I've not got the BMW, but I would say all PHEVs are similar in that the actual range ends up being a fair bit less than the estimated range due to things like stopping and starting, going up hills, having systems on in the car (fan, wipers etc). Range certainly goes down at this time of year too. I don't think there is anything wrong with your car - other than that the battery was specced for tax avoidance rather than genuine EV range. Still, better than no EV range.

 

BMW simply quoted the NEDC range, and like all NEDC test figures it's optimistic by 50% in the real world.

 

It's been rumoured that some manufacturers actually build their cars to obtain the best reading on statutory tests.
I am sure it can't be true ☺

 

The range on our car is predicted from the last journey which could be from the day before. On a colder morning at this time of year it is quite normal not to achieve the predicted range. We are not that far from you in Wiltshire and my first journey four years ago in December was to Bath. The battery ran out half way home. The range gradually improved and I now get home with miles to spare. Going by this I would expect the range to improve on your car although it seems poor at the moment.

 

I had a 330e for 5 months over the summer and really liked it. I'd say when driven with rangebin mind I could get 18 miles from a charge. When just driving fast without caring it could go down to 10 or so.
It does sound like you are getting low numbers.
I live 13 miles from Cambridge duty centre and I could comfortably make that on one charge without really thinking about efficiency. At times 4 or 5 miles would be still in the car when to got to the car park and charged.

Is it massively hilly where you live? I certainly live somewhere flat and the numbers quotes where always over the summer/autumn months.

I would expect that the 330e doesn't have much active battery heating (it does have cooling) as it only charges at 16amps. So unlike the i3 which heats the battery as well as the cabin on a pre heat cycle in the winter, the 330e may well suffer from cold cells and that may hit range more than expected? I'm just guessing on this though, I don't know the facts!

 

I've had my 225xe since July (Glos here too). Average displayed range is usually 14 miles (based on your last journey), real world is a couple of miles less. Best results seem to be on a straight run (without stopping & restarting the car), eco pro mode & climate control around 19 degC. Pre-conditioning (while still connected to the charger) seems to help slightly too.

Both the 225xe & 330e are quite powerful cars & it's sometimes hard to drive them economically. Type of journey does make a huge difference too. Unfortunately, the results you're getting seem quite normal.

 

Typical NEDC nonsense for PHEVs. EPA is 14 miles - driven gently in summer you may get more

2016 BMW 330e

 

I had a couple of re-reads of your OP, and I noticed this part:even when driven trying to achieve maximum efficiency

A quick look at the web suggests a 525d for example has an "official" of 45, but general users report 38. So about 85% of the mfg figure. Taking BMW 330e "up to 25miles", that gives 21 at the same ratio.
And your point I think is, despite trying hard, you're getting maybe 12-14 on a very good day ?

EV driving does really flinch very drastically to traffic+other variables
{ speed ( above 40mph is not good ), weather ( wind+rain/wet roads ) , traffic lights, hills, junctions }
far more than non EV driving, as far as I can tell.
This isn't explained in advance anywhere, in terms of drivers needing to be aware what they get from a full battery is going to be unhappy news, unless, their route/traffic etc are ideally suited to EV propulsion.
Your point about dealers ... yes many people have found very few have actually driven the cars, for a week at least, and don't get the nuances like this, nor how to set up some of the clever EV related functions.

A 10mile oneway journey home to office/railway station might sound ideal for a PHEV.
If it involves 5 traffic light roundabouts and a 70mpg 5mile stretch of motorway, it won't be, and that driver is unlikely to get a round trip on electrons only. This despite the theory being right and the salesperson having nodded happily at you talking yourself into it being suitable for you.

The EPA of 14 mentioned above I think would be real world ideal conditions, your experience suggests you have a typical British roads/times of day commuting style. Frenchman, retired, flat countryside - they'll be 14-15.

Keep trying different ways of treating the throttle and brakes, button press the drive mode options to see what works best for which part of your route, and you may eek a couple more real miles out.

Remember a dealer 2mile round the block test drive "to check the vehicle with you" might result in a miles/kWh figure that doesn't match what you get during daily use --- they'll shrug their shoulders and state that extrapolating that test drive figure gives say 15-19miles expectation.... Oh look beat the EPA what a fab vehicle, no one gets the UK " official" mpg figures for diesel cars, thank you for doing business with us Sir.

I do feel a bit conned when my GTE engine kicks in around 2miles from home, on a regular 26mile round trip in a car that has a brochure phrase of "up to 31 miles" .... Again, button playing means I sometimes get home with 1mile battery range showing left, but having used less unleaded than letting it run to zero and the engine then start up.

 

I think whilst people purchase PHEVs thinking they are some kind of short range EV, they will always be disappointed.

