[Gebbly]

Hi All,
I've started flirting with the idea of one of the BMW hybrids. Currently I'm trying to get my head round all the different modes and sub-modes.

My 2 main use cases are 1. short trips to friends or local shops which I could cover completely in pure electric mode and 2. long ranging drives like driving holidays touring around the country for a week enjoying twisty roads and motorway driving.

For the latter of those 2, as I dont know when I would find a charge point, I would like to tell the car to drive purely with the combustion engine whilst cruising and reserve the electric motor *only* for extra bursts of power when i put my foot down for overtaking etc.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

thanks for any advice

[DRuw]

yup, you can manually select electric as the power source. You can also select hybrid and indicate a minimum value of battery power remaining so you drive petrol all the way.
The car also can determine this himself with the navigation active.
in sport mode, it uses petrol as well as electric and keeps the rev slightly higher to charge the batteries when you are not demanding it's power.
I live driving it, in all modes

[Space Cadet]

The things that keep me away from hybrids are:

My commute is just over 30 miles each way every day - or just enough for the battery one way or thereabouts (WLTP figures are fine in flat roads, but the earth isn’t flat.
So for the journey out I’m carrying a very large lump of useless metal weighing at least two passengers worth. Why?
On the way back I’m now carrying about the same weight of useless metal and chemistry.
For the privilege I also have to give up boot space and possibly rear seat headroom?
I’m sure there are people that can find the proper ‘mix’ for owning a hybrid, but I can’t.
And ask yourself this, if they were such a brilliant idea then (a) why are they being phased out and (b) why did so many companies buy plug-in hybrids for their fleets or as a company car only to never take the charging cable out of its packet? That one’s simple - tax avoidance.
Charging points for home use are going to more expensive from April because HMG is stopping the grant for single family occupancy houses - not for flats etc - just those. For me the cost without the grant is more than £2k because of where my utilities arrive compared to where I need the charger on my driveway. That needs about 50m of 6mm SWA (21mm OD) to avoid volt drops for a 7.4kW unit. It that needs burying then the ground works add another £1k. At the present time hybrid makes no sense as recouping the extra investment would take too long.
My long-distance journeys are to Cardigan in Wales (290 miles) and the nearest charging point to my destination is 6 miles away. I can’t ask my retired parents in law to install a charging point that they’ll never use or want.

[Gebbly]

I would agree that hybrid cars seem to fit a particular type of use case.

Some electric cars look interesting but I could never live with having to find a charge point all the time. If I'm on a driving holiday I cant keep asking owners of B&Bs if I can run an extension cable out the window to the car each night.

Hybrids seem to be the right mix of flexible to be suitable for my particular use cases. We visit friends every week and they are about 10 miles away, the supermarket is about 5 miles away, shops are a similar distance. So In my situation I can do most of my weekly driving on pure electric.

But on those occasions when I am away from home for extended periods being able to switch to using internal combustion and just topping up at any petrol station means the car is still practical.

My main hesitation until recently was that I really enjoy driving and have fun with my little M135i's 320BHP. I didnt want to drive on holiday, have the battery empty and then be driving around in a "sensible" 2litre 150BHP saloon (or even less with other car makes).

The BMW 545e with its approx 280BHP ICE topped with the approx 100BHP electric motor could still be fun to drive when I want a bit more power...as long as I can reserve the battery for purely fun "squirts".

[Gebbly]

Thanks for the info DRuw. I have seen that there are modes in which the combustion and electric work together.

I have also seen that one of the modes (hybrid I think) allows me to drive in electric and when I punch the accelerator the combustion engine kicks in for extra power.

I would like the reverse of this, in which I drive with purely combustion engine and when I punch the accelerator the electric adds its power.

From your description sport mode drives using both combustion and electric all the time and is constantly recharging the electric. Is that correct? If so, when in sport mode for example when doing 50 behind a dawdler on the motorway am I cruising on petrol power or electric? I thought perhaps I would be cruising in electric and then when I put my foot down to pull out the combustion would kick in?

These new modes are raising more questions than answers for me....Then theres the whole "battery control" thing which I havent got my head around yet.

