Quote:
Originally Posted by ztx84
The 545e looks very interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing some reviews in the UK/Europe and what the real world electric range is.
The point that always makes me wonder though is whether/how the combustion engine is warmed up from cold - for instance if you leave home on a cold day on electric only power, then hit a fast road, put your foot down, is the engine still stone cold when you subsequently immediately ask it for 3k-4k rpm? To me from a mechanical sympathy point of view that sounds like a bad idea... Does anyone know how the drivetrain reacts from cold? What mitigations are in place to prevent combustion engine damage when cold?
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From what I can tell with my 530e the engine will still be cold. I can only see oil temp if I hop into sport mode and if I do it from pure electric the engine will be in the cold zone.
That being said, I don't notice any issues with trying to pass or kick the ICE on and use it when needed from a cold point. The manual doesn't really mention any negatives to it and I don't think it causes any real harm. My reasoning for thinking this is the fact the electric motor still uses the transmission so the car may be kicking the engine on at a later point, but it is less stressful as it is in gear when done and getting some assistance from the electric motor as well. In pure sport mode it shows you this though as you're not getting the electric pulling the initial weight so it matters more.
I think of it is as a combined output thing. You're kicking the ICE engine on at 45% of the power needed to drive at that speed and it is warming up, but the electric motor is pulling 40% and the ICE is pulling 5% so it isn't getting stressed anywhere near as much as if you were to be dealing with a cold engine and immediately floored it up to 45% of the engine output (including transmission needing to shift to where it is optimal and etc).