Plug-in hybrids are practical electric cars – because they have engines and you don’t have to plug them in (and wait for them to recover electricity). Put another way, they are a way around electric cars – and that is why BMW wants to punish people who buy them to avoid having to deal with the hassles of owning an electric car.
BMW’s Supervisory Board Chairman – Nichols Peter – says “those who are not charging must drive slowly.”
What he means is that BMW plug-in hybrids that are “charged too infrequently” – that rely chiefly on their engines (and gasoline) for propulsion – will be throttled back in retaliation. The “sanctions” – that’s the word – would be applied to vehicle owners who “consistently fail to keep their vehicles in electric mode.” Most plug-in hybrids have this “mode,” which is driver-selectable via a button (typically) that causes the vehicle to move exclusively on battery power . . . assuming the batteries have enough charge. If the vehicle hasn’t been plugged-in and fully charged before driving. 
If not, the vehicle will default to IC – internal combustion “mode.” The engine will provide the lion’s share of propulsion, although the engine will still be automatically cycled off when the vehicle is not actually moving (as when stopped in traffic) or during coasting/deceleration. Regular hybrids operate the same way, with the difference being they don’t have battery packs powerful enough to actually move the vehicle for more than very limited distances (about a mile or so) and only at crawl speeds. A plug-in hybrid can typically be driven about 30 or so miles at normal road speeds on a fully charged up battery.
It’s not very far, though – even if the owner is a Good German and faithfully plugs in (and waits) for a full charge. Effectively, BMW wants to throttle driving down to the radius of a plug-in hybrid’s electric-only driving range.
This would make the plug-in hybrid even more absurd than a fully electric car, because the latter can usually take you at least 150 or so miles down the road before the long wait to get going again and while it it lugging around a ludicrously heavy battery pack to be able to do that, at least it is not also lugging around a vestigial engine, transmission (and gas tank) that’s verboten to be used.
“If a driver never charges their batteries,” explains Herr Peter, “the engine power could be reduced; technically this is feasible.”
Ja, it is.
Rather, ja – it already is.
A software-driven vehicle is controlled by its programming. If the vehicle is programmed to work a certain way – more finely, to not work a certain way – that is exactly what it will do. Irrespective of what its (cough) owner wants it to do. The vehicle is conscious of your driving, to begin with. It knows how fast you are driving – and (of course) it knows, if it is a plug-in hybrid, whether the engine is running, how long/often the engine has been running and also how often (or not) you have been charging the battery pack. All of this data is collected and recorded by the software-driven vehicle and can be used by the vehicle’s programming to govern the vehicle’s operation. The really creepy part however, is that the vehicle’s programming can be externally controlled also – via the over-the-air “updates” sent to the vehicle and in response to whatever data the vehicle transmits to the Hive Mind; i.e., to BMW Command Central.
The latter term is my made-up term, but it conveys the point – which is that the manufacturer of a software-driven vehicle (not just BMW vehicles) retains ultimate control over the vehicle. Not the (cough) owner who paid for the thing. Ownership has been subtly hijacked, in other words. You pay for the use of the thing but someone else control the use of the thing. It is kind of like the way no one really owns their home anymore, either – unless you believe a homeowner who is subject to eviction if he does not pay thousands of dollars every year to the government in order to avoid being evicted owns his home.
“This is a behavioral problem that discredits a climate-friendly technology that could actually be a good way to introduce people to e-mobility – especially where the infrastructure is still too sparse. One measure would be for car manufacturers to be able to document and even penalize usage patterns,” says Herr Docktor Peter.
Diesel-powered vehicles are already gimped via programming that puts the vehicle into “limp” mode if the owner hasn’t topped up the DEF tank. “Limp” mode means the vehicle barely moves. It is effectively undrivable. This is what Herr Peter has in mind for recharge refuseniks who prefer to drive rather than wait.
BMW – and it is not just BMW – is pushing this regime not so much because it beee-lieves (say it like old time TV evangelist Ernest Angley) in “climate change” but because BMW (and every other vehicle manufacturer) is under regulatory pressure to force people to comply.
The German government is “concerned” that plug-in hybrids burn (and “emit”) more gas in real-world driving than they are given “credit” for – and this cheating has got to be dealt with. It falls to the manufacturers to deal with it – by exerting control over their software-driven vehicles, as by throttling down the engine and limiting the speed of plug-in hybrids that aren’t running on just electricity often enough.
This is what comes of buying a car you think you own that is in fact not under your control.
Many people, of course, have no idea that their new/late model car is not really their car, because it gives them the illusion of control. But that illusion is dissipating. It’ll become crystal clear what the situation is when the software-driven car shows what it can do – by showing you what you’re not allowed to do anymore.
