530e M Sport Touring?

[Blatter]

I am currently driving a 530i M Sport Touring which has been an enjoyable car to drive.

I have been considering changing for the 530e M Sport Touring to dip my toe into the hybrid side of things. (I don't want to go full-electric yet)

Does anyone have any experience with the 530e with regard to BMW's claims for the fuel consumption (combined) figures of 156.9 - 176.6mpg?

Are these figures "flogged"? i.e. Do you have to drive it on electric all the time and just revert to petrol once the electric has been used?

Or is there "harvesting" while you're driving on petrol which allows the electric to re-charge and/or take some of the load?

What is a realistic mpg figure if you're doing longer journeys most of the time, that would mean you'd use the electric up quickly and then have to use petrol for the remainder?

[bigdom]

I looked at one, but didn't buy one. We have a car in the family with similar technology, which is supposed to achieve 235mpg, and 40 miles on electric. Pretty tax efficient for BiK.

In reality it achieves 30 in the summer, mid to low 20's in winter. I believe longterm average over last 10 months and 30k is about 60 mpg. In hybrid mode, battery depletes in about 70 combined miles. The BMW battery is 4kw smaller.

If you're doing local journeys, you can just run electric and mpg goes up. If your journeys mean you will go through the battery each time, I'd expect early 40's tops.

[Maxus]

I used a saloon 530e for a week to see what it was like as a replacement for my 520d.

I charged up and used on my 120 mile round trip commute. It’s an economical drive (no city or traffic) but I managed just over 40 mpg. The 520d averaged 50 mpg over 70k miles.

530e was impressive, the switch between propulsion was seemless. Economy is best if driving shorter distances and you charge up.

[Gunk]

I had one last week as a courtesy car for a couple of days, the 5 is a bit big for me as I’m a 3 series touring owner, but it was a very impressive car, after spending some time with it I would definitely consider buying one.

[Blatter]

Thanks for the replies.

It would seem that BMW's figures are somewhat fictional, but there are improvements if the hydbrid is used efficiently. i.e. always fully charged and electrickery used on every journey.

[E39mad]

I would say it is worth a look if the majority of your journeys is under 50 miles before charging. After that about 30 miles you are just lugging around the extra weight of the batteries and drive chain so on long journeys it could less efficient than your current car.

I could be wrong but I believe the boot is smaller/higher up to house the batteries.

[Earthdweller]

A friend has a 330e that he uses on his 15 mile commute, he charges it at home and at work and hardly uses any petrol at all

He doesn’t do any long journeys regularly so it works for him

[Gunk]

The problem with these plug in hybrids is that on a longer run if you can’t recharge it you’re essentially driving with a weedy 2.0 petrol engine lugging a load of extra weight around, however I agree for a short commute they make a lot of sense

[Blatter]

From reading E39mad & Earthdweller's replies it does look as though this type of vehicle is better for the daily commuter.

As that's not the sort of driving I do these days I can see that the main advantage I'd get is the 35 "free" electric miles at the beginning/end of the journey.

May not be worth the "upgrade" to lug 170Kg of batteries about on a cross-country journey

[Maxus]

In most circumstances a 530e will be more economical than a 530i. By how much is dependent on your use. They are also quite clever in that you set a destination on the satnav and it calculates where best to use electric. If your journeys include urban and stop/start sections the e will be quite a bit more economical than the i. It is also free from congestion zone charging.

I'm sure the price to change would out way any savings for you. Just get a 540i and move to full electric in the future

[rassi]

The fuel tank on the 530e is 46 litres, compared to 68 litres on the 530i, which I would find annoying

[Sixpackpert]

I have a 530e Touring.

Most range I get out of it when charged at home is 27 miles. Works for me as my commute is 10 miles each way which it does comfortably on electric only.

BIK is great.

Lovely place to be, as all 5 series are.

The downside is the fuel tank size as metioned above. Cruising on the motorway it will return on average 50mpg which is fine for my business trips. Towing the caravan does drop the mpg to about 18mpg on average but I was expecting that! My old 630d GT wasn't much better when towing to be honest.

