Looking at buying a 2017 BMW 330e...
Hi,
I am looking at a 2017 BMW 330e Sport. At the moment I travel 30km per day on average so expect the battery-only power to cover most of my driving outside of the weekend. Can you let me know of any issues I should be looking for with a plug-in hybrid of this year? Do you know if there are any battery life issues starting to crop up? My budget is around the €20K mark and the car is for a family of four; are there any other plug-in hybrids (saloon or SUV) I should be looking at for this budget?
Thanks, Joe
Joe Harbourne (Dublin)Mar 2021 Filed under: hybrid
Expert answer
Hi Joe,
There aren’t any specific battery issues to look for, and the good thing about a plug-in hybrid is that you can’t fast-charge them, so there’s less likelihood of wear and tear on the battery cells from repeated rapid charges. Obviously, batteries do degrade a little over time, but you shouldn’t see more than a few percentage points wiped off the performance. Make sure you go for a fully-charged test drive first though, and if the range seems abruptly short (allowing for weather, traffic etc) then the battery might have been physically damaged at some point.
Other plug-in hybrids worth considering would be a BMW 530e, although that probably won’t squeeze into your budget, or a Volkswagen Passat GTE, which provides performance almost as good as that of the 330e, but for a much lower cost overall and it's more spacious. Don’t forget that the battery eats considerably into the 330e’s boot space, and it was never a big car inside to begin with. The updated Passat GTE (2020) was available as an estate, too...
Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate review
Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor@neilmbriscoe