Roughly three months into driving 225xe, it seems about right time come back to revisit the initial impressions and see how the car fares in long-term usage. In this post, I want to focus on the 225xe driving modes of which the car offers aplenty. First, there are the three traditional BMW Driving Experience modes: COMFORT, SPORT, and ECO PRO, which come fitted on non-hybrid powertrains as well. Then there are the eDrive modes: AUTO eDrive, MAX eDrive, and SAVE BATTERY. To complicate this even further, moving the gear stick to the left at any time switches the automatic gearbox to the sports mode, so there are two gearbox modes: Drive and Sport/Manual which allows sequential gear shifts.
So in theory, there are 3 x 3 x 2 = 18 combinations, in practice, some of the combinations are mutually exclusive, so it is not so extreme as it seems. What is apparent though is that BMW keeps adding new options while maintaining the legacy options as well without thinking about consolidation. This makes for a perfect geek car: if you like, you can play with the options according to your driving mood and road conditions as much as you want. Sometimes, given all the displays and indicators, one may feel like piloting a spaceship rather than driving a little a family MPV.
There is good news for those scared of the complexity though, the default driving modes, which are COMFORT + AUTO eDrive, are very well tuned for normal driving conditions and if you are happy with them, you don't need to fiddle with any other options. While driving in the COMFORT mode with a charged battery, the car uses electric motor most of the time at speeds up to 80 km/hour. Whenever you hit the accelerator pedal too much or exceed 80 km/hour, the gasoline engine kicks in to help. It also starts the engine when ascending steep slopes. Whenever you release the accelerator pedal, the car begins recuperative breaking and slows down quite naturally, simulating the traditional engine braking very well. As mentioned above, at most times it is all you need. Sometimes, it is useful to move the gear shift lever to the left to switch gearbox to the SPORT mode. Regardless of the driving mode, moving the gearstick to the left immediately starts the gasoline engine and puts it at higher revs, which is great when preparing for overtaking - it helps to start accelerating faster than using just a kick-down which depending on a driving mode has shorter or longer lag.
Owning a plug-in hybrid one tries to showcase its fuel economy of course. To achieve that, there are two modes which can help: MAX eDrive, which attempts to use the electric engine as much as possible and allows electric-only driving at speeds up to 125 km/hour. However, the battery depletes very quickly at higher speeds, and I found out that even MAX eDrive mode does not prevent the gasoline engine from starting when getting out of my garage on a steep driveway. The gasoline engine more often kicks in when ascending the garage entrance on the reverse, so I suspect the car stability system overrides the driving mode and whenever DSC detects the rear wheels slipping, it enforces 4x4 mode by calling the internal combustion engine to the rescue. To sum it up: I don't find the MAX eDrive mode very useful, except for very short trips around town, when I am sure, the battery will last for the entire trip.
The second helper to achieve the best fuel economy is the ECO PRO mode, which I most often combine with the AUTO eDrive and with built-in navigation. The integrated navigation helps the car to plan the battery usage according to the intended route by using gasoline more on open roads and saving battery for the city driving. When turning on the ECO PRO mode, the first thing you notice is the lack of regenerative breaking at most conditions - the car is set to the coasting mode. Whenever you release the accelerator pedal, the car just sails effortlessly as far as it can, turning off the gasoline engine at speeds below 80km/h or idling it below 1000 rpm at freeway speeds. I continue to be amazed how much momentum the car has and how far and fast it can go, without burning any fuel and or using any battery power when coasting. To complement the experience, the built-in car navigation has an option to use ECO PRO routes, which are great for weekend getaways, when in no rush. Using the ECO PRO routes allowed me to discover some beautiful places in the countryside I never visited before. The fuel economy during these trips stayed consistently below 4.5 l/100 km.
There are however practical limitations to the ECO PRO mode: you can only use coasting if you can set your pace. In heavy city traffic with traffic lights and impatient drivers wanting to accelerate quickly at lights and reach the next lights as fast as possible (typical Prague driving style, think of Italy if you have not been to Prague before), you can't set your pace without disrupting the traffic flow. The default COMFORT mode with its automatic regenerative braking really fulfills its name, and it is much more comfortable to drive the car in COMFORT mode than trying to repeatedly slow down by gently pressing the brake pedal to recuperate manually in the ECO PRO mode.
Last but not least, let's get the update on fuel economy. Having roughly 4000 km driven and refueling the tank seven times, my average fuel economy is 5.38 l/100 km (52.5 MPG). Comparing to the benchmarks mentioned in the last blog post, this is yielding 25% better fuel economy compared to the same engine cars, and 36% better fuel economy compared to the cars with similar horsepower. The chart below shows the fuel economy statistics for all the fuel tank refills.
