BMW X3 PLUG-IN HYBRID RANGE TEST (highway and city)

I’m going to test the range on the highway first. I want to know the minimum range of this car by testing it at higher average speeds.

At the beginning of the drive, the battery is fully charged to 100%. The range indicator is at 32 km. I did the test in January and it was between 5.5 and 6 degrees during this part of the test. Let’s take a look at my results. During the test, consumption varied between 27.5 kWh and 34.2 kWh, giving a theoretical range of between 29 and 35 km.

I drained the battery to 0% and the end result on the highway was a range of 38.6 km.

Now let’s test the range at lower average speeds in the city. I wanted to know what the maximum range of this car could be.

At the beginning of the drive, the battery is fully charged to 100%. The range indicator is at 34 km.

The temperature during this test was between 4 and 5 degrees. We are still in January. Let’s take a look at my results.

I first drained the battery to 75%. I drove 8.5 km. The average consumption was 36.6 kWh which is on the higher side. The theoretical range would be 32.5 km. This was because I was driving in a big city like Brussels, where you have to stop a lot for traffic lights. All this stop-and-go driving has an impact on consumption.

After that, we are still driving in an urban environment, but with a little more opportunity for continuous driving. Then the consumption dropped to 29.6 and 26.85 kWh, giving a theoretical range of about 35 km. I ran the battery all the way down to 0% and the range came out to 38 km, the same result as on the highway.

Now let’s see how long it takes to charge the battery. This battery has a gross capacity of 12 kWh and an on-board charger of 3.7 kW. BMW says it takes 3.7 hours to charge the battery from 0 to 100% at a rate of 3.7 kW.

The press file says you charge it to 80% in 2.4 hours at 3.7 kw, so the last 20% takes a long time I guess. A charging speed of 3.7 kw is good enough for a plug-in hybrid, although not very special. For example, an Audi Q5 PHEV or a GLC plug-in hybrid charges at 7.4 kw.

I tested this twice at a public charger in Brussels and the car indicated it would take 3h44 minutes and 3h51 minutes to fully charge. One of those times I came back early, after 3 hours and 10 minutes and the X3 seemed to be fully charged already. Maybe it’s the very last 1% that takes forever to recharge, I don’t know. You don’t see the percentage of charge, just a visual indicator.

I actually found out that charging at a charger is not the fastest way to charge this car, in terms of charging time.

There is a battery control feature that allows you to maintain a certain state of charge or you can also fully charge the battery while driving.

So I tested how long it takes to fully charge the battery while driving. I tested this on the highway while driving 120 km/h. I have not tested this multiple times, but it is my impression that speed does play a role in how fast the battery charges. So after 10 minutes of driving, the battery was already 25% charged, which amounted to 6 km of range.

After 21 minutes, the battery was at 50% or about 14 km range on the indicator. It took me 47 minutes at 120 km/h over an 86 km drive to fully charge the battery, which surprisingly is a shorter time than at a charger.

Some other plug-in hybrids from other brands also have this functionality, but none of them charge as fast as BMW while driving.

So you’re probably wondering about fuel economy.

I did a general test drive of 155 km, of which 56 km were electric and the average consumption was 6.1 kwh and 7.3 liters/100 km.

I also did a super short test of just 14 km on the highway to check how much I consumed when the battery was at 0%, and it was 8 liters.

When I was charging the battery while driving, I consumed about 11.2 liters.

One last thing you might wonder about is what about performance on a dead battery. I did an acceleration test with a battery sufficiently charged and then another acceleration test with a dead battery. Of course, it is a bit less sporty when the battery is dead, but the gasoline engine alone still has 184 hp and 300 Nm of torque, so enough power for a normal driving style.

In conclusion, the range of the BMW X3 xDrive30e Plug-In Hybrid in winter is around 38 km, measured at temperatures between 4 and 6 degrees. I’m pretty sure in warmer weather you get more range. In the summer, you will probably achieve the WLTP range of 50 km or even slightly more. I did a range test in the summer with the BMW 530e touring which has a WLTP range of 47-53 km and I got a real range of 49-55 km, so I wouldn’t know why you wouldn’t get 50 km or more with this X3 in the summer.