BMW LAUNCHES WORLD-FIRST eDRIVE ZONES IN THE UK.
Further enhancing support for plug-in hybrid owners, BMW is today launching BMW Points in the UK – a programme designed to reward customers for each electric mile driven.
Offered to BMW 330e, BMW 530e, BMW 545e, BMW 745e, BMW X3 30e (produced from August 2021) and BMW X5 45e drivers with BMW Operating System 7.0, the programme offers free charging in exchange for driving electric miles. Drivers can earn 2 points for each mile driven electrically, and 4 points for each mile driven electrically in a designated eDrive zone.
BMW Points users are also awarded 20 bonus points every time their vehicle is charged for a minimum of fifteen minutes. Plus, a monthly reward of 500 points for each user who charges their vehicle twenty times a month for a minimum of fifteen minutes each time.
Once drivers have collected 3,200 points, they will be rewarded with £10 charging credit to be used across the BMW Charging network. At 7,500 points, customers will receive £25 and at 14,500 points a £50 free charging credit.
Points are earned for each mile driven once the vehicle is registered on the BMW Points scheme via the My BMW App and, once registered, miles are automatically logged by the vehicle. Additionally, any miles driven throughout Europe are also recorded, with BMW Points already available to customers in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands.
BMW became the first car manufacturer in 2020 to launch geo-fencing technology in designated areas across London and Birmingham, resulting in BMW plug-in hybrid models switching to electric driving mode once the vehicle has entered these eDrive zones. Now in addition to London and Birmingham, a further six eDrive Zones have been launched across the UK in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, Bath and Manchester.
BMW has also launched eDrive Zones in the Republic of Ireland, with Dublin and Limerick added as designated cities.
More information on the first BMW eDrive Zones which launched in the UK in 2020 can be found here.
The BMW eDrive Zones service, available as standard on BMW plug-in hybrid models running the latest BMW Operating System 7.0, works using geo-fencing technology via GPS within the vehicle’s navigation system. The eDrive Zones in London and Birmingham are highlighted graphically on the vehicle’s Central Control Display navigation screen, so drivers can see their location.
This feature, which is enabled in customer vehicles as of today, covers the same geographic area as the TFL Congestion Charge/ULEZ zone in London, while in Birmingham the service covers the city’s planned Clean Air Zone, which is due to be implemented in 2021. BMW plans to introduce this technology in additional cities across the UK and Ireland in the future.
The BMW eDrive Zones service is now available as standard on BMW 330e, BMW 530e, BMW 745e and BMW X5 xDrive45e, with additional compatible models launching in the future. BMW eDrive Zones have also been made available via a free over-the-air software update for compatible BMW plug-in hybrid vehicles, meaning existing customers can also benefit from this technology.
The significant contribution plug-in hybrid vehicles can make to reducing tailpipe emissions in cities was demonstrated in an early trial of this technology, carried out in the Netherlands in 2018. Results of this research project showed 90 per cent of all routes within the trial zone in Rotterdam were driven in electric-only mode.
BMW Group production locations in the UK are also contributing towards the company’s global electromobility goals. BMW Group’s Hams Hall engine manufacturing plant, near Birmingham, assembles three-cylinder and four-cylinder petrol engines that are at the heart of a number of BMW plug-in hybrid vehicles. By the end of 2020, it is expected that one in five engines built by the company in Birmingham will be destined for a plug-in hybrid vehicle, rising to around 25 per cent of engines built next year.
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