BMW i7 – Cabin Heating Takes a While to Warm Up?

[blueice123]

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed that the heating system on my BMW i7 takes quite a while to produce hot air, significantly longer than any ICE cars I’ve driven previously.

It seems especially slow to warm up when the climate control is set to manual mode rather than auto. Once it does get going, it’s fine, but the initial delay feels unusually long for such a modern car.

Is this normal behaviour for the i7 due to its heat pump (or EVs in general)? Or could there be a setting or update that improves it?

Thank you in advance

[BMW5and7]

Interesting, cause my i7 heats up significantly faster than any ICE car I owned before (which makes sense with the heat pump as that heat is instant/immediate and the only resistance is the AC ducts thermal mass ). It is just as fast as my Tesla too.

The only slow part is to cool down the cabin, but I solved that by wrapping the massive panoramic roof. All my previous modern cars were lighter color with white/beige interior though. My i7 is black from outside and the dark Amarone Red from inside, so on hot days under the sun, it's basically boiling from everywhere including I imagine the AC ducts.

No issues though on cold days (10 days ago we had 2 days with below freezing temps (30-32 degF), and car got up to temperature faster than any ICE car I had. Within 20-30 seconds I was comfortable enough with the air temperature, and seats warmed up pretty quickly too. This was actually one of the first things that positively surprised me with my first EV/PHEV (5-series) with the heat pump.

[skw]

My wife keeps noting that the heated seats take longer and don't get hot as our '22 LR Defender.

[DroMike]

Originally Posted by skw

My wife keeps noting that the heated seats take longer and don't get hot as our '22 LR Defender.

I had a similar problem. Happily it was easily fixed after a quick trip to the BMW service department -- where I left my wife.

But seriously and for the OP -- that's confounding: my overall heat is fine, it's the AC that can't come on fast enough during 75+-degree days.

[jettie1767]

No issues with my '23 i7 heating up at all. The seats and steering wheel heat up so quickly that I turn it off in a few minutes after driving the car.