They are designed to work optimally with the ICE, and at that they are very good. I've just done my weekly 150 mile journey down to a work site, trip computer shows I did 63 of those on electric, and mpg is 58ish.

The fact that most PHEVs can do up to around 20 miles on electric only I see as a bonus.

If I only had that journey to do each way every day, I'd pick up one of those bargain Nissan Leaf's you see advertised here from time to time.

That said, 10 miles out of a 330e seems a bit below par. I drove through the beautiful Glos countryside only this morning, and it is quite hilly though!

 

When you have a highway test that averages 38 mph, it's not the fault of the manufacturers this time.

 

I've been getting anything from 12 to 18 miles of electric only. But it is of course, subject to conditions and driving manner.

 

My Active Tourer 225xe has up to a 45% range difference from winter to spring and this is with a mild winter with only 5-10 small frosts a year. With any type of hill this eats the miles. What I do now is move the auto shifter into sports mod when going up any type of hill and back to battery when going down or flat. This works great by not just charging the battery but saves sucking through the miles. The great thing is we have this advantage over an i3 or battery only cars.

 

Before I got the 330e I test drove the 225xe as that was going to be my choice until the 330e popped up in the radar. The model they gave me to test drive was Luxury. It had every package BMW offers! By far the best things were heated seats and Active Cruise Control. That was an experience! It basically drove itself! I only had to move the wheel left and right. Braking and acceleration automatically. That's some wizard magic right there lol

 

Used a 330e along with i3, i8 and a Twizy of all things to develop and test our range of Solar Carports. The 330e dives around 18 miles electric propulsion only, and if BMW decide to increase the capacity with the new cells used in the i3 94Ah then we could see 25+miles per charge out of the 330e with the same size of battery, but 50% better energy density. Charge from solar and it's free, even if you pay for your PV installation.The FITs and deemed export offset the capital cost, thus generating power at net zero cost. We recon that's the most economical way to drive any EV or PHEV.

Love the 330e though, and it can only get better in future models...Weld an i3 to a 330e and you'd have the perfect car, with properly rapid acceleration and good long range ability. PHEVs win hands down, at least for the near future.

 

Charge from solar and it's free, even if you pay for your PV installation.The FITs and deemed export offset the capital cost, thus generating power at net zero cost. We recon that's the most economical way to drive any EV or PHEV.

That's more or less what we're doing now. I've got a 4kwp solar PV install and it offsets about 25-30% of our overall electricity need for house, i3 and 225xe. Most of our charging is at night, but I try and use daytime solar generation as much as I can by regulating down the charge rate on the EV and PHEV. Any money received from the FIT we put aside to use against Ecotricity electricity bills.

Future step... battery storage!

 

Agreed, battery storage isn't for everyone, due to the costs at present, but I went down this route several years ago and installed a hefty UPS system, with grid-link and 20kWh of usable storage. Best thing I ever did, as I live in the sticks and can keep everything running for a day or so in the winter and much longer in the summer if we have a power cut.

 

12 miles in fairly heavy stop-start traffic. I just about make the 4 miles to work and 4 miles back with 4 miles left to spare.
I charge up overnight on off-peak electricity and reckon I'm doing my bit for the planet.
(err... well...apart from the fact it's a very nice BMW)

 

Interesting to read of your experiences - wish I'd done a bit more owner review research before I bought my 330e.

Ordered it in January for a March 31st delivery to avoid road tax.

My major concern is also the poor range and economy from all electric driving.

The electric range indicator varies between 14 and 19 miles when fully charged - it’s never shown a higher figure even after a history of driving around York (very flat) at 25 – 40 mph for a few days.

For example yesterday an 11 mile round trip to Monks Cross Shopping Centre – I started with a full charge showing a range of 18 miles, but it was showing zero when I arrived home after a journey at speeds of between 20 and 40 mph?

A recharge then showed a maximum range of just 16 miles and a round trip today to B and Q of 4 miles left me with just 7 miles electric range left?

Also when driving the electric range never ever seems to increase from regenerative breaking on longer journeys across the M62 even if I’m using the assisted cruise control and vehicles in front stopping or my reducing the cruising speed lead to significant regeneration shown on the dashboard display.

This is a major disappointment compared to the 20 – 25 mile electric range advertised and expected. I could understand the poor performance if I was driving at high speeds but this is not the case.

I’ve set the maximum speed for all electric travel to an Eco Pro limit of 50 mph to ensure 100% efficiency but it doesn’t seem to affect the range prediction or range available. But it still let me finish a drive home at 60 mph all electric when I had some electric range left last week?

I’d assumed that about 45% of my total miles would be electric (mainly using free electric from our solar panels) but it’s looking more like 25%.

I contacted my BMW supplier about this and I'm taking it in for them to look at it (?) later this week so it will be interesting to see if there is a solution. I thought I read somewhere that a software update might help?

