BMW 330e ordered...

[jcdub]

smorg99 said:

What year is your car and is it still under warranty? How many miles does it show on a full charge?

It's April 17 with 46,000 Kms. I was rear ended a few months ago with no major damage and the battery was not touched. But talking to the BMW garage today. They asked if the car was involved with a major impact recently. I said it was, but there wasn't any major damage, mainly cosmetic mainly. He then said their system showed a" battery critical impact" message. So I've to bring the car back to the garage where it was repaired. They're a reputable garage. And provide them with a copy of the BMW report so it can be provided to the insurance company's engineer. Hopefully he'll have no option but to replace the battery. Couldn't the imagine the cost or replacing it! At a guess I'd say €5k

[Jifmeister]

BMW330enut said:

Jifmeister said:

Apologies, sure this has been asked before, I moved house in October and are now using the provide 13a charger, I previously had a Rolec at my old property. Our electricity bills have been higher since moving (similar sized house). I just wondered if anyone had done any analysis on electricity costs of 13a vs Rolec ?

Please bear with me if my question is an obvious one, I am highly un-techie and struggle to understand whether the Rolec charging in a couple of hours would be cheaper than the 13A which charges slower, but does the overall electrical draw even out ? Does the 13a constantly use power by being in standby ready to charge (it's in a sealed weather proof box connected to an outside plug)

All help (and patience) most appreciated.

Hi. The type of charging will make no difference at all to the cost of charging. The battery capacity will dictate that.

Thanks, so whether it takes 2-3 hours through a Rolec or 8 hours using the 3 pin plug the amount of electricity needed will be the same until the battery reaches it's capacity ?

[Blue62]

I notice that the new Touring will be offered in hybrid form, which interests me and would be really interested to know how these cars work on an everyday basis. Most journeys would be 15 to 30 mile trips with a longer journey (200-400 miles) once or twice a month.

I guess we would do 10-15000 pa and wonder if the maths would work in the real world?

[ckmak]

Jifmeister said:

Thanks, so whether it takes 2-3 hours through a Rolec or 8 hours using the 3 pin plug the amount of electricity needed will be the same until the battery reaches it's capacity ?

Yes should be the same. However it should not take 8 hours on the 3 pin charger unless you are not using the fastest charging mode.

[TB404]

Hello, I had the car for almost a year now and love it!

I wondered if anyone measured the EMF (electro magnetic radiation) in the car while driving in both electric and fossil fuel mode? Came across some scary articles about radiation exposure in electric and hybrid vehicles... not sure what to make of it,

Thanks!

[DragonflyTrumpeter]

jcdub said:

It's April 17 with 46,000 Kms. I was rear ended a few months ago with no major damage and the battery was not touched. But talking to the BMW garage today. They asked if the car was involved with a major impact recently. I said it was, but there wasn't any major damage, mainly cosmetic mainly. He then said their system showed a" battery critical impact" message. So I've to bring the car back to the garage where it was repaired. They're a reputable garage. And provide them with a copy of the BMW report so it can be provided to the insurance company's engineer. Hopefully he'll have no option but to replace the battery. Couldn't the imagine the cost or replacing it! At a guess I'd say €5k

Could you not have insisted your car went to bmw for repair?

Reputable garages are fine but for an under warranty hybrid surely bmw was the sensible option?

[jcdub]

DragonflyTrumpeter said:

Could you not have insisted your car went to bmw for repair?

Reputable garages are fine but for an under warranty hybrid surely bmw was the sensible option?

I was assured by the insurance company that the work would be carried out to manufacturers standard with a lifetime warranty. Plus the closest BMW dealer is 40km away. I'll be dropping into the repair center tomorrow to have a chat and see what's suggested. I'll update when I hear more.

[jonwm]

DragonflyTrumpeter said:

jcdub said:

It's April 17 with 46,000 Kms. I was rear ended a few months ago with no major damage and the battery was not touched. But talking to the BMW garage today. They asked if the car was involved with a major impact recently. I said it was, but there wasn't any major damage, mainly cosmetic mainly. He then said their system showed a" battery critical impact" message. So I've to bring the car back to the garage where it was repaired. They're a reputable garage. And provide them with a copy of the BMW report so it can be provided to the insurance company's engineer. Hopefully he'll have no option but to replace the battery. Couldn't the imagine the cost or replacing it! At a guess I'd say €5k

Could you not have insisted your car went to bmw for repair?

Reputable garages are fine but for an under warranty hybrid surely bmw was the sensible option?

At my place of work even the slightest of bumps and they are being written off. I'd guessed it was due to battery complications

[jcdub]

Thanks for the information. Good to know. The insurance engineer said the mileage was different between the time the diagnostics showed the error and the milage at the time of the accident. But he's not ruling out that the batteries could have been damaged at the time of the accident and it was only manifesting itself now. He's contacted the insurance company for advice on what to do. Probably be sent back to BMW to inspect the batteries etc.

[TB404]

What tire pressures are you running with the original run flats @ 18'?

The door jab says 41/38 (front, rear) for lightly loaded - what would be the effect of running higher pressures?

Thank you

[jcdub]

I run 38psi F and 36psi R on my 18" run flats

[Cruciate]

Anyone had recurrent faults with the 13a charging brick?
Mine faults (flashing red light) when the car is fully charged. No huge problem as the car does charge, but I can't precondition any more as the battery won't top up again.
If I switch off at the mains and on again it resets and charges again.

Does this probably 9 out of 10 times.
Car exactly one year old this week

[ckmak]

Cruciate said:

Anyone had recurrent faults with the 13a charging brick?
Mine faults (flashing red light) when the car is fully charged. No huge problem as the car does charge, but I can't precondition any more as the battery won't top up again.
If I switch off at the mains and on again it resets and charges again.