It will be the Ultimate Non-Driving Machine.
. . .
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In New York and New England, plugging in generally costs more than filling up with gas. So BMW would be throttling owners for doing the math correctly. Current and historical per-state numbers: https://senseper.com
Hi Mike,
Yup; same here in VA. Last time I had an EV – about a month ago – it cost me just as much to charge as to gas up, not counting the cost of the wait!
BMW is a sad case. They used to make cars for drivers, now it’s
“The Ultimate Compliance Machine”
FYI if not already aware – Hybrid explodes in NYC on 5/19/26 due to electrical fire during rush hour – link has video.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2026/05/it-was-hybrid.html
AI: “A hybrid vehicle caught fire and erupted into a massive fireball during the Tuesday evening rush hour in Lower Manhattan. The dramatic incident occurred near the intersection of Broadway and Stone Street, just steps from Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull statue and outside the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) headquarters.
Impact: The fiery blast and billowing black smoke sent commuters and tourists fleeing for safety, causing minor panic.
Casualties: Miraculously, no injuries were reported.
Cause: The NYPD stated that the blaze was sparked by an electrical fire in the vehicle and does not consider the incident suspicious or related to foul play.Response: Fire Department (FDNY) crews responded quickly and managed to extinguish the flames shortly before 7:00 p.m.”
BMW: We don’t need customers who live in apartment buildings and condominiums without charging stations.
Hi Dallas,
Indeed. BMW used to pride itself on catering to people who appreciate the drive. Now it seems to be run by people who hate drivers. It’s weird and sad at the same time.
I have an idea for the Chinese to steal: Somebody could start building kit car kits that let you bolt on the body panels from the most popular (most numerous) older electric vehicles models.
On the outside, you have what looks like a five+ year old EV. On the inside, you have a new Chinese internal combustion vehicle, maybe with an all-mechanical turbodiesel engine, no smog bullshit, and a real automatic transmission. No AEB, no driver monitoring Cheka-bot, no engine auto-stop crap, no remote killswitch – none of the stuff nobody asked for and nobody wants.
But on paper, it’s an EV.
I wonder how much such an item would cost.
We really need third party replacement software for new cars.
It has to be totally replaced unfortunately, as hacks and tunes will not work well to defeat unwanted automaker and government control. Remember, software is never owned by the end user (that is ANY software, not just vehicles) and is licensed only (even if you only pay once). So modifying is a TOS violation. So that means EVERY line of code will need to be removed and replaced. A very big and expensive job, part of the reason it hasn’t happened.
Probably have to be open source software, as a company can be co-opted (lawsuits, regulated, bankrupted etc).
Guessing what will need to happen will be removing the tech altogether and installing old tech somehow (like putting in carbs).
In the old days of computer software and firmware development, a way around copyright infringement was to have two sets of software development teams-one which thoroughly knew the source code of the copyrighted software or firmware and another development team which had no knowledge of the source code and would achieve the same results on their own without purposely or intentionally utilizing the copyrighted code. The first development team would inform the second development team what they wanted to achieve without divulging any source code..
As long as the second development team came up with the same code on their own, they could not be accused of or sued for copyright infringement.
As to software ownership, you can thank Bill Gates (and his hotshot lawyer daddy) for restrictive licensing agreements. Gates knew that tying software to hardware made it easier to control the use of the software and would greatly expand his customer base. In the early days of microcomputing, DOS and Windows was not available separately from the purchase of computer hardware. The purchase of a computer was required to obtain the software. Of course, those of us in the computer field at the time were (illegally) able to obtain copies of DOS and Windows without the accompanying hardware.
I will outdo the comment that got Eric shadow banned on Xcrement. I want to see Bill Gates drawn and quartered, followed by his remains thrown into a pool of alligators, then any remains of him left thrown into a pit inside an enclosure with a sign reading “Public Restroom”.
And that still would be a kinder fate than old Bill deserves.
Preach it, MQ!
Being a pagan, I think I could be very inventive as regards ways to teach him the errors of his ways. Beginning with an acetylene torch.
I would pay to facilitate that!
Where does the impetus to build such nonsense come from? It’s really confusing. Customers clearly don’t ask for it. It’s not mandated by government (yet), so this is a choice that automakers are making. Why are they making this choice?
Is there some back-room discussion going on with government that forces this? Is it some kind of virtue signaling by the product designers? I’ve worked with a bunch of lower level people in automotive companies; the engineers who actually build stuff, and they’re car guys, for the most part. They will begrudgingly build such tech, but that’s only because they don’t want to lose their job. I know they’re pushing back against it, but that’s like spitting in the wind.