When I did a check from full tank to full tank of petrol recently I had averaged 56.6 mpg, including 3 x 120 mile round trips without a recharge so still reasonable overall compared to diesel and without the pollution!

 

Good to see more and more PHEVs but they really do leave a lot to be desired. (sorry PHEV owners) Hopefully see big improvements in the near future to make them a more viable competitor to diesel variants.

 

Spent an interesting couple of hours with the EV genius at my BMW dealership last week looking at issues regarding poor electric range and charging. They took my car out on their test route from the centre of Sheffield to the A1 - a route they reckon should achieve 18 miles on all electric setting. When I got back later they had achieved a new record of 21 miles electric in my car! The "genius" emphasised the critical light touch needed on the accelerator to achieve maximum mileage and I have to admit that pulling out of junctions into traffic I had been putting my foot down sometimes. Also he stressed the importance of momentum and that I would not achieve high miles per kWh on short journeys with lots of stopping and starting in traffic. So it looks like I'd be better taking the longer ring road route where I can maintain a steady speed rather than the shorter stop start option through the centre of town. I was also advised that when I'm driving and out of electric switching to Sports mode menas the engine regenerates electric much faster. It will be interesting to see whether the boost to electric regeneration compensates for the lower mpg I anticipate from Sports mode driving.
This is my first BMW and I have to say I'm deeply impressed with the service side, particularly with the "genius" who was available to answer my questions and give advice as long as required!

 

Hi, I'm new to the forum, but wanted to contribute to the range/charging conversation. I got my 330e (US) this past October. Charging range was initially 22-24 miles of electric-range. This began to decrease as the winter weather came - full charge on a level 2 charger would yield only 16 miles of electrice-range.

Took car to dealer in January and a software update and a system "reflash" was performed. Range was somewhat better up to 18 miles of range. Took back car again in February, as I wanted my initial 22-24 miles of range back! Another software update installed - but only after asking me several questions about my commute, driving style, weather conditions, etc. The car's range improved to 21 afterwards. And this was a fairly accurate amount of electric range.

Now that weather is warmer, a charge yields 21-22 miles of range. Most importantly, these seem to be a true 21 miles or so of electric driving.

If anyone is still having a reduced range, I would encourage you to harangue your dealer's service manager to fix it! Supposedly, all issues for BMW electric vehicles go to a specialized engineering team for resolution.

Good luck.

 

Most importantly, these seem to be a true 21 miles or so of electric driving.

Really? The EPA EV range is 14 miles so you must be doing very well to actually get over 20 miles. To all 330e owners, I would say it is better to be honest and realistic to help future potential owners

 

I too am a Gloucestershire based 330e owner (ok it's the wife's company car but still) and just a week in it's proving a delight.

With over 900 miles of mixed driving completed already we've not yet focused on the electric only range too much.
I always take whatever on-board computers say with a pinch of salt anyways - my remapped TDI reporting a 70+ mpg on most runs - so seeing 24 i'd tend to expect more like the owner reported 14 from the Beemer.
Luckily that'd prove enough for the wife to get from home to the gym and back which is the bulk of her personal miles, if only her right foot wasn't so heavy.
That said so far tracked fuel fill ups have resulted in 47, 49, and 51 mpg which is not only better than the A3 TDI she had previously, but the fuel is cheaper to begin with, she gets a better allowance for petrol than diesel on her expenses, and she's paying 1/3 of the company car tax compared to the 120d she very nearly ordered.

Personally I do thoroughly enjoy silently wafting around the place like a big expensive milk float though and it appeals to my stingy side that it costs next to nothing too. It's going to be an interesting 4 years.

 

I’ve had 330e se for some 14 months now. In summer my range is usually 19-20 miles, in winter about 14. Interestingly it was called in for a software fix last month and since then the range after full charge shows as 29 (previously the max shown was 22/23. Come the warmer weather it’ll be interesting to see if actual range is any better.

 

I just got my 330e, based in Sheffield and it’s been very cold recently so my charger rate in the connected app says 16 miles but realistically I’m getting 8-10 which is not great.

Combination of cold weather and is very hilly round here depending on the route I take.

Car is very new so hoping this improves as the weather gets better!

 

Does preconditioning the car (very nice feature!) also precondition the battery? I seem to get marginally better range if I use this feature although I accept that fan and demisters etc are drawing less current on the actual journey.

 

Hello , I wanted to say that I took my 330e for 10K miles service and they updated the software. So now my car charges longer and it gives me 25 mile range!.
So I recommend you take the car for reprogramming
Before update I averaged 15.

 

!0,000 miles service? My first scheduled service isn't due until the earlier of 14,000 miles or August 2019 per the app.