As promised one week in review. And first the headline figures, over 702 miles this week, my average is 71.9 mpg. WOW cant complain at that, last long term car was an Audi A4 which was averaged 54 mpg over its 88000 miles with me. According to the BMW app, this week I've managed 307.8 miles of pure electric driving and saved 30.6 litres of fuel. . On my usual commute into work usually 27 miles each way depended upon route chosen I'm getting 110-120 mpg on the way in, and 85-95 mpg on the way back home (generally uphill). I can charge at home and at work so I'm right in the sweet spot given the 25 miles range. I've only preconditioned the cabin on a couple of cold mornings which dropped the battery down to 85% upon starting. I use a standard domestic 3 pin socket and in deference to the electrics in the house only charge at "low" rate. If you precondition the cabin it cant charge the battery fast enough to recoup the energy used. Nice having a warm car on a cold morning though!
In the week I had a 120 mile each way trip from home to Crewe knowing I couldn't charge at the destination. I left 100% charged and got to Crewe with the battery used at 54.5 mpg, which was ok, but then on the way back only got 39.8 mpg which was the worst seen. This brings me onto one of the annoyances of the car. If you set the destination in the sat nav it will manage the battery to arrive with it empty, so far so good, but if you enter a 2 destination route, i.e. home - Crewe - home it will use all the battery on the first step, leaving you with nothing for the return. When I turned on the ignition in the car park at Crewe the engine fired up, not even enough battery to run the lights/wipers/radio let alone move the car. I believe the upgraded pro sat nav works differently managing the battery across both parts of the trip.
In general I'm enjoying my time with the car, I find I drive much differently in it to anything else. Oddly, given the power, I seem to drive it more gently than any other car, maximising the time ruining without the engine has become a game, managing the brakes to maximise the regen rather than using the disks, its all become oddly addictive. When I got the car I was restrained due to running it in, now its become almost the norm. Trying to keep the mpg graphs above the maximum line at 80 mpg is now the goal. All a little sad.... When you do use the performance is is great fun, pushing past lorries on A road overtakes becomes very easy, but then you see the nagging drop on the next line of the mpg graph telling you off (And I pay for my own fuel). Is it a real BMW? Well perhaps. Am I driving it as a BMW should be driven? Definitely not. Though I have found out that you can get the back end to swing out on muddy roads, and further out than I would have thought. Must remember its still rwd in battery only mode!
Quickly discovered that eco pro mode just limits you too much, particularly off the line, so I find I use "Comfort" mode for most driving, dropping it back into eco pro on long stretches almost like an overdrive. Not spent much time in sport mode yet, but the couple of times I have it has sharpened the take off very nicely, and it leaves the line like a rocket. Maybe once its run in I'll play more with it!
Charging the car is easy enough, found a free pack of gloves in the charging box. Needed as the cables attract grit and dirt The trough under the boot floor easily taking both Domestic and Type 2 Leads plus an umbrella. The charging box is getting scratched with the inevitable dragging it gets over the drive. Already looking worn I hate to think what it will look like in 3 years times.
The rest of the car is much more conventional, the ride I felt was initially too hard, but now doesn't bother me, the seats and general driving environment are as good as anything I've had.Main annoyances is not being able to set the steering wheel, so I can see the bottom of the display, and the top of the dials! Small niggle but I find it infuriating. Needs a slightly bigger steering wheel! My son reports it as the best car I have ever had, the kids call it Minnie, after I pointed out it shares its chassis with some of the Mini range. My wife is not so keen on it, now christening it Mini Maxi Milk Float" (You can tell she works in marketing!) In general she doesn't like automatics.
for a UK company car driver the 7% tax as apposed to 19% for the 216d Active tourer or 21% for the 218d is hard to ignore. With better performance, and potentially better economy than either. I can now also park for free at Milton Keynes using a green permit, which means I'll do my main shopping there, as apposed to Oxford or Cheltenham.
All in all I am enjoying the car, you quickly get addicted to wizzing round on electric power only, and I can see this car as a definite pointer to the future. At the moment though it seems very much like a stop gap between Internal combustion and full eclectic. In maybe 5 years time I can see the 25 mile range and needing to carry round a petrol engine being considered very old fashioned. So to make it perfect, ditch the petrol engine, give me 250 miles on full battery and a reliable and cheep charging infrastructure. Oh yes and a slightly bigger steering wheel!