[HPS]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I need some help, please.

I have just bought a 2020 BMW 330E M Sports Plus. I am using a three-pin plug to charge the car overnight. I have a couple of questions, please.

I am told it's not a good practice to charge the car to 100% every day. Is this true?

I can't figure out where to set the option to have the electric battery charge up to 80% only.

I have i-drive 7 installed and the version is 11-2019.

I believe that there is a more up-to-date version available for which I will have to take a trip to the dealer.

Your answers will be much appreciated.

Thanks

HPS

[gavinwong]

Originally Posted by HPS

Hi,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I need some help, please.

I have just bought a 2020 BMW 330E M Sports Plus. I am using a three-pin plug to charge the car overnight. I have a couple of questions, please.

I am told it's not a good practice to charge the car to 100% every day. Is this true?

I can't figure out where to set the option to have the electric battery charge up to 80% only.

I have i-drive 7 installed and the version is 11-2019.

I believe that there is a more up-to-date version available for which I will have to take a trip to the dealer.

Your answers will be much appreciated.

Thanks

HPS

Also 2020 330e here.
Not sure where you heard about not charging it to 100% each day. Kinda defeats the purpose of a Plug in to not get the most out of it. Some battery is reserved in the background to help with battery degradation. I’ve always charged mine to 100% without any issues. No mention of it too in the manual.
I don’t think you can set it to only charge to 80%. I guess you could do that by setting a charging timer. You can however use the battery hold driving mode to never let it drop below a certain %. Helps if you know you can’t charge at your destination but need some charge to pre condition the cabin

[G22b58]

Manufacturers, also BMW, informs that 20-80% gives a better battery life than charging daily to 100%. Source: https://www.bmwusa.com/charging.html
That they not mention it (and don't have built-in functions for it) on hybrids, I think is that reducing the electrical range to 60% will be too short for many customers (perhaps also effects the WLTP numbers?).

[gavinwong]

Originally Posted by G22b58

Manufacturers, also BMW, informs that 20-80% gives a better battery life than charging daily to 100%. Source: https://www.bmwusa.com/charging.html
That they not mention it (and don't have built-in functions for it) on hybrids, I think is that reducing the electrical range to 60% will be too short for many customers (perhaps also effects the WLTP numbers?).

I Thought that rule was just on fully electric models that have the capability to fast charge to 80%. Whereas the hybrid, to your point, needs as much charge as possible to get anywhere near the stated efficiency.

Update : found the thread here which says usable battery power is lower than the battery capacity. So no worries with charging to 100% as it isn’t actually charging to 100%. Usable capacity is the giveaway

https://g20.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1706497

[HPS]

Thank you all for clarifying. I will keep charging the battery to 100% to get the most out of it. You all are right that charging anything less than 100% on Hybrid defeats the whole purpose.

[Scrupix]

I also bought recently a 330E 2019 and I see an option to charge from 6A until 16A, maybe someone knows how is better to charge it, I usually I charge it on the street chargers in Netherlands but I'm not sure if is ok to set to 16A and will charge faster or not, maybe also charging with 16A can affect battery...

[gavinwong]

Originally Posted by Scrupix

I also bought recently a 330E 2019 and I see an option to charge from 6A until 16A, maybe someone knows how is better to charge it, I usually I charge it on the street chargers in Netherlands but I'm not sure if is ok to set to 16A and will charge faster or not, maybe also charging with 16A can affect battery...

I’m also based in the Netherlands. The type 2 cable automatically reverts to 16amps on a 7kw or higher public charger. I did try in the past to reduce it, so I could park in the spot for longer, but it didn’t work. It just reverted to 16amps.
I did reduce it to 10amps when I charged it off a home socket, and that worked fine without any issues apart from it obviously taking a bit longer

[Scrupix]

Got it, so basically it should not matter if I will add 6A because for type 2cable will automatically switch to 16A
I just have it for about 1 week or so and I was not sure how this is working actually
Thx for info @gavinwong

2 more questions please
How many km usually are you able to drive in comfort or ecopro modes, I was able to drive somewhere around 35-37km maximum

What is your latest iDrive version, mine is 03/2021 and seems that cannot find any version but I doubt that is the last one…

[gavinwong]

Originally Posted by Scrupix

Got it, so basically it should not matter if I will add 6A because for type 2cable will automatically switch to 16A
I just have it for about 1 week or so and I was not sure how this is working actually
Thx for info @gavinwong

2 more questions please
How many km usually are you able to drive in comfort or ecopro modes, I was able to drive somewhere around 35-37km maximum

What is your latest iDrive version, mine is 03/2021 and seems that cannot find any version but I doubt that is the last one…

Summer wise I can get up to 50km when it’s high 20’s c / 30c. That’s mainly on the a1 with cruise control set to 108km ph. I probably average out at 45km electric only range. Winter I’m looking at 25-30km on the same route. Varying from -5c to around 10c.
I have the car start in electric individual in the summer, and pre condition the cabin whilst it’s plugged in to the charger. My commute is 45km so the ice doesn’t really engage. Winter I’m in hybrid eco pro.

My idrive is 11.2021.50
It will be updated when it goes for a service in 2 weeks. It had never updated OTA. The dealer did it at request back in 2021 as the update did improve the drivers assistance pro behaviour.

[Scrupix]

Originally Posted by gavinwong

Summer wise I can get up to 50km when it’s high 20’s c / 30c. That’s mainly on the a1 with cruise control set to 108km ph. I probably average out at 45km electric only range. Winter I’m looking at 25-30km on the same route. Varying from -5c to around 10c.
I have the car start in electric individual in the summer, and pre condition the cabin whilst it’s plugged in to the charger. My commute is 45km so the ice doesn’t really engage. Winter I’m in hybrid eco pro.

My idrive is 11.2021.50
It will be updated when it goes for a service in 2 weeks. It had never updated OTA. The dealer did it at request back in 2021 as the update did improve the drivers assistance pro behaviour.

Thanks, I also have an appointment today for iDrive update at Severs Breeman BMW Alphen aan den Rijn
As for the battery range, I will probably need to play a bit with the individual settings to see if I can squeeze much more from that