Hi Everyone, After five five series we are looking for a change and are looking for an X5 but in hybrid flavour. Does anyone have any good or bad experiences? I've driven a 30D model X5 and it didn't seem too different from our 530D if it had been jacked up a bit. Thanks, David
Not any owners of the hybrid on here (I could be wrong) My thoughts are, the stated benefits are holistic, battery life is poor and the claimed mileage is often less than the figures The Petrol engine that drives the power plant is a bit underpowered for the weight of the X5, circa 2mT however on battery power their meant to be fun allbeit short lived. The X5 does offer driver selection of when to use what power source.... so there is some benefits allbeit a lot of interior space is lost (no seven seat option) From the reviews, owners are left wanting more power and criticise the real life benefits, it may take some time for battery power technology to increase, perhaps for the small saloon cars first which is where a hybrid would be advantageous
Thanks Warlord, I managed to drive one today and actually it went OK. Power transition was seamless. The main difference was it sounded a bit thrashy when you booted it as it is a four cylinder and not a good old six. My wife has a 1 mile commute so for her this could be ideal. Cheers, David
And will probably be quicker. But not everyone is comfortable on two wheels, especially at peak traffic times.
I was in the BMW dealership a few days ago, looking at the i8 in the showroom. I mentioned to a young salesman that the quoted fuel economy figures were totally unachievable in real world conditions. The quoted figure for the BMW i8 is 134 mpg, but in road tests in barely achieves mid 30's mpg, and Clarkson & Co only managed 26 mpg (no doubt being thrashed). He agreed with me surprisingly, and said that the official figures were obtained by going as far as possible on electric power only until the battery was drained and then onto petrol power for the remainder of the test distance - all done for the optimum economy. He also said that he worked at a Toyota dealership and tried numerous times with a Prius to get near the quoted figure of 60 mpg. The best he ever achieved was 38 mpg, regardless of what he did. So from that you would assume that a hybrid will not achieve fuel economy as good as a diesel, but the only real benefit would be when driving into city LEZ's and the zero charge rate. Add in the high cost of replacing the battery on a hybrid, and it does not sound economical. YMMV of course.
Aye, and without using lights, wipers, heater, heated seats etc - who's going to be able to do that in 'real world' driving?
If the car is plugged in at your home all these things can be turned on to condition the car before the driver even gets out of bed on the mornings.
I don't have a BMW hybrid, but have a hybrid Panamera, actually I am on my second. Many people look at "134mpg" and expect 134mpg all the time. My cars average for its life is 42mpg, if thats any gauge for you. My old one was 38 over 36k miles. That is the cars calculation for combined use of electric and petrol, for actual petrol used. However, in a week going back and forth to work I could use zero fuel. 8 miles to work, 20 miles during day 2/3 times a week to the gym, 8 miles back. So i during a week I can do 180 miles without the engine coming on ( in theory - although a lot of times i blip it on one fast road) Once the engines on, it will do 30mpg ish on average in Hybrid auto mode (once the ICE is warmed up). If I put it in sports plus mode ( usually the only time i purposely put the engine on) the mpg is gone as you would expect. In my old car, it cost me 70p electric to charge at work. A gallon of the good stuff costs £6.35, divide that by 70p which means i can charge 9 times for the price of a gallon, multiply that by the average 16 miles per charge and i can do 144miles per £6.35 of electric The new one is even better but I haven't done the calculation. You also need to understand that if its cold weather you will not get the same mileage, just like with petrol/diesel consumption goes up if its cold, same if you accelerate hard, etc. Look at electric as fuel, the hard you drive the more you use, the more stuff you have on the more you use ( same as ICE cars). Its just a lot cheaper per mile than petrol to use the car. The 3 pics show my life MPG, laast trip MPG, and MPG since last refuel -55mpg For me hybrid suits, and saves me loads in fuel a month, and also a sh1t load in BIK (the main reason I bought it ) For my salesmen and engineers doing 25-40k miles a year on motorways its not the right car for them, because the cost per mile of ownership is more than diesels they use. Battery- yeah its expensive, if or when it needs replacing, I think Porsche give a 7 year life, which is ok for me, and the second user i guess, I would certainly ensure you have a battery warranty that covers the life of your expected ownership. Anyway, its not a BMW, but its my experience of 2 hybrid cars, and my biz partner has the same experience with his 2. I doubt I would go back to none hybrid for my main daily car again. Edit - the last refuel was £50, i dont bother filling it up anymore unless I am off on a trip.
Besides the obvious 'bicycle' suggestion, a I mile commute is an ideal use of a hybrid, if you are able to charge from home, pre-condition in winter, etc.. Should fulfil daily demands, without any use of the ICE, which is ideal for such short trips. I suppose a big part of the decision is, what is the other use of the X5, does the balance of long term mileage make it viable? For me, a PHEV needs to drive a genuine 30+ miles on battery power in winter, before I see it fitting my driving profile, then it makes a lot of sense. Peter
I was talking to a guy the other day who is using a plug in hybrid as his daily driver, he has a 7 mile drive to work so on work days he does around 14-15 miles a day, the car claims a 35 mile range and he said he charges overnight and six days a week uses the car solely on electric and over around 3000 miles from new his MPG figure is very high as he never really uses the petrol engine on this car the plug in hybrid is only used as a to and from work car and is not used very often for personal miles
Its just around the corner, my previous one was maybe 10 in winter, the new one is around 16, urban mileage. Give it 2 years (maybe 3) and 30 will be doable in winter 50/60 in summer in hybrids, and 400/500 in solely electric cars. Battery cost will also go down, its inevitable. Its very hard to say very accurately just what the mileage is "in winter", the car also charges itself when coasting or braking, more stop/starts uses charge etc. So my 10 /16 are what it says on the range on the dash, its not necessarily what i get every time, but my gut says its not far away either side.
Thanks for your comments. We bought one last week and love it. I think the best thing to say is that the electric bit gets you some free trundlng around so if you charge it every other day that is free whilst it is also supplementing regular driving. Cheers, David
Quick follow-up. nine/ten months in and still loving the car. It's very relaxing to drive and is doing further on electric (up to 19 miles now!) than when we got it. My wife works about a mile from home so can do all her work travel plus the odd school pick up all on electric. The electric makes the whole stop/start piece so much more easy to bare and it's fun seeing how fast you can get it before it switches to petrol. I would highly recommend one. My only complaint is that it doesn't handle as well as our five series but then it was never going to match that.
Most of the fuel figures are done on the NEDC and in a laboratory in perfect conditions on a rolling road for not very long at all. Someone at VW in Germany had a Polo and monitored all of their journeys and fuel consumption over a few years and plotted them on a graph and pretty much got what the NEDC figures said the car would get Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good to hear your enjoying it. As for the miles per gallon, until you have had a hybrid and used it in extensive real life terms its not only hard to imagine achieving figures they quote, but its virtually impossible to believe the manufactures. Yet, depending on the type of trips your doing you can achieve high average mpg. For example : So over 308 miles I achieved an average of 93mpg. During those miles, I was very mostly urban commute to work, 6 miles, and local trips with the dog or to the gym , it was actually higher but I had a short mad blast earlier the same day I took the pics. In contrast my trip to Scotland last weekend was around 26mpg during and through the hills. and around 38mpg on the way down from Fort William, simply as I had no mains charging, only onboard charging. Which shows hybrids are best suited for local/short trips, such as those of us that do a short commute to work / schools / shops etc.