Project Petrolhead

Due to a turn of events that you will be able to read about next week, I recently found myself behind the wheel of a 2020 BMW 330e Touring. Being my first experience of a modern hybrid, I was quite looking forward to the two-hour schlep back from Clipston, but I didn’t expect the journey to introduce me to what is quite possibly the most complete daily-driver package on the market.

Stepping into the cabin, you are greeted by the penultimate version of the same basic cabin layout that BMW have been developing since the E90 generation, with a clear central screen, a low seating position, a chunky-rimmed steering wheel and tactile buttons for the drive modes stowed away by the gear selector. This being a pre-facelift car, all of the important functions – radio, climate control, ADAS – are controlled through physical buttons (joy of joys), while slick integration of wireless Android Auto allows for Google maps and Spotify to substitute in for BMW’s own infotainment pretty seamlessly.

On the move, the steering is quite numb but unfailingly accurate, meaning that you’re able to place the front end with ease after just a few yards, which is quite handy given just how much grunt is on tap at any given time. Give the throttle a prod in the “Xtraboost” Sport mode and 290bhp is deployed to the rear wheels, with the electric motor neatly filling in the torque gap created as the turbocharger spools into life. If you really hoof it out of a corner, there’s a squirm from the rear end and some light axle tramping (mainly a symptom of the 8-speed ZF gearbox rather insistently kicking down to the lowest gear possible in “S” mode, I generally found it more agreeable left in “D”) but the stability control does an excellent job of keeping everything on the safe side of fun.

As our car’s trim was the lowly SE Pro rather than the more common M Sport, the combination of fixed springs, smaller wheels and chunkier sidewalls did a marvellous job of smoothing out the ride, so knocking the drivetrain back into “Hybrid” and letting the car settle into a quiet cruise was actually more pleasant than I’d expected. Recouping some charge with the handy “Battery Management” options, I was even able to run a couple of miles in electric-only, with smooth, near-silent running making the normally soul-crushingly dull A5 surprisingly bearable.

The clever hybrid system does, however, uncover my one big issue with the 330e: the brakes. As with most hybrids on the market, the BMW offers regenerative braking, sending kinetic energy back into the battery to top up the charge under coasting and braking. It’s a system that works and works well under normal day-to-day driving, but when you decide to have some fun, engage sport mode and partake in some spirited driving, it all just falls apart. You see, activating Sport mode turns off the regen, but that in turn completely removes the initial bite at the top of the brake pedal, so you must press the pedal a good inch or two before anything starts to happen. Not really what you want while driving quickly, is it? Once you do push through the initial pedal travel, the brakes are confidence inspiring, but I’d advise any prospective owners to spend a while getting used to them, and the colossal change in pedal feel that different modes offer.

In terms of liveability, the modern 3-Series perfectly skirts the line of being big enough for family use, but – unlike most modern behemoths – still small enough to fit down most UK roads. There’s plenty of leg and headroom in the rear seats, with a reasonably sized boot big enough for at least two labradors, although it’s worth noting that the 330e keeps its batteries below the boot floor, so if load space is your priority, you might be better off with one of BMW’s non-hybrid offerings, which swap the batteries for a handy under-floor storage cubby.

All-in-all, the 330e – especially in touring guise – does a surprisingly faultless job of ticking every box. It’s quick, economical, practical, well-built and user-friendly. If I were in the market for a jack-of-all-trades daily driver, I’d struggle to justify NOT buying one.