She talks about it briefly.
It used to be as pernicious as the EPA was they simply required a company to test their vehicle to a set of rules to “certify” it to be sold. Once the owner drives away it was no longer the company’s problem what happened down the road. Sure, the EPA says it’s illegal to modify your emissions system but it’s a cat-and-mouse between the owner and the government.
The E.U. fines car companies for CO2 produced based on real world data. That surveillance tech they put in spies on how the users are actually using their car and reports you to Big Brother. If you’re being a bad boy they know and punish BMW for it and BMW is just rolling the shit sandwich downhill to the users.
BMW could tell them to fuck off but they are a willing participant or at best are just timid assholes to go along with the scam. It is due to kick back? Probably. Could also just be they have dirt on the CEOs or a Stockholm Syndrome situation with the spineless stuffed suits that infest the jobs.
Exactly, Rudy –
It is the “connected” tech that is the linchpin of all of this. The answer – for us – is to disconnect.
“Ownership has been subtly hijacked, in other words.”
Somewhere, over the rainbow, a Karen (possibly male) is creaming their jeans. But realistically ownership, be it one’s labor, one’s children, one’s home, one’s car, one’s sail fawn, was lost long ago. How far will they take it? All the way.
Under the ‘Biden’ regime, the US EPA proposed to reduce the assumed percentage of all-electric operation for hybrids, because data showed that lazy owners were forgetting to plug them in every night, in the same negligent manner that they were forgetting to floss. Hybrids could still be made, but wouldn’t count as much toward reducing fines for falling below the mandatory CAFE threshold.
But across the Atlantic, square-headed Teutons have resorted to their customary brute force approach of hair shirts, caning and sanctions for non-green, non-compliers who are recklessly destroying the ozone layer.
The krauts’ first idea, if the hybrid wasn’t getting plugged in, was to divert the exhaust into the cabin, asphyxiating the offender. But cooler heads prevailed. BMW decided merely to gimp the vehicle, thus giving the polluter an opportunity to mend their ways before more severe measures are employed. It’s a cultural thing:
‘Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS (played by Dyanne Thorne), is the ruthless warden of a special Nazi medical camp. She is obsessed with proving a wartime medical theory that women can endure more pain than men and are therefore better suited for frontline combat. To prove this, she subjects female inmates to horrifying, graphic physical and medical tortures.
‘While women are used for experiments, male prisoners are largely used as Ilsa’s personal sexual playthings. Once the men fail to satisfy her, she routinely has them castrated or killed.’ — AI Overview
Achtung, bitchez! As Donnie Drump (allegedly of German extraction, though many suspect he is Khazarian) is wont to say, “We’re like pirates. But we aren’t playing games. Now bend over!“
Zero interest in ANYTHING “BMW”.
The one and only BMW I bought, based on the brand’s reputation for quality, innovation, and performance, was so mediocre I’ll never buy another one. All sorts of electrical and mechanical problems occurred and the dealer was never able to resolve them. They remained up until the day we traded it in. The garage floor where it lived is forever stained with the oil it leaked.
So BMW wants to potential customers what they will and won’t do vis s vis electric cars, huh? Good luck with that. /sarc
There is no way in hell that I would shell out that much money to buy a BMW, and then have it be a plug-in. I want a manual transmission, an eight cylinder gas powered engine, no touch screen or safety crap, a gas pedal I actually control, and screw the lousy gas mileage. If I wanted that, I would drive a pregnant roller skate vehicle that my snow machine would out run. I agree with Mark (In B.C.). Moving to automatic transmissions was the beginning of the end. And rather than see their error, BMW is doubling down on stupid.
Yep, I’m thinking with gas prices up, it’s time to look for a manual trans soft top gen 3 or 4 Corvette. It checks the right boxes, real pushrod v8, manual, maintainable. Gen 3 stingray is prettier and has the soft top, gen 4 has the removable top and is probably a bit easier to work on with that flip front. Gen 4 does already have that glass screen though.
Still, I’ve noticed their prices for nice driver grades are pretty low.
Screw BMW! They are collapsing as I type this due to their government and BMW not standing up to them. Their limo wrested CEO is pathetic. Stop buying their crap!
Take a look at that guy. One look tells you his need to control your behavior stems from the deep seated psychological trauma of being a beta male all his life. Even after all of the wealth he has accumulated, all of the prestige of such a position, the inadequacy he feels will not go away. He is not a man and he knows it… and he will have his vengeance on the world.
