[Animal_79]

Hi,

I got my 69 plate 330e at the beginning of January and am really happy with it.

I’m in a key industry and not able to work from home and so depending on my route, my daily commute is either 10 miles each way at 20-30mph or 15 miles each way at 30-60.

Over the month that I’ve had the car I’ve done about 500 miles, or which 450 or so is showing as having been from electric power.

Whilst this is great, it has occurred to me that 1) at this rate the engine is only getting an occasional run out and so will not be getting properly warmed up very often and 2) I’m not likely to need to refuel until August/September.

My dealer has been no help at all with advice and so is there a minimum that I should be looking to use the ICE or a maximum amount of time I should give myself to use fuel? Maybe I should only be filling half a tank to prevent it sitting for too long?

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[dk6780]

The car will look after itself and is programmed for this eventuality.
You should keep the fuel tank relatively full to avoid too much evaporation of the ethanol content of fuel.

 

[Animal_79]

Great. Thank you!

 

[MrMoonUK]

Just get a BEV if you want to drive electric all the time.

 

[cdlb]

Does the manual have specific instructions on how often to run the ICE? If not, I wouldn't worry about it - if you do end up running into a problem and BMW say it is because of lack of ICE use, you can throw the manual at them.

 

[ChrisCross123]

Since getting it I have put petrol in my GTE 2 to 3 times per year - virtually all my journeys are electric only.

The GTE has some clever tricks to keep everything in good condition - I would hope / assume BMW do similar.

 

[Animal_79]

Does the manual have specific instructions on how often to run the ICE? If not, I wouldn't worry about it - if you do end up running into a problem and BMW say it is because of lack of ICE use, you can throw the manual at them.

No, or at least not that I have been able to find.

Before I got the car I had assumed that I would probably get through a tank of fuel every month or two, which would have been fine, but I’ve managed to do way more on the electric motor than I expected.

This is an unexpected but good problem to have I suppose.

 

[Animal_79]

Since getting it I have put petrol in my GTE 2 to 3 times per year - virtually all my journeys are electric only.

The GTE has some clever tricks to keep everything in good condition - I would hope / assume BMW do similar.

I thought that this was likely to be the case but having not found anything in the manual and the dealer clearly not having a clue I did start to wonder.

the replies on her have set my mind at ease though.

thanks to all

 

[TheMegaMan]

I echo your concerns. BMW will have done their best to avoid problems for 'general use', but I think there are extremes of use that the car will struggle to compensate for. And there are still ways to be hard or kind to a car - you'd not rev the nuts off a regular petrol car when it's stone cold, would you, and yet the car won't stop you doing this if you really want to.

I'd not be so worried about the ethanol evaporating from the fuel. Ethanol isn't an essential component of petrol (it's a reasonably recent addition), so evaporation shouldn't be a big problem. But petrol does still go off over time, when exposed to the air. Fortunately, BMW seal their fuel tanks very well on their hybrids, which is why you need to press the button to vent the tank and allow the cap to be opened, rather than just take the cap straight off.

But I do worry about a lack of oil being distributed over the engine internals, and for that reason, ever couple of weeks, I make sure I switch over to sport mode and give the car a run on the engine until it's properly warmed up (3-4 miles minimum). Obviously, be careful not to over-rev the engine when it's still cold, which seems counter-intuitive for sport mode, but it's the only way I've found to ensure the engine is used when the HV battery is full.

Another thing to watch out for on 'e' cars, is that the brakes don't get used enough, since regen does most of the braking. So every couple of weeks, when I'm sure nobody is following me, I make a point of braking a bit harder than usual, to make sure the brakes haven't seized up.

 

[f30paul]

My commute is 9 miles 70mph dual carriageway (mostly flat/uphill) followed by 12 miles of slower 50mph A road followed by city traffic, between York and Leeds. As a habit of leaving the car in auto mode, I always end up using the engine for the first 9 miles and it gets nicely warmed up. Then after slowing onto the 40/50mph A road it switches to electric all the way into Leeds centre. This way the engine is daily getting a proper warm up, but I'm also doing approx 60% of my commute on electric only.

I'd assume to do it the other way round (use all the battery power up in E-drive on the 70mph section) wouldn't be half as efficient. F30 330e model, so the first generation model.