Does this probably 9 out of 10 times.
Car exactly one year old this week

Had a problem with mine but it did not work at all, just got a new one under warranty. Just go to BMW and get a replacement.

[TB404]

jcdub said:

I run 38psi F and 36psi R on my 18" run flats

Thanks, are they the stock RTF (Potenza?) why a bit lower than spec (41 and 39, front and rear)

[MaxOverdrive]

TB404 said:

Hello, I had the car for almost a year now and love it!

I wondered if anyone measured the EMF (electro magnetic radiation) in the car while driving in both electric and fossil fuel mode? Came across some scary articles about radiation exposure in electric and hybrid vehicles... not sure what to make of it,

Thanks!

I've read a number of articles on this recently and nothing I've read has been conclusive one way or the other. The tests done by Consumer Reports for instance (although I appreciate this is an old article) suggest that the Chevy Cobalt has a peak EMF reading at the drivers feet of 30mg - but it doesn't confirm if this is a dangerous limit or not. By contrast though the Prius is tested at 4mg. It doesn't sound like large numbers to me - especially when it goes on to say that electric blankets emit 5-30mg

The article is here if it's of interest: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2010/08/m...

I read other articles but again most were speculating and nothing was given as actual fact.

Personally I'll take the risk on the current assumption it's doing less harm than a conventional ICE based motor (albeit in a small way)

[MaxOverdrive]

hyb1d said:

i have had my 330e shadow from November 2017. nearing 20k miles. it's by far the best car i have had. The ride is great, its quick and handling is good hk system is awesome. have not had any issues with the car other than a re calibrated airbag sensor in the b pillar. its just had the software update and check in for replacing the ev unit under the recall which had no issue for me but that could be because...i'm not charging the car at all other than during driving and also on work trips. see's around 40mpg on the motor way and 32mpg in town. from a user who doesn't charge at home i have to say the public system is slowly getting there but there should be 1 car for all types of public charge instead of having so many accounts...maybe i am too lazy... even though im not charging the car is still awesome to drive and the mpg isn't painfully low. ill be happily driving it for the next wee while. good to see everyone is stoked with the car. bmw have made a really decent car, would be interesting to see how it compares to the other options on the market..

Blasphemer!

Not bad mpg considering you're charging the car via the engine...assuming you're not just leaving it in "auto" mode and instead actively selecting "battery save".

I had a minor disagreement with powers that be at work when I first took my car 2 years back. Basically there's no incentive given to folks to charge the car - especially if you can just take the fuel card and use it for personal use. I suggested they fund the £8/month BMW Charge Now card and I'd use that whenever and wherever possible - but they refused and said it was up to me to pay. I have the fuel card anyway but I charge at home about 5 times out of 7 during a week. I cant do return journey charging at present so it's one-way only.

For that though I tend to get around 60mpg. The car, during the summer months, will do just over 18 miles on a 20 mile commute - purely on electric. After that it's pretty much just petrol apart from anything recouped. I guess it's costing me about £4.00 a week out of my own pocket.

Might sound mad but the point, for me at least, is to get used to the process of living with an EV (albeit a small range one) so that moving to a full on EV such as a Tesla wont seem a big change. The car is very much a Jekyl and Hyde motor though. Some times I come over all green and eco-friendly...and other days the red mist goes down and I become part of the dark side....and Sport mode + paddle shift comes to play

[ckmak]

Been running max edrive + eco most of the time and just noticed my range was pretty crap on a full charge. Checked my electric consumption on my way home last night and it was 31.6kwh/100k! Usually is in around the low 20s. What is everyone else getting when running electric only?

[khrest]

I've been lurking for a year or two on this thread; currently have a 'old shape' 330e Luxury through work.

I'm wondering how the pre conditioning works; doing this must use up charge level, so does this reduce battery level below 100% before I drive off, or does it top off from the outlet (I have a type 2 charge box installed). Also, how is that affected by using the tariff window? If my tariff window has closed by the time preconditioning starts, will that stop it from topping off? That would then suggest extending the window so that it is available during the pre-condition, but will it then wait until the last minute before doing the full charge; thus taking the energy off the grid at full price?

IE, if my tariff window is 0100-0700 and I want to leave home at 0900 with preconditioning. Is it possible to set everything up so I leave with 100% and a warm car but also take the initial charge from 10%-100% from the reduced tariff rate?

[khrest]

ckmak said:

Been running max edrive + eco most of the time and just noticed my range was pretty crap on a full charge. Checked my electric consumption on my way home last night and it was 31.6kwh/100k! Usually is in around the low 20s. What is everyone else getting when running electric only?

The last 2 weeks my range has nosedived from 15-17 miles to 11-12 miles. It was the same last autumn/winter as well. I think there is a high voltage battery heater of some sort that needs to run when the ambient is below about 12-13 degrees and that uses the battery heavily. At least that seems to be the cutoff temperature in my '66 330e anway.

[Somebody]

Stating the obvious, ambient temperature and weather has major impact on range. Also, sitting in traffic in the rain with the lights, wipers, sound system and aircon on has major impact too I find.

My commute to work is around 15 miles but I can seldom do those miles in EV mode, probably due to starting and stopping, and the odd boot on the loud pedal once in a while.

My average electric range for that 1 way trip for the past few months reads:
Apr 13.2 miles
May 13.4 miles
Jun 13.6
Jul 14.8
Aug 15.4
Sep 13.9
Oct to date 13.1 miles

Conclusion is that ambient temperature has a massive impact on electric range.