/or front crash structure performance.

I wasn’t asking for endorsement of my view anyway.

PS diesel is heavier ;) + urea.
 
muon said:
EV owners I know, don't. Especially the couple I know with Teslas.

They use rapid chargers
Click to expand...

A significant amount of ev owners have a driveway and charge at home.

I also know a 330e owner. And they use the exact same logic I have just explained above. They don't have a garage and so it would add a ridiculous overhead to charge the car every day.
Click to expand...

Most people with a brand new 3 Series probably have at least a driveway? There will be some without particularly in London but I'd imagine it's a minority.

I don't dispute the existence of company car drivers who don't plug in - it's absolutely a thing - but it hardly makes the car pointless.

If I had a 330e I'd be able to do the majority of my daily usage on pure electric power.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Most people with a brand new 3 Series probably have at least a driveway? There will be some without particularly in London but I'd imagine it's a minority.
Click to expand...

Rolling in/out an extension cable every day to save 3l in petrol wouldn't be enough of an incentive for me.

You'd also have to deal with the weather.
 
Deffo, and that’s the point which this silly ban is missing. With the battery we can make 4 or 5 330e type car for every model 3. And with plugging in and maybe even geofencing to manage access to zones it will have a much greater effect on transport de-carbonisation/local air pollution.
 
muon said:
Rolling in/out an extension cable every day to save 3l in petrol wouldn't be enough of an incentive for me.

You'd also have to deal with the weather.
Click to expand...

You ain’t got a clue what you are making up have you? A home charge point is not like mowing you lawn.

mNONnsY.jpg
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Deffo, and that’s the point which this silly ban is missing. With the battery we can make 4 or 5 330e type car for every model 3. And with plugging in and maybe even geofencing to manage access to zones it will have a much greater effect on transport de-carbonisation/local air pollution.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Range anxiety goes away and removes most people's final barrier to an electric car. You can then legislate for clean air zones with people free to use efficient Ice engines out in the country side.
 
Pretty sure none of what you are describing is mainstream. My experience is only anecdotal but I can see why people are so unlikely to charge their PHEV vehicles.
 
Chaps, I think you are all missing the point. The 330e is designed to essentially tick a company car tax box. No recipient of a company car with a fuel card is going to pay leccy to plug their 330e in. The gimmick is simply there to avoid tax. And then the point is that it isn't exactly an efficient petrol car.

I can't imagine many of these relative to total volume are shifted through private owners but of course if someone was to select this as their pride and joy, I totally agree they would be nuts to not take advantage of the charging points.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom