BMW plugs in with X5 xDrive 40e

With all its talk of Connected Drive this and Efficient Dynamics that, it's almost a surprise to realise that the BMW brand doesn’t actually offer a plug-in model.

Sure, there's a blue-and-white badge on the noses of BMW's two plug-in i-cars, the i3 hatch and i8 coupe, but the Bavarian car-maker takes great pains to describe BMW i as a stand-alone brand.

Yet, at least in Europe, you can already buy plug-ins from Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Toyota and of course Tesla.

BMW has its Efficient Dynamics brand, which is just the most fuel-efficient version of each model, but until the X5 xDrive40e hits Europe in the third quarter of this year, it won’t have a plug-in hybrid.

In Australia, BMW i, Porsche (Cayenne and Panamera) and Tesla (Model S) are so far the only luxury car brands to sell plug-in models. Audi will join the party next month with its A3 e-tron, while Mercedes-Benz should release the C 350 and S 500 Plug-In Hybrid models in October.

But it won't be until next year that the big three German premium brands join Porsche in offering a plug-in SUV in Australia, with the X5 xDrive40e leading the 'charge' for BMW.

With permanent all-wheel drive and all that fuel-sipping tech (like tyres with low rolling resistance, extreme aero refinements and taller gearing), it will deliver BMW customers an X5 capable of achieving an NEDC combined fuel economy figure of just 3.3L/100km.

But like the Cayenne S E-Hybrid, it does so with a plug-in petrol-electric powertrain (albeit a four-cylinder one, not a V6 as in the Porsche), meaning the Q7 TDI e-tron will remain the only diesel-electric plug-in SUV – and the only V6 diesel PHEV.

The clumsily-badged X5 xDrive 40e extracts 230kW of system power out of a combination of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine and a synchronous electric motor, lodged deep inside the eight-speed automatic transmission.

All that technology, plus running two motors where most cars have one, pushes the already-chunky X5’s weight out to 2230kg on the DIN scale or more than 2300kg on the less-generous EU figure. That’s a lot for a four-cylinder to move, even one as awarded as the BMW TwinPower 2.0. Fortunately, it rarely has to do it alone.

That’s why the X5 xDrive 4.0e’s CO2 emissions are just 77g/km and BMW estimates it will use about 15.4kWh of electricity to cover 100km.

At the same time, BMW is claiming a 0-100km/h time for the X5 xDrive 4.0e of a healthy 6.8 seconds, thanks in large part to the instant hit of 250Nm of torque from the electric motor when the car is in.

For the record, based on claimed figures, both the six-cylinder Cayenne S E-Hybrid and Q7 TDI e-tron are quicker to 100km/h at a respective 5.9 and 6.0 seconds, but while the petrol-electric Porsche almost matches the BMW's 3.4L/100km economy, the diesel-electric Audi smashes them both with just 1.7L/100km.

Auto e-Mode is the car’s default setting and it will usually move off from a standing start under electric power only. It will stay there, too, up until the petrol motor cuts in at around 70km/h or when the driver prods the accelerator pedal harder to ask for more performance.

“In this mode, the intelligent operating strategy determines the most efficient drive combination at all times and switches to it automatically,” BMW insists.

If the priority is saving fuel, or the car is traveling through a green zone, there’s a MAX e-Drive, which the driver can choose via the e-Drive control button on the dashboard. This puts the car in full electric mode where, BMW says, it can eke out 31km of zero-emission driving without bothering the turbo motor.

There’s also a SAVE Battery mode, which saves the charge in the battery or hits the regeneration stuff hard to recharge it, for those times when you know you’ll be driving into a green zone or a built-up area.

SAVE Battery mode, though, also delivers the highest fuel consumption, with the internal-combustion engine tasked with supplying power to both move the X5 bodyshell around and to create electricity to regenerate the battery charge.

“Assuming the high-voltage battery is fully charged, daily commutes of between 50 and 60km can be completed in practice with fuel consumption of no more than 6.5L/100km, depending on the driving style,” BMW says. Or, if you are careful and charge at both ends, zero.

Regardless of which powertrain mode the X5 xDrive 4.0e is in, the driver can still choose from the now-traditional EcoPro, Comfort and Sport modes to adjust the ride, the throttle response, the aggressiveness of the gear changes, the noise and the skid-control systems. EcoPro has its own trick on top of idle-stop, with the car cutting off the engine to 'coast' whenever the driver releases the accelerator pedal between 0 and 160km/h to save fuel.

BMW isn’t talking pricing yet, but given it gets Dynamic Damper Control, a self-levelling, air-sprung rear-end and similar performance to the X5 xDrive 4.0d, expect it cost around $120,000.

BMW says the X5 xDrive4.0e benefits from BMW’s i8 development program, but it certainly didn’t learn any lessons about minimising the length of the name. Instead, BMW says, the keys came with the control systems for charging and discharging the battery, for the computer software governing the timing and strength of the inputs from the electric motor and the battery technology.

It uses a lithium-ion battery pack, which also doubles as the power supply for the traditional on-board 12-volt system and which leaves the big SUV with 500 litres of luggage space when the rear seats are upright or 1720 litres when the three-part rear backrest is folded down.

Beneath the luggage area sits a smallish 9kWh battery with 96 cells and its job is primarily to power up the 83kW, 250Nm electric motor.

While it’s a plug-in hybrid, its primary motor for long-distance driving is the 1997cc, 180kW four-cylinder petrol engine. Complete with direct fuel-injection, variable valve timing and variable valve lift, the engine breathes deeper than normal thanks to its twin-scroll turbocharger, which helps it to deliver 350Nm of torque from just 1250rpm.

With peak power arriving from 5000 to 6000rpm, this gives the X5 xDrive 4.0e a broad spread of fossil-fuel performance to go along with the instant torque hit of the electric motor, with the combination supplying 230kW and 450Nm.

BMW limits the car’s top speed to 210km/h, though that’s lowered to 120km/h in the pure-electric mode because, BMW admits, the electric mode is more efficient at lower speeds and the petrol engine more efficient at a constant throttle.

The power from both the internal-combustion and electric motors drives all four wheels, and the drive going to the front and rear axles is constantly varied by an intelligent centre differential.

One of the areas in which BMW thinks it has stolen a march on its rivals is in the linking of its Connected Drive system with the eDrive technology. The X5 xDrive 4.0e gets the Professional level of navigation as standard and BMW connects this up to the car’s energy management systems.

This effectively means the car’s hybrid system knows as much as possible about the route, including climbs, descents, traffic lights, roundabouts and congestion zones and it gets real-time traffic updates.

The top level of BMW’s navigation systems, Professional talks to the hybrid management computer so it can regenerate or ration out its electrical power to leave it in electric mode in all the right places to lower emissions and improve fuel economy. So it promises to be efficient in the real world, not just in the UE’s NEDC economy test.

There are some upgrades to the interior, and in particular the instrument cluster, that go with all this added technology. There is a display for the battery’s state of charge, information about fuel consumption and the percentage of time spent on the electrical motor and there’s an energy-flow display for the multimedia screen.

The car’s systems also now deliver a timer, which can be used for charging the car at a preset time (such coinciding with off-peak power schedules) and it can also heat or cool the car before you get into it, which is especially efficient when the car is plugged in to mains power at the time.

It can be charged from any normal household electrical supply, but faster charging needs the BMW i Wallbox it developed for the i3 and i8 eco-cars.

It will take a tick under four hours to recharge a flat battery from mains power, while the i Wallbox, which charges at 3.5kW, slashes more than an hour off that.