BMW expands their range of plug-in hybrids with the four-wheel drive 225xe. Does a 25-mile electric only range increase the 2 Series Active Tourer’s appeal?

The plug-in hybrid has proved a popular choice for many in the UK.

Given the tax breaks and sizeable government grant plug-in vehicles receive, it’s no surprise to see BMW expanding their range of hybrids to include the 2 Series Active Tourer, particularly given that it’ll be one of the very few plug-in cars in this high-roofed, five-seat MPV class.

The 225xe has enough battery capacity to run for up to 25 miles on electricity alone before the 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine kicks in to give you just as much range as a standard petrol 2 Series.

Even this limited electric range gives it some impressive claimed fuel economy and CO2 emissions figures. The 225xe emits 46g/km of CO2 – meaning it falls into the lowest company car tax band – and has a combined fuel economy figure of 141.2mpg.

What is the 2016 BMW 225xe Active Tourer like to drive?

Driven carefully and with a fully charged battery, the 225xe acts just like an electric car. Around town, it’s easy to keep the engine from firing unless you either flatten the throttle or switch the car to battery save mode to preserve charge.

If you’re determined to run on volts alone, there’s an electric-only mode that will prevent the petrol engine from running even under harder acceleration. As you would expect, though, the quicker you gain speed and the higher your speed, the sooner the battery runs out.

Once the battery is fully depleted, the engine runs for much longer periods of time. This means the 141.2mpg figure is only achievable over short distances where the car can run in electric mode for much of the time.

Thanks to the relatively small capacity of the battery, charging doesn’t take too long even off a normal three-pin plug, which will charge the battery in 3.5 hours. A BMW supplied Wallbox charger will cut that to two hours and 45 minutes.

There are other benefits to the hybrid system; while the 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine produces just 134bhp, the rear-mounted electric motor produces another 87bhp. That means there’s 221bhp with both working together, enough for a 0-62mph time of just 6.7sec accompanied by a sporty sounding warble from the engine.

Read more: What Car

BMW’s expansion of its non-i hybrid portfolio continues, as hot on the heels of the 330e is the 225xe Active Tourer. Yes, that means it’s a petrol-electric version of Munich’s unusual mini-MPV, but a tour on mixed roads near the company’s Bavarian headquarters revealed a few surprises in the 2 Series’ armoury…

What’s this?

A BMW 2 Series Active Tourer that has been given the drivetrain of the i8 sports car. Sort of. But turned through 180 degrees. So, for the 225xe you get all three modes of traction in one: in Auto eDrive, the car’s software chooses from and mixes up the 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol’s 136hp and the rear-mounted electric motor’s 88hp, giving you all-wheel drive; switch to Save, and only the engine and the front axle are used, while the on-board lithium-ion battery pack is replenished by both the combustion engine and the regenerative brakes; and finally, in Max eDrive, providing you have charge, then the 2 Series becomes rear-wheel drive and fully electric with zero emissions.

This clever system, all packaged up in the practical if rather cumbersome Active Tourer body, makes this an ideal car for daily commuters with young families who live in cities where there are extremes of weather. Which might sound like a narrow window of opportunity, but actually there’s a bigger market for such a 2 AT than you might expect. BMW reckons that after the US and Japan, the UK, Holland and Germany will lap this thing up.

Prices are extremely competitive for the PHEV. It starts at £35,155, so with the £5,000 Government grant that brings it down to a little more than £30,000; cheaper than the 225i xDrive’s £32,010. However, from March 1 the rules change and the 225xe will be a Category 2 Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle (ULEV), meaning the grant reduces to £2,500, making the 2 AT PHEV at least £32,655. Pricey, perhaps, but for that, you’ll get a part-electric, all-wheel drive, premium, five-seat MPV, which puts it in a class of… one, for the time being. And, visually, it looks like any 2 Series Active Tourer, save for the external ‘225xe’ and ‘eDrive’ badging, the ‘extra filler’ charging port flap on the front nearside wing and an interior that features a lot of blue lighting and stitching, a few extra hybrid-related screens in its digital displays and an eDrive button on the centre console. Pretty, the 225xe ain’t, but with regards to its primary purpose of shuttling people about, it is at least functional.

