[Inerthia]

Hi there!

We ordered a brand new X1 25E which will be delivered next year April (hopefully). I do have a few questions though:

1. Does the battery pack get charged up by the engine if it falls back to petrol? This may be handy when we are in need of that extra HP during a long road trip when stopping for charging is not an option. Does it have to be on a specific driving mode or something?

2. If it falls back to petrol, the performance will fall from 245 to 136 HP. Would that be acceptable in terms of comfort during a road trip? (roughly 2000 km's). Would upgrading to 30E (150 HP, 14 HP difference) make a huge difference?

Thank you for reading!

[MontyB1]

The engine doesn't charge the battery at least not in any meaning fun way.

The car has a part of the battery the customer can't access but the car can and this can then provide burst of help during acceleration or for traction to provide the 4wd. It's not limitless but it does keep a reserve to help in some of those situations.

As a car its great for daily commutes 45miles or less but if you are doing a lot of frequent long distance driving you are just carrying around a battery with no way of powering and an ICE car or full EV might be a better option. If that type of diving is occasional then it will be fine.

[Tomduck]

Agreed, plentiful short (30mile trips) get one longer trips grab a 18d. Also factor in tbe price difference at cost new which could take many a long time to recoup

[U11sirgawain]

Taken from BMW literature
----
As soon as the driver lifts off the accelerator, up to 50 kW of electric
energy can be fed back into the high-voltage battery. The recuperation
power of the plug-in hybrid models under braking is up to 80 kW. The
degree of recuperation is determined by the My Modes selected.
Adaptive recuperation is activated in Personal Mode and Efficient Mode.
In Sport Mode, recuperation remains constant along a fixed curve.
----

Yes, by selecting battery save (or whatever is called) and managing battery setting, combustion engine will also recharge battery....in a very inefficient way, but i defer explaining it, to those with actual experience on U11 Phevs.

As said above , PHEVS are optimal for daily usage within electric range, and freedom of ocassiona longer trips with the convenience of petrol range and petrol quick refilling times.

[Inerthia]

Thank you for the replies! Yes our intention is to mostly use the car for short trips. The Netherlands is not so big, so it will definitely going to be short trips

But my real question is if the 25E 136 HP would suffice for a long trip once per year in terms of comfort and speed wise. Let's say 2000 km without use of a trailer or roof rack. Is there a reason to justify an upgrade to 30E with 14 more HP and 300+ HP with the battery. I personally would say no and it's a bit overkill, but I never did long trips before and I don't do much driving on really high speeds. So I really appreciate your opinions!

[Inerthia]

Originally Posted by U11sirgawain

Taken from BMW literature
----
As soon as the driver lifts off the accelerator, up to 50 kW of electric
energy can be fed back into the high-voltage battery. The recuperation
power of the plug-in hybrid models under braking is up to 80 kW. The
degree of recuperation is determined by the My Modes selected.
Adaptive recuperation is activated in Personal Mode and Efficient Mode.
In Sport Mode, recuperation remains constant along a fixed curve.
----

Yes, by selecting battery save (or whatever is called) and managing battery setting, combustion engine will also recharge battery....in a very inefficient way, but i defer explaining it, to those with actual experience on U11 Phevs.

As said above , PHEVS are optimal for daily usage within electric range, and freedom of ocassiona longer trips with the convenience of petrol range and petrol quick refilling times.

Thanks alot for your reply! Really appreciated!

[U11sirgawain]

Originally Posted by Inerthia

But my real question is if the 25E 136 HP would suffice for a long trip once per year in terms of comfort and speed wise. Let's say 2000 km without use of a trailer or roof rack. Is there a reason to justify an upgrade to 30E with 14 more HP and 300+ HP with the battery. I personally would say no and it's a bit overkill, but I never did long trips before and I don't do much driving on really high speeds. So I really appreciate your opinions!

I went through same decision making. I am convinced 25 e is enough for your user case, and even my own case (very ocassional towing)
What made me chose 30e was that price difference was not big and there are one in a life situations where you need all power you could have.
I suggest you try 25e in the battery save mode, so you can feel the available power under ICE, and the push electrical engine can provide when needed.
Gosh, I remember my first car, 1984, was 75Hp and I drove all Spain (no flat country) with friends, and my first BMW, 320i auto in 1987 was ¿136? Hp!!

[MontyB1]

Originally Posted by Inerthia

Thank you for the replies! Yes our intention is to mostly use the car for short trips. The Netherlands is not so big, so it will definitely going to be short trips

But my real question is if the 25E 136 HP would suffice for a long trip once per year in terms of comfort and speed wise. Let's say 2000 km without use of a trailer or roof rack. Is there a reason to justify an upgrade to 30E with 14 more HP and 300+ HP with the battery. I personally would say no and it's a bit overkill, but I never did long trips before and I don't do much driving on really high speeds. So I really appreciate your opinions!

We have a 25e and a X3 M40 in the house, the 25e is more than enough for most situations and its positively spritely around town with the EV motors. For my wife there are very if no situations the 25e hasn't been more than enough. Let's not forget its quicker than the ever popular 20d of old that nobody ever says is sluggish.

Now in saying all of that that's mostly in a combination of the ICE+EV the 25e engine is lower powered on its own than the 30e but if you are only doing occasional trips then I suspect everything will be fine, lower power yes but not slow.

[Inerthia]

Thank you all for your answers! Now let's hope they will start producing my car soon.. :P

[Bogdan_CH]

I've ordered the 30e for my wife and occasional family trips, as U11sirgawain mentioned, the price difference was quite small.

But testdrove an 2 series active tourer (they didnt have the X1 hybrid to test ) 25e , and the car was quite quick , in EV mode and quite snappy on sport mode / boost. To mentioned, my current daily is a GLA 45 AMG so was honestly impressed. So for casual driving you have more than enough power. Even for those 2000 miles you eventually stop at the end of the day so you can try charging it over night for the extra boost. What I plan to do on long trips, on slow sections go on ICE engine, where I want the option to drive a bit faster just put in sport, it will still charge the minimum 20% the car needs to provide the full boost. But there is a write up here of a member that has done a couple of 1000km trips and confirmed he never once felt the car didn't had full power.

[Flamingi]

If you put the drivetrain in sport mode it will charge the battery from the ICE. Recently I started a trip with empty battery and in the 6km to the store and back, it charged to 12km electric only range. That's basically the 50kW recuperation mentioned in the specs.

[Inerthia]

Thank you all again for the replies! I will stick with the 25E, still a great choice for us I would say

[mdeadart]

I have the F48 25e. The engines do seem to be pretty close in terms of power. So here goes my 2 cents.

Even on the autobahn, never felt low on power. It gets up to its 195Kmph top speed in no time that you can feel, and even cruises well at 150+ speeds where you can feel there is still power left if you need acceleration. The Auto mode is quite good when the electric motor provides eBoost when needed for sudden acceleration.

It also trickle charges from the engine, and high wattage charge from recuperataion. I often gain a lot of battery charge on the highway in save mode (eBoost still works in Save battery mode).

[Fish Fingers]

We have got the 30e, but you will be surprised with both models how nippy they are in 'maintain battery' mode ie when you think it's using the engine only.

But it also is still using the battery for acceleration etc.

Don't worry. You will be very pleasantly surprised.