Well, and what about the SPORT driving experience mode? BMW Owner's Manual recommends keeping the engine revs below 4500 rpms until reaching the first 2000 km. Given a significant amount of electric-only driving, I spared the car of excesses until we reached roughly 3000 km. Stay tuned for the next issue to learn what happens when you wake up the beast hiding in 225xe...
So in theory, there are 3 x 3 x 2 = 18 combinations, in practice, some of the combinations are mutually exclusive, so it is not so extreme as it seems. What is apparent though is that BMW keeps adding new options while maintaining the legacy options as well without thinking about consolidation. This makes for a perfect geek car: if you like, you can play with the options according to your driving mood and road conditions as much as you want. Sometimes, given all the displays and indicators, one may feel like piloting a spaceship rather than driving a little a family MPV.
The COMFORT mode display the battery status, and ePower / charging indicators.
There is good news for those scared of the complexity though, the default driving modes, which are COMFORT + AUTO eDrive, are very well tuned for normal driving conditions and if you are happy with them, you don't need to fiddle with any other options. While driving in the COMFORT mode with a charged battery, the car uses electric motor most of the time at speeds up to 80 km/hour. Whenever you hit the accelerator pedal too much or exceed 80 km/hour, the gasoline engine kicks in to help. It also starts the engine when ascending steep slopes. Whenever you release the accelerator pedal, the car begins recuperative breaking and slows down quite naturally, simulating the traditional engine braking very well. As mentioned above, at most times it is all you need. Sometimes, it is useful to move the gear shift lever to the left to switch gearbox to the SPORT mode. Regardless of the driving mode, moving the gearstick to the left immediately starts the gasoline engine and puts it at higher revs, which is great when preparing for overtaking - it helps to start accelerating faster than using just a kick-down which depending on a driving mode has shorter or longer lag.
Owning a plug-in hybrid one tries to showcase its fuel economy of course. To achieve that, there are two modes which can help: MAX eDrive, which attempts to use the electric engine as much as possible and allows electric-only driving at speeds up to 125 km/hour. However, the battery depletes very quickly at higher speeds, and I found out that even MAX eDrive mode does not prevent the gasoline engine from starting when getting out of my garage on a steep driveway. The gasoline engine more often kicks in when ascending the garage entrance on the reverse, so I suspect the car stability system overrides the driving mode and whenever DSC detects the rear wheels slipping, it enforces 4x4 mode by calling the internal combustion engine to the rescue. To sum it up: I don't find the MAX eDrive mode very useful, except for very short trips around town, when I am sure, the battery will last for the entire trip.
ECO PRO display - glaring blue as shown above if driving economically, it turns silver when driving too aggressively or too fast.
The second helper to achieve the best fuel economy is the ECO PRO mode, which I most often combine with the AUTO eDrive and with built-in navigation. The integrated navigation helps the car to plan the battery usage according to the intended route by using gasoline more on open roads and saving battery for the city driving. When turning on the ECO PRO mode, the first thing you notice is the lack of regenerative breaking at most conditions - the car is set to the coasting mode. Whenever you release the accelerator pedal, the car just sails effortlessly as far as it can, turning off the gasoline engine at speeds below 80km/h or idling it below 1000 rpm at freeway speeds. I continue to be amazed how much momentum the car has and how far and fast it can go, without burning any fuel and or using any battery power when coasting. To complement the experience, the built-in car navigation has an option to use ECO PRO routes, which are great for weekend getaways, when in no rush. Using the ECO PRO routes allowed me to discover some beautiful places in the countryside I never visited before. The fuel economy during these trips stayed consistently below 4.5 l/100 km.
There are however practical limitations to the ECO PRO mode: you can only use coasting if you can set your pace. In heavy city traffic with traffic lights and impatient drivers wanting to accelerate quickly at lights and reach the next lights as fast as possible (typical Prague driving style, think of Italy if you have not been to Prague before), you can't set your pace without disrupting the traffic flow. The default COMFORT mode with its automatic regenerative braking really fulfills its name, and it is much more comfortable to drive the car in COMFORT mode than trying to repeatedly slow down by gently pressing the brake pedal to recuperate manually in the ECO PRO mode.
Last but not least, let's get the update on fuel economy. Having roughly 4000 km driven and refueling the tank seven times, my average fuel economy is 5.38 l/100 km (52.5 MPG). Comparing to the benchmarks mentioned in the last blog post, this is yielding 25% better fuel economy compared to the same engine cars, and 36% better fuel economy compared to the cars with similar horsepower. The chart below shows the fuel economy statistics for all the fuel tank refills.
Well, and what about the SPORT driving experience mode? BMW Owner's Manual recommends keeping the engine revs below 4500 rpms until reaching the first 2000 km. Given a significant amount of electric-only driving, I spared the car of excesses until we reached roughly 3000 km. Stay tuned for the next issue to learn what happens when you wake up the beast hiding in 225xe...
Comments
Post a Comment