BMW 530e Touring long-term test: performance to awaken the senses

Verdict

I’m revelling in the 5’s sumptuous seats; this is a comfortable car that, when you need it, acts like a shot of espresso hardlined straight into the bloodstream. It makes you wonder whether the new M5 Touring – the 530e’s motorsport-developed brother – could be the ultimate all-rounder. I’ll investigate that in a future report.

• Efficiency: 79.8mpg
• Mileage: 3,125

The more time I spend in ‘my’ BMW 530e Touring, the more I gel with it, and any issues I do have all feel a bit trivial. I really appreciate the new 5’s interior. The panoramic iDrive infotainment system is crystal clear and full to the brim with the latest tech – plus it’s becoming easier to navigate with every use. I’ve configured the digital instrument cluster just so, too, and its graphics are slick and easy to read.

Then there’s the driving position, which is spot on, although I resent having to rake my seat back and forth manually in a car that costs the best part of £65,000. On a cold morning, the heated seats (and heated steering wheel) activate automatically, which keeps me and my passenger toasty.

But perhaps the thing I love most about the car’s cabin, is the ‘Espresso Brown Perforated and Quilted Veganza’ leather alternative that extends not only to the seats but also the doors and parts of the dashboard. It’s such a welcome change from the monotonous black you find in so many new models these days, and better still, it’s a no-cost option.

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2023 BMW

5 Series

31,495 milesAutomaticPetrol2.0L

Cash £25,812

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2020 BMW

5 Series

33,746 milesAutomaticPetrol3.0L

Cash £25,626

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2023 BMW

5 Series

34,863 milesAutomaticPetrol2.0L

Cash £25,399

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2023 BMW

5 Series

56,182 milesAutomaticDiesel2.0L

Cash £23,600

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It got me thinking about how the 530e is a bit like a shot of espresso in that when you want to, you can flick the car into Sport mode and the engine is poised to respond to your every input. It feels like a car transformed actually; its otherwise relaxed persona fades away, and despite weighing just over two tonnes, it never feels particularly heavy. It’s got plenty of get-up-and-go (0-62mph takes 6.4 seconds), and it corners almost flat.

You aren’t rewarded with a throaty engine or exhaust note, but nor does it sound coarse or strained like some PHEVs I’ve driven. However, I’ve found the noise it pumps through the speakers when you’re running in EV mode an acquired taste; I’ve switched it off.

Quality is on point – almost every surface is covered in some sort of soft material, and the buttons and switches operate with tactility, even if I find myself using the rotary iDrive wheel on the centre console less and less as I use the built-in Apple CarPlay connectivity. The head-up display is so intuitive, too; I now use it more than the conventional dials.

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While my opinions are overwhelmingly positive, there are a few things that get on my nerves. Those aforementioned part-electric seats seem stingy, and as I touched on in a previous report, space in the back could be better; my four-year-old daughter shouldn’t be able to easily kick the back of my seat in a car that measures more than five metres long.

On the theme of family-friendly features, we’ve had to reluctantly order a BMW-specific mount for her tablet (around £150), because the cheap Amazon-sourced clip we’ve used for the past two years won’t fit to the 5’s awkward headrests. The new set-up is pretty slick, but it seems an unnecessary expense when the old one worked on every other car I’ve had.

My final frustration is equally minor, in that when you open the tailgate, the luggage cover automatically retracts by about six inches to improve access to whatever’s in the boot. Yet annoyingly, it doesn’t pull back across when you close the car, leaving your belongings exposed to any prying eyes. 

But in general, life with the 530e is very good indeed. I’m regularly seeing 50 miles or more from a single charge of the 19.4kWh battery, which takes around three hours to top up on my home charger. This costs around a fiver on a typical domestic electricity tariff – or a lot less if you can ‘refuel’ overnight on an off-peak rate. Plugging in as often as I can has helped me significantly improve my so-called eDrive share of late, while also seeing my overall combined economy nudge 80mpg.

BMW 530e Touring: first fleetwatch

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The BMW 530e Touring's huge 1,700-litre boot proves to be a huge help during a house move

To my dismay, I’ve discovered a problem with my BMW 530e Touring. It’s not that it’s uncomfortable or disproportionately thirsty. Nor is it lacking in performance. I even think the 40-odd-mile electric range is decent enough for daily duties. No, the issue is it’s simply too practical.

