T8 Owners Battery Charging
 

It appears BMW have had to send a letter to all of their Hybrid owners.

To sum up the letter:-

"Warning them that the hybrid batteries in the cars will not be covered under warranty unless they are charged, and discharged on a regular basis."

So I guess all those Hybrid Cars sold as company cars, because of the tax breaks I guess, who just drive them permanently on a discharged battery are causing them to fail, or potentially fail before their warranty runs out.

Wonder if Volvo will take up the same policy, though I do guess far less are sold as company cars then the BMW 330E

The batteries are warranted for 8 years , Volvo already built in battery protection from the word go in 2012 with the C30 Electric .
The batteries will always stay in the 10% to 90% charged range, despite the gauge on the dash saying empty or full . They even say that if the car is laid up for a length of time to make sure it is put away with the batteries 25% charged .

Not sure it makes a difference but even when you drive in Hybrid mode it will charge the battery a few percent. Not sure what happens when you put it in Power...

That is part of the driving experience , trying to get as much as possible back in the battery whilst going about your journey, it should be a lot more than a few % too .your brake pads should last about 3 times as long as a normal engined volvo

Not so clan. The xc90 engine is capable of charging battery’s to 30% only, not 90.

yes , what I wrote was a bit misleading , I was talking about when plugged into the mains , it does not fully charge the battery only 90% , likewise it will not let the battery go completely flat it shuts down quite a bit above this although the capacity gauge will be on empty . Typical Lithium ion battery charging methods .

My point was drivers just run hybrids with out ever fully charging to 100% (90%) with the majority running the cars with an empty battery that just gets charged a little while driving, that is drained to near empty again.

What BMW are saying that you have to fully charge a battery and drain it on a regular basis, if you do not your warranty is invalidated.

I guess Volvo's Battery System is the same and will require the same use, might even be in the small print somewhere?

something to bear in mind for the future, not to mention the fact it will give the battery system a longer life.

There are no such requirements with the volvo hybrid system other than making sure the battery is about 25% charged before storing the car away .. It is standard lithium ion battery technology .

What BMW appear to be saying is for lead acid battery technology ! Anyway how are they going to know how the battery is being used to keep the warranty intact ?

I would put money on it that ECU logs battery charging etc. lets face it everything is pretty well logged now days on cars.

330E does not use lead acid batteries in its hybrid system.