[Gordon Bradford]

During the last few days when it has been below freezing, my car will not run in full electric mode.
When I press start (with a fully charged battery) the ICE fires up this is despite having climatised the car whilst plugged in. The gauge on the dash shows zero miles available and there is a message saying battery power temporarily unavailable!
After a few miles running on ICE, the battery warms sufficiently for the car to run in EV mode.
As an example yesterday it was -4C, so I climatised the car. The app showed only 14 miles available but was at 100%. The car would not run in EV mode, so was running on ICE. After around 6 miles or so EV mode became available, but the range was only showing at 6 miles! I continued my shopping trip but after 14 miles the EV mode was no longer available, so my journey was finished on ICE.
So a 16 mile trip, the first 6 and the last couple on petrol, means only 8 in EV mode!
Strangely despite the app showing 14 miles before I left home, it took 6 miles on petrol before EV. mode was available and then the range was showing as 6 miles. How did I loose 8 miles whilst travelling on petrol?
Incidentally the charging port would not latch shut when I unplugged the car, I had to dowse it with de iced, and cycle the door locks a few times before the latch would secure the port door.

If this is all down to the battery being cold, how does this car operate in Scandinavian winters?

 

[Gordon Bradford]

I wonder if BMW have implemented something in software to stop running off the battery in sub zero temps? There is a big power drain heating a car from the electric heater, and if you used that before switching to the ICE you probably wouldn’t see much electric range.

I’m sure some owners will chime in, but the fact you’re getting a message saying it’s unavailable until the car is up to temp suggests it’s by design rather than a fault?

The Golf GTE PHEV I had would always use whatever power source I asked it to, whatever the temp, but it did always default to starting in EV mode anyway.

Don’t forget, I have already heated the car up whilst plugged in, so the heater is not working full blast to raise the temp from freezing.

 

[Gordon Bradford]

Yeah, I’d read that, but not sure why the car would still insist on starting in only ICE mode.

How long have you had the car? Is this the first time you’ve driven it in sub zero temps?

18 month, didn’t notice anything like this last year