All the manufacturers want to plug it into us…
Into somewhere the sun doesn’t shine tho!!!
I’m simply not buying anymore new cars or retail devices…gotta fight back somehow…
YMMV….
@ReadyKilowatt – I think they are taking immediate and drastic action right now, and also that the world will be uninhabitable (for most of us) by 2030..
A comment on Berletic’s latest analysis (leaving typos as is, the message is one most won’t want to hear but I think it’s accurate):
“It’s how they’re facilitating the new global order, 193 countries signed up to it, the reasonable sounding UN sustainable development goals. Agenda 2030,
You can sign up to the UN and read it all, when you click on the headline for reduction of carbon energy …( cos they say it’s not sustainable and must phase out)… you open 200 pages of the reasons why. But they just can’t shut it off or there’ll be global uprisings and collapses everywhere, it must be managed the collapse controlled, so they have the 2 fake wars in the most energy dense regions. ppl have died but they’re all in on it, yes, Iran Putin Xi etc are all signed up to it, which is where most ppl suddenly reject the idea that they’re all in it together and then they get confused again about why it’s all happening. So even Brian’s analysis is not complete, I’m sure he’s aware of it but it’s so unbelievable that he can’t go there. By 2030 probably most of us will be either dead or in a very desperate situation. The only way to reach those goals is to strangle energy supplies, which collapses modern industry and food production, and nothing facilitates change faster than war, especially a fake war where it can all play out as theatre, nord stream gets blown up, sanctions reduce europes energy ( economic suicide) blow up oil facilities, start a 2nd war, get Iran to blow up the gulf , real or not, that’s shits off energy, block the straits, blow up refineries and pipelines around the world, release strategic reserves to cushion the blow, reserves that cannot be replenished and means come this winter it looks bad.”
Throughout history the elites have believed they know what is good for the peasants.
Hi Dan,
The current crop of elites who control various governments around the world, including the U.S. government, are truly, truly sick if not downright EVIL. They want to poison the masses via mRNA jabs, engineering ticks to make the masses allergic to red meat should they be bitten by one, have us eating 3D printed or lab grown “meat”, etc., and they invariably frame their sinister ideas as “Stopping cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimate change”, “Protecting Public Health”, “Promoting DEI”, etc.They also want to turn us into something similar to the Borg from Star Trek. The only thing missing is that these b@$+@rd$ aren’t speaking like the Borg and saying “You will be assimilated! Resistance is futile!” lol.
Eric, I saw this video yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q43JD7Eugmk
If we can’t get past the EV madness, this solution seems reasonable and effective. Your thoughts on this technology?
So, they basically use the same method as freight trains. Diesel/electric has been the most efficient method for moving such large vehicles over long distances.
It’s about time.
You know, as a cataclysmic event, so far climate change has been a big disappointment. “If we don’t take immediate and drastic action right now the world will be uninhabitable by 2030.” Except that we didn’t take those drastic actions, just played around with the gingerbread, and 2030 is right around the corner. So the story has changed: The ending has been pushed out to 2050 or beyond.
We’re in a pretty serious drought out west. Have been for about 10 years now. The gloom and doomers are saying it’s the worst since the 1930s. Well, in the 30s there were far fewer “greenhouse gas emissions” than today and yet somehow the dustbowl happened. Quack historians love to blame the immigrant farmers who were sold a bill of goods by the railroads, but really it was just a drought. After the war the rains came again and by the 1980s the Colorado was once again overflowing.
I think enough people know that the climate cycle has peaks and troughs and just so happens that we’ll see a turn-around sometime around (yep) 2030. So then they can all pat themselves on the back for averting disaster. But we’ll all be poorer while they’re richer on phony science and pinball engineering.
Look how quickly the ongoing drought in the middle east ended when Iran took out USA weather modification radars set up in the various Arab satellite countries under USA (israel) control.
We (the whole world) are being played…
Oh, jeez…you clowns love pushing the buttons, don’t you? What a pathetic joke you all are.
Was that supposed to be an argument?
The Ultimate Tethered Machine is an obscenity to a once great car company.
Here’s an ad for the 2002, one of the earliest sport sedans. Note the visibility of the greenhouse design. Nothing is mentioned of you being a Good Person who is Saving The Planet. It, in fact, mocks those who seek a car with less brio in its persona.
https://iedeiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ad_bmw_2002_bw_roadway_1973.jpg
And it all began with, “Hey, why don’t we put an automatic transmission in it?”
And when was the last time anyone used the term, “oriental curiosities” in an ad?
Lets not forget those Swedish Tractors either. A family member bought a used one decades ago. It seemed to handle OK.