The only other gripe is the boot floor is higher becasue of the batteries so slightly less capacity than other Tourings.

Great car IMHO.

Edited by Sixpackpert on Thursday 18th August 18:48

Edited by Sixpackpert on Friday 19th August 08:42

[brums evil twin]

Just had my 530e xDrive Msport delivered this week

As said before - a lovely place to be and so far 85% of my journeys this week are on electric. We already have a wall box as we run a MINI Electric too. So we charge up at night on the cheap rate.

Towing with it today for the first time and will be interesting to see how it goes and how it tows.

The boot space does loose a little but its an inch and a half max and we mainly use it for the dog. He seems happy so far.

[Si 330]

I just got rid of my 530e with 51k on it, my daily commute was a round trip of 94 miles. If i charged I would run on electric for the first 6 miles to the motorway then on to petrol for the motorway part and back to electric for the last 4 miles. Doing this it would average around 47 mpg, the novelty of plugging in soon goes and ended up averaging 35mpg as never plugged it in.

Company car and you need range a good option, buying yourself 530d or 540i would be my choice.

[Gunk]

Si 330 said:

I just got rid of my 530e with 51k on it, my daily commute was a round trip of 94 miles. If i charged I would run on electric for the first 6 miles to the motorway then on to petrol for the motorway part and back to electric for the last 4 miles. Doing this it would average around 47 mpg, the novelty of plugging in soon goes and ended up averaging 35mpg as never plugged it in.

Company car and you need range a good option, buying yourself 530d or 540i would be my choice.

After having one for a couple of days, my first impression was what a step up it was in comfort and refinement compared with my F31. However they are a very big car and with my job I’m often in central London trying to squeeze my 3 series touring into tiny parking spaces, I think the 5 would just be that bit too big.

Edited by Gunk on Sunday 21st August 08:53

[Ice_blue_tvr]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm also eyeing up 530e's.. what are the higher mileage ones like? Are they worth bothering with ?

Also , is the remote parking feature any good ? I like the idea that we could get the kids in and out then remote park it ..

I didn't think about tank size until mentioned above. I'm guessing motorway range is still decent (full tank + full battery )?

[G-wiz]

Can you get this 530e Touring in SE or base spec?

Really prefer 5 series tourings in the base spec, smaller alloys, softer more cohesive styling

[Si 330]

Ice_blue_tvr said:

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm also eyeing up 530e's.. what are the higher mileage ones like? Are they worth bothering with ?

Also , is the remote parking feature any good ? I like the idea that we could get the kids in and out then remote park it ..

I didn't think about tank size until mentioned above. I'm guessing motorway range is still decent (full tank + full battery )?

The tank is tiny, I used to fill up twice per week, sticking to 70 on a motorway I could just about get 400 miles range on long runs. Round town nearer 300 range both of those not charging up.

[Wills2]

G-wiz said:

Can you get this 530e Touring in SE or base spec?

SE Yes

[Blatter]

Si 330 said:

I just got rid of my 530e with 51k on it, my daily commute was a round trip of 94 miles. If i charged I would run on electric for the first 6 miles to the motorway then on to petrol for the motorway part and back to electric for the last 4 miles. Doing this it would average around 47 mpg, the novelty of plugging in soon goes and ended up averaging 35mpg as never plugged it in.

Company car and you need range a good option, buying yourself 530d or 540i would be my choice.

Si330 this probably answers my question about mpg figures the best, so thanks for that.

I don't commute as I'm retired, but I do make a 300 mile round-trip every week or ten days and I don't tend to use the car for local drives (Wife's Mini does that job! )

In this instance, if I'm looking for pure mpg figures then diesel is the answer. But I wanted to move away from diesel and so I think for my particular case then sticking with a petrol, non-hybrid, seems to be the answer as the hybrid does seem to have a few drawbacks. (Smaller boot space, smaller fuel tank, extra battery weight, remembering to re-charge, etc)

One other point I am surprised at from the answers given is that there doesn't seem to be any harvesting or re-charging of the batteries while driving on petrol, either from coasting on downhills, or braking. I suppose that as it would be minimal, it's not worth considering?