In todays digital age everything seems to be over complicated and needs a password or an account to make it work. When you eventually get the device or software working- you wonder if it was worth it!.Well this phone app is a must for armchair mechanics or the non technical.Once installed, it initially tells you exactly what is going on with your car without leaving your armchair- engine oil OK: tyre pressures OK: did I close the windows now it’s raining - no matter, at the touch of a button you can close your windows: lock your car: make your car flash its lights as you can’t quite remember on which floor you left your car. Your car has a built in tracker: the app shows you its exact location on a detailed map - very handy if someone “borrows” your car without permission. It also records mileage and a lot of other features. This app is extremely useful and I thoroughly recommend it.

It’s early days with the car & the app but I’m starting to find it a bit limited. For example, you can lock the car & flash it’s lights remotely, but it takes forever for the signal to reach the car via the cloud. Charging defaults to ‘charge immediately’, so whenever I get home and plug it in, it starts. I then have to go into the app and manually set a departure time for the next day to override it. Why can’t I have a weekly schedule for it to default to, or for it to default to the last departure schedule? I can’t set the max charge to help preserve battery life. BMW suggest you set the departure time to a few hours after you plan to leave. Ok, this (rather crudely) limits the charge, but means the car won’t be preconditioned at the time you want. And lastly, is there a simple way to stop it charging, because I can’t find it? This is not a sophisticated app by any means, and I’d expect better given how many people will be using this very soon.Update: in changing from ‘charge immediately’ to ‘charge schedule’, after plugging in, the car has failed to charge overnight on both occasions, despite the new arrangement being sent to and accepted by the car.

This application documents the sluggish transition of BMW from internal combustion engines to EVs. For an ICE vehicle being able to set up your destination and check on whether the windows are closed are nice features to have. For an EV, being able to check up on the current charge status, charge progress and build a route plan on long-distance journeys, including planned break/charging points are necessary. And this application is not yet up to that task. An obvious sign of this is the fact that the map view has a "petrol station" button, even if your vehicle is fully electric. Then there is the emphasis on servicing, despite the fact that EV servicing is limited to checking the tyres and topping up screen wash. Can I also ask for an advance warning "your car will be charged in 10 minutes" messages. I am using A Better Route Planner for route planning, and trip review and that really shows what is possible. Finally, I really wish BMW would supply the integration needed for Apple maps to be the EV aware -as they have demonstrated at Apple events. Please BMW: improve your phone integration.

I had the connected app and upgraded to this one. Adds nothing that I can see, the interface actually looks worse to my eyes, which is just down to personal taste. More frustrating is the fact that some functions no longer work. Trying to send a location to your vehicle, which was won of the most useful bits, no longer works for example, despite the app saying it’s been sent. UPDATE: BMW responded to my review telling me how to do it - which I already knew, BUT IT DOES NOT WORK. Some things do - for instance, I can unlock the car and flash the lights, but it won’t lock again via the app (great!) or send map locations. The instructions I got from BMW suggested it was me doing something wrong but it all used to work with the old connected drive app - which I can no longer get as it’s disappeared from the App Store.