BMW eDrive Zone expanded to cover more than 130 European cities

BMW has announced it will expand its eDrive Zone mode to cover an additional 20 city centres across Europe, bringing the total of zero-emissions locations to more than 130.

The mode works in certain BMW plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models by automatically deactivating the petrol engine and relying solely on battery power – just like a full-electric vehicle – when entering selected city centres.

The feature operates via a combination of geofencing and GPS technologies to ensure the vehicle can recognise designated areas, and prompt the driver to make the switch.

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Those driving solely with battery power in these areas are rewarded with bonus points for each all-electric kilometre driven – worth double in an eDrive Zone – that can be redeemed for charging credits. Additional points are also available when the vehicle is charging.

The new cities included in the eDrive Zone include; Aberdeen, Bregenz, Brescia, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Cork, Coventry, Florence, Klagenfurt, Lille, Matosinhos, Naples, Oeiras, Oxford, Sheffield, St.Pölten, Toulouse, and Verona.

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BMW says the all-electric driving mode is activated around 30,000 times per day across Europe, with around 40 per cent of drivers already travelling with the petrol engine deactivated prior to entering designated eDrive Zones.

Additionally, BMW also claims its plug-in hybrid customers have accumulated around 150 million points since the introduction of the eDrive Zone mode in mid-2020, with the German brand providing around 2.9 gigawatt hours of free charging – enough to power a 3 Series PHEV almost 250,000 times.

With no regulations surrounding zero-emissions city centres in Australia, BMW's local plug-in hybrid models do not feature the ability to prompt drivers to switch to battery power using the eDrive Zone mode, however owners can still manually do so using the drive mode selector.