[willougs]

Originally Posted by Gebbly

I would like the reverse of this, in which I drive with purely combustion engine and when I punch the accelerator the electric adds its power.

That what Sport Xtraboost mode does. ICE engine backed up with battery motor if you floor it.
If you sit in Sport, pottering along at 50, it will be the ICE running. The battery is only really used on initial pull away for a fraction whilst the engine starts up. Unless in xtraboost when start/stop is switched off.

Originally Posted by Gebbly

.Then theres the whole "battery control" thing which I havent got my head around yet.

That's where you would set your desired battery capacity. So for example if you wanted to retain 50% of battery for a return journey. If you set this to 100% then the ICE will be on most of the time even in hybrid mode. Don't tend to use this too much as either just pottering around locally or just let the car deal with switching depending on driving; in that it doesn't really matter when I do the electric miles.

[Jim_330e]

My 330e suits my use perfectly. Company car. Charged every night. Since Covid I’ve been working from home mostly with the odd day at the office which is 4 miles away and nursery runs which is less than 2 miles away!

Need to decide on what to do as it goes back June but think will look at extending the lease for a year.

To the OP, you can do exactly what you’ve asked. Press the EV button, as I do most days, and it stay in pure EV. Or press the battery button and it stays in ICE and set a desired battery level.

In Xtraboost mode, the car is deceptively quick. I had runs out with all sorts of properly fast metal and everyone is always rather surprised to see me in their mirror.

[Gebbly]

Thats great, thanks for the explanations everyone.

[Mugspence]

Originally Posted by Gebbly

Thats great, thanks for the explanations everyone.

There is something I do regularly which I don't think has been mentioned - I flick the gear level over to manual and this forces the engine to run in hybrid mode without running down the battery. OK so I have to change "up" using the paddles. But there's a lot of fun in that!

[paulockenden]

Flicking the gear lever over puts the car into sports mode. It’ll still change gears. It’s only once you touch the paddles that it goes into manual mode. And even then it’ll change gears if it needs to.

[marksandygill]

I was doing 44 miles a day in my 330e so above the battery range but still only filled up once a month so even with electric costs still much cheaper than ICE!

On a 250 mile journey to Cornwall I forgot to charge the battery and still averaged around 44mpg

Essentially you get equivalent (if not slightly better) performance of a 330i with better economy than a 330d (unless you do 300 miles a day! in which case a diesel would be the answer!)

[Gebbly]

"equivalent (if not slightly better) performance of a 330i with better economy than a 330d"

Thats a really interesting way of putting it.

[Mugspence]

Originally Posted by paulockenden

Flicking the gear lever over puts the car into sports mode. It’ll still change gears. It’s only once you touch the paddles that it goes into manual mode. And even then it’ll change gears if it needs to.

My 330e screen shows"hybrid" screen when I flick gear lever across and does not light up screens with "red" as it does when I press "sport" mode. Nor does it stiffen suspension, steerng etc. And it only changes gears automatically when at the extremes of too high or too low revs.
So does mine behave differently?

[Gebbly]

"it only changes gears automatically when at the extremes of too high or too low revs"

I like the idea of being able to take over the gear-shifting. I've always driven manuals up to now.

[willougs]

Originally Posted by Mugspence

So does mine behave differently?

No, mines the same. Although from memory the dash changes to a rev counter, but still says Hybrid. Shifting the lever over seems to be more of a sporty Hybrid mode... if by sporty it means high unecessary rev'ing. Not really noticed any other differences in suspension/steering etc. I very rarely use it as can change gear with the paddles whenever. Only time I shift lever to left is to get the engine to kick in and save the battery. Lazy man's Battery Control.

Don't think I've ever shifted lever to left in Sport mode.

[Gebbly]

I think I saw something somewhere that said one of the modes (or maybe battery control) charges the battery by revving the engine slightly higher. Maybe that is what you are seeing, the extra charging is being activated hence the higher revs?

[Stooo]

Unless it’s a company car, consider getting a 330i instead. They drive better, ride better and are less complex.
The economic case may not end up very different unless you have a very specific use case either.