Welcome to a new video from Shift Up in which this time I show you a popular BMW model with rear-wheel drive and the power of a 6 cylinder, but the consumption of a 4 cylinder.
The power of a 6 cylinder and the consumption of a 4 cylinder sounds interesting lol. The secret of this recipe is behind this little valve. Namely, this is a car with a plug. And that not only ensures saving the environment, but above all a lot of driving pleasure.
The model of the BMW next to me will be familiar to many, the popular 3 series. This is already the 6th generation BMW 3 series. And as with its predecessors, you can get different gasoline and diesel engine variants. And with this car, in addition to the gasoline engine, another engine has been added. And that engine, is an electric motor.
So we call this 3 series the 330E, or plug-in hybrid variant of the BMW 3 series.
Under the hood of this car is a 4 cylinder gasoline engine with 184 hp and an electric motor with 88 hp, which together have a system output of 252 hp. With all that power, it does a sprint from 0 to 100 in 6.1 sec which feels really fast due to the torque of the electric motor.
What I personally like about the technology of the 330E is how smoothly it switches from its electric motor to its gasoline engine and vice versa. It is also equipped with the well-known 8-speed ZF automatic transmission that shifts up and down very refined.
In addition to the familiar sport, comfort and eco modes that allow you to adjust how quickly it responds to your throttle response, how heavy it steers and how late it shifts up, you also have an E drive button on this 330E.
When you press it you can choose from 3 driving modes. With auto e-drive, the car will determine when to drive electrically and when to drive on the fuel engine. When I use your navigation in this mode, electric drive is used where it is most effective on your route. In the city it will often drive electrically if your range allows it and on the highway it will use the combustion engine.
On the max edrive setting, the car will drive only electric, it can even do this up to 120 km/h. In practice, with the air conditioning on, you can drive between 20 and 25 km/h fully electric.
Finally, there is then the save mode. In it, the car will store energy in the battery for later and thus run on fuel engine. By the way, it will also generate energy again during braking and store it in the battery. Of course, this is not as fast as when you hang it on a charging pole, it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours.
The official consumption figure is around 1 in 50, but that is really unattainable in practice. On average I now drive at 1 litre per 16 with the auto edrive mode. If you first drive an electric car and then a short distance with the fuel engine, the consumption will be even better. If you only use the gasoline engine, you will get more like 1:13, I think.
As you would expect from a BMW 3 series, this hybrid variant steers nicely direct and is, of course, rear-wheel drive.
That applies to both the gasoline and the electric motor. It's only about 160 kg heavier than a gasoline version, but that extra weight also means the center of gravity is nice and low, and the car sits nicely on the road.
Unfortunately, for that beautiful hybrid powertrain you have to sacrifice something, a bit of trunk space. Underneath the loading floor of the trunk are the batteries, making it a bit higher than a 3 Series with a gasoline engine. Instead of 480 liters, you can put 370 liters in here.
Furthermore, the interior of this 3 series is also as you would expect tightly finished with beautiful materials and also a fine infotainment system. The one we are driving today has the fine navigation professional screen, the large screen, where you also have an idrive button on which you can write your navigation destination, by the way, voice can also be very easy.
Being a hybrid, this navigation system also shows you nearby charging stations for quick and easy charging.
Furthermore, this one is nicely equipped with an M-Sport package that we at Shift Up are always very fans of. You get a tougher front and rear bumper, 18" alloy wheels, the sport seats where you can extend the seat and the nice M-Sport steering wheel.
It also has the Harman Kardon audio system which provides a nice clean sound, parking sensors and LED headlights.
Curious about the driving characteristics of this beautiful BMW? Then be sure to watch the video
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