BMW 330E: car review

Price: £34,475
Top speed: 140mph
0-62mph: 6.1 seconds
MPG: 148.7
CO₂: 44g/km

When Pam Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988, my chum Andy was onboard. We’d met at university, though he dropped out before he graduated. He was brilliant – and maddening. I think of him often, but last week, en route to Edinburgh, we pulled off the A74 at Dumfries to visit the town’s tree-ringed cemetery where all 270 victims (259 on the plane, plus the 11 killed on the ground) are commemorated. Andy was just 24. He hadn’t really started. Yet when I spooled through everything he’d missed, the life he hadn’t had, I ended up at this blooming car, gleaming in the sunshine next to me. “He’d have loved this BMW,” I said mournfully, turning to my incredulous wife. The thing is, he really would have. And, without sounding crass, I imagined the fun it would have brought him – and that cheered me up a bit.

The BMW in question is the 330e. It’s a marvel of lateral thinking. BMW has taken its award-garlanded 3-Series, with all its phenomenal handling and performance and power and pizzazz, and blended it with a plug-in electric hybrid to produce a quiet masterpiece. The 184bhp 2-litre turbo has been paired with an eight-speed auto gearbox and an 87bhp electric motor. The result is 0-62mph in just over 6 seconds, a baby’s breath 44g of CO2 per km and an astonishing frugal consumption of almost 150mpg.

Hybrids only really make sense on short hops when you can continuously recharge your battery. The 330e has a range of 25 miles in full EV mode which will suit anyone with a short and regular commute. But I drove 1,000 miles in two days, almost all of it on the motorway, so my consumption hovered at around only 40mpg. But that is still pretty good for a fully loaded five-seater with the foot down. The 3-Series has long been known as a driver’s car, and this one is effortless and compliant, smooth and poised. In terms of tearing up the tarmac it’s not going to set your pants on fire, but for a long-distance cruise it’s eager to do all the hard work for you. It’s soothing. Of late I’ve been driving a lot of SUVs and MPVs and I’d forgotten just how pleasant it is to drive an easy-to-live with saloon. In the 330e you feel you are in the hands of something that knows exactly what it is doing.

The interior is, as you would expect from BMW, composed and well considered. There’s a good size boot and the back seats are roomy enough for three lanky teens to sit in all day. Safety systems and driver aids are top notch and the car is fully connected. However, no matter how hard I try, I just cannot get on with BMW’s maddening iDrive interface. It’s the opposite of intuitive. Every button has a mind of its own. I tried voice command whenever I could and, as always, that was hopeless. You’d think I was speaking in broad Scots…

Never mind, it’s just a silly detail. Instead, I thought of Andy, and the ephemeral joy of gliding along an unfurling ribbon of black tarmac.

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@MartinLove166