It does sound low, review from 2016 below states a 7.6kWh battery and around 25 miles of range. I assume you are plugging it in, to fully charging the battery from the grid? Is the 9 miles range at moderate speeds 30-50 mph without the heating and aircon on high, or is that at motorway speeds with the aircon on full blast?

BMW 330e plug-in hybrid 2016 review | Auto Express

New plug-in hybrid BMW 3 Series arrives in the UK claiming 134mpg

www.autoexpress.co.uk

 

Yeah that's via fully charged from home and eco mode semi urban driving (housing estate, retail park runs) without any Aircon on. If I mentioned it to BMW they'll no doubt want me to take it in and change me the earth just to look at. I know battery degregation needs to be factored in but it seems pretty excessively low

 

Sadly, I think that might be accurate. When I had a PHEV, the range deteriorated noticeably after 50k miles. A small battery cycles through a full charge much more regularly (every journey pretty much) than in a full BEV, increasing the deterioration rate. From my research at the time, I recall the first gen BMW PHEVs had quite low battery mileage to begin with too.

 

@DuRam @carldean84 Nah, that's not right. Something is wrong. Find a hybrid specialist if you think BMW main dealer are going to rip you off. I don't know when in 2016 your car was registered, but if it's still within the 6 year PHEV factory warranty from BMW, then why not take it to them in case they can fix/replace as part of the 6 year warranty?

I ran a C350e from 25-65k miles and range was exactly the same as brand new, even when it reached 7 years old, and that's with frequent charging. I recall bumping into 2016/17 330e owners at charging points in earlier years and I was envious that they could get 24 miles out of their PHEV when my C350e could only manage 12.

 

I have a 2016 330e - takes just under 6kwh for an empty to full charge which displays 15 mile range. Reset the EV consumption figure one morning and see what the consumption is until the ICE kicks in, I am lucky to get it above 3m/kwh - once the ICE kicks in this figure is meaningless as it divides total miles ( include ICE ) by the KWH consumed!

The car does not exhaust the battery then run on petrol, instead it blends EV and petrol depending on the battery charge and power/speed. So with a 100% battery more likely EV, when you get down to 50% indicated battery then the same throttle position is more likely to cause the ICE to kick in. When you get down to about 10% the car will run in hybrid mode and try to keep it about 10%, so basically ICE with an EV assist, start-stop, and regen braking.

How are you measuring the 9 miles - is that until the engine first kicks in? What % is left in the battery at that point?
Think of the battery containing 6KWH or power, if your journey exceeds say 20 miles then the car will try and feed in the 6KWH at the most efficient point over the whole of the journey.

To maximise initial use of EV press the EV mode button below the gear lever to select Max EV, also use the sat nav to navigate to your destination and it will run the battery down to a lower % as it expects a charge when you arrive.

p.s. a PHEV should be charged at every opportunity! small battery needs constant topping up.
But my gut feeling is that the break even point for electricity is about 50p/KWH vs petrol, so if you are paying anything like the new cap after October then there will be little financial benefit in plugging in - unless you can switch to a cheap overnight tariff.

pps - eco mode does not do much AFAIK! Turns down the air-con, remaps the throttle, and turns off engine breaking regen - I think it has more impact on a motorway run than running round town.

 

Thanks for this. I took your advice and I reset the car software yesterday before I did the school run this morning which according to Google Maps is 11.9miles.
This was on a full EV charge and in Eco mode. The petrol engine kicked in twice for a short period when on the 60mph A road but I'd say it was 90% on EV.
The BMW app is saying 17% state of charge (1mile) remaining.
No air con. just the radio on.

I'm currently paying 27.35p per Kwh so, by my very poor maths it's still cheaper than running on petrol by as you say, come October this may well no longer be the case. I'm already worrying I've made a mistake in going PHEV and, from a pure cost perspective should have stuck with a 320/330d pure diesel instead. That said there's something pretty cool about driving in pure silent EV mode with very steathy power when you need it.

 

In the US, that car was rated by the EPA at 14 miles of range. Nine miles seems a bit more than battery degrading. Driving technique plays a huge part in EV range, and with a PHEV you have such limited range anyway, it doesn't take much to bring the range down. My Niro PHEV was EPA rated at 24 miles (with HVAC on), and I regularly reached 30 miles. But it only took a little spirited driving for that range to quickly disappear.

 

BMW see themselves as producing Diver’s Cars, so the battery in their PHEVs is as much, if not more, about improved performance as increased economy or lower emissions.

As well as selecting economy mode have you also selected maximum electric mode? I believe the ICE will always kick in at about 55 to 60. For best use of the limited EV range, you need to be using this at lower speeds about town (below 50ish) and letting the ICE run on higher speed roads.

The ICE also starts occasionally to keep everything running properly, especially in cold weather. Also be sure to use preconditioning while still plugged in to avoid using battery to heat or cool.

 

Our neighbour complained his 330e battery was pointless as he got about 7-10 mile at most on it (during the £2/l crisis). Mrs told him he was driving it like a BMW driver, and that was the issue.

She offered him some driving efficeincy lessons, which he actually accepted and since then has managed to get 16-18miles from it but it has also improved his MPG greatly on longer runs as well. He bought her a bottle of gin as a thank you.

 

She offered him some driving efficeincy lessons, which he actually accepted and since then has managed to get 16-18miles from it but it has also improved his MPG greatly on longer runs as well. He bought her a bottle of gin as a thank you.

Long run (300 miles) motorway cruising on cruise control and eco mode at 70/75 produces about 50mpg so not that bad.
No engine breaking on Eco mode helps my passenger's motion sickness.

 

I bought a 2 year old 225xe n on several test drives n asked about the 14 GOM on full charge as seemed very low - was told will improve (GOM ) with gentle driving and hills kill the range etc. A month back the GOM hit 29 miles - real range on flat under 55 is 22 or so . Also check tyres inflation n type could be bad ones for mileage (once had a 5 series dealer had Wanli tyres on it !! Boy was it dangerous .

 

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Definitly not right. I have 330e since 5 years and it take over 3 months to learn how to drive to achieve factory figures, and still can, with over 100k on clock. I have 24 miles to work and I'm able to do about 22-23 on electric only, but no heater, AC only after precondition.

 

Some useful advice about maximising the range in a PHEV