How does it drive?

On the face of it, marvellously well. It’s another blinding integration of electrification by BMW, as the 225xe feels superb on first acquaintance. The petrol-electric drivetrain is great at nipping what is a fairly hefty machine (1,660kg) through town and once the roads open out, the Two’s full punch is pretty impressive. The steering’s great, the six-speed Steptronic auto is an utter gem, the brakes are… well, they’re good, although the task of harvesting energy for the battery under deceleration always makes them feel just a little odd underfoot, but generally it proves to be a likeable, premium motor to cruise about in. The three-cylinder engine also makes a great noise under hard acceleration, which is a boon.

Read more: Car Enthusiast

BMW’s plug-in hybrid extravaganza continues with its 225xe Active Tourer, offering practicality allied to tiny CO2 emissions and pure electric drive

What is it?:

The BMW 225xe Active Tourer takes the fundamentals of the petrol-electric hybrid driveline layout first unveiled on the i8 sports car and turns it 180deg, creating an intriguing four-wheel-drive hatchback-cum-MPV capable of travelling up to 25 miles on electric power alone.

This allows the new five-seater to claim combined cycle fuel consumption of 141mpg and average CO2 emissions of just 46g/km on the controversial EU test cycle – figures that see it qualify for the UK government’s OLEV grant and mean it is exempt from congestion charges such as that in place in central London.

The new BMW is based around the front-wheel-drive 218i Active Tourer. However, some significant engineering changes have taken place to turn it into the four-wheel-drive 225xe Active Tourer, which is planned to go on sale in the UK in March at a price of £33,055.

While the i8 boasts electric drive on the front wheels, the imminently more practical 225xe employs electric drive on the rear wheels via a BMW-produced electric motor mounted within its rear axle assembly that delivers 87bhp and 122lb ft and provides drive via a fixed-ratio gearbox acting as a rear differential.

A similar change in configuration is reserved for the combustion engine. The turbocharged 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol unit employed by the i8 sits in an east-west position behind the cabin and channels drive to the rear wheels, but the similar configured powerplant in the 225xe is mounted transversely up front and directs its reserves to the front wheels.

The petrol engine boasts the same tuning as that of the 218i Active Tourer, serving up 134bhp and 162lb ft on a reasonably wide band of revs between 1250 and 4300rpm. As on the i8, the moderate reserves are channelled through a six-speed automatic gearbox with paddle shifts mounted on the steering wheel.

Altogether, there’s a combined system output of 221bhp and 284lb ft. It’s not the most powerful 2-Series Active Tourer model, though. That honor rests with the 225i, whose turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine makes 228bhp and 258lb ft.

Electrical energy used to run the electric motor is sourced from a 7.6kWh lithium ion battery mounted underneath the rear seat in the same space as the fuel tank is located in conventionally powered Active Tourers.

As a result, the fuel tank has been reduced in capacity by 15 litres to 36 litres. It’s now also made of steel rather than plastic and is pressurised to allow petrol to be stored safely over longer periods if the 225xe is used predominantly in electric mode. The rear seat has also been raised by 30mm to accommodate the battery, which uses the same cells as that employed by the new 330e.

Even so, boot capacity has been reduced by 70 litres to 400 litres owing to the packaging of the power electronics in the front section of the boot floor.

Aside from a flap integrated in the front left-hand wing, housing the socket for charging cable, the 225xe looks like any other 2-Series Active Tourer. Recharging time on regular mains electricity is claimed to take 3hr 15min, with an optional high-power wall box reducing this to 2hr 15min.

Read more: Autocar