Pretend for just a moment you didn’t read the title of this story. Imagine we told you we ran a car through our timed acceleration run, and it lit up its rear tires and spun them like crazy. What kind of car would you imagine we were talking about? A Dodge Challenger Hellcat, perhaps, or a Chevrolet Corvette? But you did read the title, and you know we’re talking about the BMW 330e. Not what you expect from an eco-friendly plug-in hybrid, is it?
Yet, that’s exactly what the 2021 BMW 330e did on our dragstrip. And while tire-spinning hooliganism is not something we expect from a plug-in hybrid, we do expect usable range and well-above-average fuel economy when running in hybrid mode. Unfortunately, the 330e didn’t do what we anticipated in that arena, either.
But let’s cast our mind back to a bright sunny day at the test track when MotorTrend road test analyst Alan Lau tried to get a good 0-60-mph run out of the rear-drive 330e.
“This car is difficult to launch but also lots of fun,” he noted. “The electric motor’s instant low-end torque can easily overpower the rear wheels, making them spin nonstop.” We found the XtraBoost setting (which unleashes the full 288 horses) didn’t make a difference in the 0-60 runs, but using the Individual drive mode to select a softer suspension setting did.
For the full story, check out this article from Motor Trend.
