Manual / Getting started
Coming from bimmer_connected (MyBMW / ConnectedDrive)
If your BMW or MINI used to appear in Home Assistant through the BMW Connected
Drive integration and has shown nothing but unavailable since autumn 2025,
this page is for you. It explains what changed, what replaces it, and how to move
your dashboards and automations across.
What happened#
The Connected Drive integration was built on the bimmer_connected library,
which spoke to the servers behind the MyBMW app. On 29 September 2025 BMW
blocked third parties from making those requests. The library’s own README now
describes it as deprecated and non-functional, and no setting or update on your
side brings it back.
What replaces it: BMW CarData#
BMW CarData is BMW’s own, official way for a customer to read their car’s data. You create a personal client ID in the BMW (or MINI) portal, authorize it once, and from then on the car’s data reaches you two ways:
- a live MQTT stream, which pushes each value within seconds of the car sending it — charge level, doors, windows, tire pressures, position, trip data;
- a REST API for on-demand snapshots, limited to 50 requests per 24 hours.
BavarianData is a Home Assistant integration that talks to both directly. There is no server in between: Home Assistant holds the tokens and is the only client. It is installed from the HACS default store.
What changes for you#
| Connected Drive (bimmer_connected) | BavarianData (BMW CarData) | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Blocked by BMW since 29 Sep 2025 | Uses BMW’s official customer data service |
| How you sign in | MyBMW username and password | A personal client ID, authorized once in the browser — no password is stored in Home Assistant |
| How data arrives | Polled every few minutes | Pushed live over MQTT |
| Remote commands (lock, climate, flash lights, start charging) | Yes | No — CarData is read-only |
| Where it works | Wherever the MyBMW app worked | Where BMW offers the CarData portal (more) |
| Entity names | Its own | New ones — automations must be re-pointed |
The one real loss is remote commands. CarData has no command interface at all, so no CarData-based integration can lock the car or start the climate. Use the MyBMW app for those.
What you gain on top of the raw data: a charging history with cost, a trip journal, learned battery health, a real range measured from your own driving, Energy dashboard statistics, CSV/HTML export, and an evcc / wallbox bridge. All of it is computed from the stream, so none of it spends API quota.
Moving across#
- Remove the old integration. Under Settings → Devices & Services, delete the BMW Connected Drive entry. It no longer receives data, and removing it frees the device and entity names.
- Set up BavarianData by following the four setup steps, starting with BMW portal setup. Most of the work is in the BMW portal.
- Add the dashboard card. See The dashboard card.
- Re-point your automations. Search your automations, scripts and dashboards for the old entity ids and swap in the new ones. The table below gives the usual equivalents; Entities & devices lists everything.
Common equivalents#
| You used (Connected Drive) | Use now (BavarianData) |
|---|---|
| Remaining battery percent | Battery HV State Of Charge |
| Remaining range (electric) | Range EV Remaining range — or Real Range, measured from your own driving |
| Mileage | Vehicle mileage |
| Charging status | Charging EV Charging state |
| Charging target | Battery EV Target state of charge |
| Plug / connection status | Charging Port plug state |
| Door lock state | Doors overall state — it follows every lock and unlock; see which lock entity to use |
| Doors, windows, lids | One binary sensor per door, window, hood and tailgate |
| Check control messages | Service Check control messages |
| Condition based services | Service Condition based services |
| Device tracker | Location (device_tracker) |
Questions people ask#
Is this the same as the old integration under a new name? No. It is a separate integration, built from scratch on a different BMW service, so your old entity ids do not carry over.
Does it work for MINI? Yes. MINI cars use the same CarData service through the MINI portal.
Does it work outside Europe? It works wherever BMW offers the CarData portal for your account. Not every market has it yet, but the client ID is account-wide — step 1 has the details.
Can I run it next to another CarData integration? BMW allows one stream per account at a time, so two stream clients on the same account take turns dropping each other. Pick one.