MOTORING
BMW 3-Series 330E
Take a good look at the pictures of the best selling BMW 3-Series and see if you can notice any difference, probably the answer is no there isn’ t anything different but this particular derivative is the 330E and a BMW plug-in hybrid. If you notice the front near side wing there is what appears to be a petrol filler flap, that is the giveaway, this is where you can plug in the vehicle to transform it from petrol to electric mode. In fact there is little else to differentiate this from a conventional 3-Series. The very small discreet E-Drive badge on the rear pillar is a further giveaway. This E-drive will be appearing soon on quite a few more vehicles within the mighty BMW empire, writes Bob Hickman.
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The big advantage of this new hybrid technology for BMW is the CO2 emissions are reduced to a mere 44 g / km, so if you are a company car driver the benefit in kind taxation will be less than half as a conventional 320D and this seriously is impressive. However the benefit in kind comes at a price, the hybrid 3-Series is considerably more than its petrol and diesel derivatives.
BMW has employed a set of lithium iron cell batteries and they have placed them under the boot floor so there is a slight reduction capacity but not sufficient to worry about. The batteries provide power to an 87bhp electric motor which is situated within the gearbox casing. This gives an extremely alien concept because the vehicle suddenly becomes a silent vehicle, to drive on pure battery power is somewhat disconcerting initially but you soon become used to it. Add in the 182bhp petrol and you have a vehicle that gives tremendous thrust and motive power through an 8-speed gearbox.
BMW purists will be pleased to note that the new hybrid derivative is still rear wheel drive, in electric mode the vehicle still retains its BMW characteristics and will still give excellent driver response, it meanders silently and relatively speedily in pure electric mode when in the city, but give the throttle accelerator a quick tap and instantly the traction control disables and the entertaining factor of engine power kicks in and you have a vehicle that is very responsive.
The 3-Series has nearly 250bhp at its disposal when you add together both the petrol and electric motors. There are 3 modes to choose from, you can go pure electric, choose to maximise between the two or you can have a battery save, dial the factors in and the cars electronic brain works out for you. The battery capacity for mileage seems to be about 25 miles in pure battery mode which possibly doesn’ t seem a great deal but lets not forget this is not a pure hybrid that you are dependant and reliant on battery power, it is quite easy to allow the vehicle to drift along in battery