Long-term report: A fuelling hiccup with the BMW 330e Touring

Even with a plug-in hybrid like the 330e Touring, you do eventually need to fill up with fuel. In this instance, this means trotting to the local petrol station and topping up as you usually would. But on my last visit to the local station, I hit a little bit of a speed bump.

In the 330e, you have to press a button inside the driver’s door to open the filler flap. I pressed this recently, got out to open the filler flap and – nothing. The door wouldn’t open. I went back into the car, pressed again and still the filler flap wouldn’t budge. It seemed thoroughly stuck.

As with most things these days, when faced with a problem I turned immediately to YouTube. It turns out that if you press the button and don’t open the filler flap at the right time afterwards, it can get caught and simply won’t open, no matter how many times you repeat the process.

Fortunately, there’s a get-out. Inside the right-hand side of the boot, you can remove a panel and find a prominent cable. Pull this – and you need to pull it a lot harder than you think is necessary – and the release will open. Plus, you’ve reset the system from that point so the button should, in theory, work once again without issue.

I’d actually started wondering whether or not the 330e would run entirely on electric power once it had run out of fuel but, thankfully, I didn’t need to find out.

However, what I am finding out now is what the 330e is like without that electrical assistance. How is that? Well, I’ve now swapped into a ‘regular’ 320i, which uses a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, just like the 330e, but does without the electric motor and batteries.

Immediately, there’s quite a big difference – range. I’d mentioned previously that the 330e’s piddly fuel tank meant that it didn’t have the same long-distance ability as you’d usually expect from a 3 Series. Of course, you get the added boost from the electric energy – with around 34 miles being delivered from the 330e I was using – but when you’re sitting on the motorway, it’s outright fuel range which reigns supreme.

So now, from a full tank you can see nearly 600 miles which means that I’ve been filling the 320i up a lot less. I will say, however, that the first time I did have to brim its fuel tank came as a bit of a shock as I’d become a bit accustomed to the hybrid’s around £45 fill-up. Now, it’s over £70 – but those are the breaks, I guess.

It’s a fair whack slower than the hybrid, mind you. The 330e would manage the 0-60mph sprint in around 5.7 seconds, whereas the 320i sees that grow to 7.4 seconds. It’s quite a noticeable difference, particularly when you’re merging onto the motorway, but the engine itself is actually more free-revving than you might think for a turbocharged unit which makes it quite good fun to string out. The whole car feels a little bit lighter and a touch sportier, too.

Another bonus is boot space. The fitment of the batteries in the plug-in hybrid means that boot space falls by 90 litres which means that with the 320i it now feels like I’ve added an extension. It certainly feels like a more practical option and, as with all 3 Series Touring models, you still get the excellent pop-out glass hatch section which makes accessing the load area really easy.

It’s a very attractive specification, too, but in quite a classic way. Whereas the 330e felt more ‘modern’ with its flat grey exterior shade and suede-effect interior, the 320i switches things up with a dark blue hue for the outside and a contrast cream leather interior. When combined with the panoramic sunroof, this does help to make the cabin far brighter than before and it’s something I find far more pleasant. The leather is also a little easier to live with in terms of cleaning, too.

The 320i has already been put fully into use, but I expect that to only increase during my time with the car. I will say that I am missing the ability to charge up at home and run on electric-only power but, if charging isn’t possible, the 320i does seem to have the edge.