The BMW 530e – while still representative of all that is great about BMW’s mid-sizer– is something of a newcomer and it gives you a lot to think about.
Core to that is of course, do I want an electric vehicle? Typically, the answer would be a no-brainer, after all we are talking luxury chocolate without any calories here, right? Well, not quite.
The mid-size ‘leccy BMW is kind of like the fleet-friendly electric 3 Series: it’s only a little bit electric, so I feel like I’m cheating on Weight Watchers.
A BMW is a driver’s car and driver’s cars run on recycled dinosaur juice – sorry, refined petroleum – and that’s why one of my all-time favourite cars is the BMW 540i with the big V8.
But since the 530e is here and ‘leccy cars are the in thing at present, I feel obligated to tell you all about it, so…
As mentioned, the 530e is only a little bit electric. Its range on pure zap is 54kms.
Given the mass of the sedan, I was of the opinion that the zappy bit is only a helping hand, most useful when it comes to sneaking in or out of your/not your driveway and maybe providing a little extra muscle on petrol assisted take-offs.
It will affect fuel consumption enough to allow you to quote a 2.3 litres per 100km while you emit just 53gm/km of CO2.
I suspect though, many 5 Series buyers are not overly concerned with being miserly at petrol pumps – if they were, they wouldn’t be 5 Series buyers.
The 530e though, does soothe the conscience, allowing one to reflect on the thought that some polar bear is not being evicted from his igloo by natural causes at the expense of one’s driving a luxury car.
Its not running as large an engine as you might think either. The 530e has at its heart a two-litre, four-cylinder TwinPower engine and backing it up is the 80kW /265Nm eDrive motor with a Lithium Ion high voltage battery.
The sum of all this power is transferred to the ground through the rear wheels by way of an eight-speed Steptronic transmission.
I did find it a little lacking in its ‘sportier’ characteristics, but then maybe I was expecting a full fat M-package based on the blue caliper brakes and other subtleties, including the air of athleticism in the overall design.
To be fair, BMW has done it all right, imbuing the electric version with a gentler, less ‘enthusiastic’ driving dynamic, creating more of a limousine feel, than a hard charging Supercar slayer.
All the M bits are there if you want to contribute to the homeless polar bear population, but every drive left me with the same impression: that this car is an obvious Autobahn cruiser or for the Abu Dhabi commute.
It feels a little constrained by some of our tighter roads, but it was a dream ride during the nine to five however, as serene as I imagined it would be in both an electric and a BMW saloon.
The 5 Series – for me anyway – can do what no other car can: transport me from A to B yes; but transport me in such a way that as a driver, I feel I am part of the journey and yet apart from it at the same time.
And if I have to endure driving an electric car to experience that, well, maybe I can change adjust my thinking when it comes to electric cars, at least as far as BMW has adjusted its thinking in terms of the 5-Series – the ultimate driver’s car – by adding an athletic electric option to the range.
Specifications:
BODY TYPE
4 door Sedan
DRIVE
Rear wheel/
8 speed auto
ENGINE TYPE
4-cylinder, TwinPower petrol
ENGINE CAPACITY
1998cc
MAX POWER
215kW
MAX TORQUE
420Nm
L/100KM (COMBINED)
2.3
CO2 EMISSIONS
53 g/km
ANCAP RATING
5 Star
PRICE
$132,900