My parents recently moved house and it coincided with the delivery of my new estate car. With some cosmetic work to do on their new home, and lots of clearing as a result of the inevitable downsizing, they had lots they wanted to dispose of.

Which is where the Touring saved the day twice. The first time, we loaded it up with packaging materials and bric-a-brac. But when I went to visit two weeks later, I didn’t expect another drive to the dump.

The BMW’s days as a glorified bin lorry aren’t up, either; there’s a garage of junk to clear and a 1,700-litre load bay primed for packing. And then there’s the garden...

BMW 530e Touring: first report

Is there still room for plug-in hybrids when EVs continue to impress? We’re about to find out

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• Mileage: 1,658 miles
• Efficiency: 66.9mpg

Regular readers may remember my colleague Alex Ingram spouting off about how plug-in hybrids are pointless, and that “without religious battery charging, they just become overweight, thirsty internal combustion-engined cars”. Like him, I’m a self-confessed electric-car advocate and have been driving them almost daily for the past six or seven years. I’ve used them for all sorts of journeys and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve struggled to charge at motorway services.

But I’m also a realist. I know how cautious the British buying public can be, and understand that switching to an EV from a trusty petrol or diesel car can feel like quite a leap. I also respect that for people who drive hundreds of miles a week, the prospect of having to re-route just to charge their car can feel like one compromise too many.

I therefore fall into a sparsely populated abyss, whereby I love electric (and petrol) cars, but appreciate the service a plug-in hybrid can provide, and the stepping stone it offers to those not quite ready to pack in petrol. As with an EV, it needs to fit your lifestyle, but PHEVs have their place – and I’ll challenge anyone who says otherwise.

I’ve immersed myself in the BMW 530e’s usefulness over the past few weeks. Since the car was delivered less than a month ago, I’ve done the best part of 1,200 miles over a mix of motorway, urban and rural routes. I’ve plugged it in whenever possible, but still had days where I’ve done 200 miles or more, and had to rely almost exclusively on the four-cylinder petrol engine. Yet despite all of this, I’m returning a very respectable 67mpg, and almost 60 per cent ‘eDrive’ share. 

Of course, those EV miles aren’t free, but on an off-peak electricity tariff you’ll get 40-odd miles for not far shy of £1.50. At the UK’s current average domestic electricity price of 24.8p/kWh, it’s more like a fiver. That’s a little more punchy, but (by my maths) roughly the same as a combustion car doing 45mpg.

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Powertrain aside, this Touring fits that age-old cliché of ‘all the car you’ll ever need’ almost as well as any model I’ve run over the past 15 years; the boot’s massive, the seats are comfortable and there are just enough luxuries to keep my better half happy. That said, I think you’d expect electric front seats and adaptive cruise control to be standard on a £65k car, and yet they aren’t here.

That said, M Sport Pro trim certainly looks the part, especially with Oxide Grey paint and the gorgeous espresso leather – a feature I’ll touch on in a future report. The widescreen infotainment system is fantastic, too, although by defaulting to Apple CarPlay and its user-friendly touch layout, I’m finding fewer opportunities to use the otherwise intuitive iDrive clickwheel. In all honesty,

I’m not surprised BMW is phasing it out. I love the full-length glass roof, and I’m even quite a fan of the illuminated kidney grille. I don’t think this G61-generation 5 Series is as pretty as its predecessor, but it has a bit of added presence thanks to our car’s 20-inch bi-colour alloy wheels and dark trim. The Technology Pack is pricey at £2,000, but I make daily use of the myriad cameras, and the head-up display is clear and easy to read.

Better still, while the 5 Series is more mature than ever, it still handles like a BMW. It’s quiet at speed, yet feels agile enough to entertain. The ‘Boost’ button – activated by pulling the left gearshift paddle – gives you full power for 10 seconds, but most of the time the 530e feels fast enough in its own right. It can be a little lumpy when the battery is very low, but it rarely affects driveability – especially as the smooth regenerative braking system tops things up as you slow down. But plug it in and that’s no worry whatsoever.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.

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