BMW is one of the brands that’s best known for making inline-six engines. Back in the day, the company would stick it in just about everything, from small sedans and hatchbacks to even large executive cars. These days, however, BMW’s sixes have been mostly replaced by downsized turbo four-cylinders.
Thankfully, BMW isn’t giving up on its signature straight-sixes. One of its solutions to save it (or keep it around for longer) can be found in the all-new BMW 5-Series.
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Yes, the company has finally added a six-cylinder option to its midsize executive sedan in the form of the 550e xDrive. The ‘e’ in its name probably caught your attention. That’s because the lone inline-six option in the all-new 5-Series is a plug-in hybrid. Before you go up in arms about it, let’s see what it has to offer.
On its own, the 550e xDrive’s 3.0-liter turbo engine is good for 313hp and 450Nm of torque. It's strong figures for sure, and we doubt anyone will call it underpowered. On top of that is the electric motor that produces 197hp and 280Nm of torque. With the engine and motor working together, it gives this sedan a total system output of 489hp and 700Nm of torque.
BMW claims a 0 to 100kph time of 4.3 seconds for the 550e xDrive. To put that into perspective, that’s a hair quicker than the V10-powered M5 from 2005. The best part is you can make it look like a bog standard 5-Series as it can be specified without the M Sport package.
As for fuel economy and range, BMW says the car can get up to 125 km/L, assuming you drive it conservatively and with a full charge of battery. No, that’s not a typo either. Realistically though, we might be looking in the region of 20km/L in real-world conditions. Still, excellent figures for something that can outrun a V10 M5.
The reason for that fuel economy claim is its battery power range. Per the manufacturer, the car can run on electric power alone for up to 90 kilometers. Heck, the emissions rating is good too at just 23g/km. In many ways, it’s Munich’s way of saying you can have your cake and eat it.
By the way, there’s a ‘tamer’ version of the PHEV 5-Series. Dubbed the 530e, it uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder instead of a straight six. Combined output for that car is 299hp and 450Nm of torque.
Okay, the new look of the BMW 5-Series still divides opinion, but one can’t deny the kind of performance it promises. As for the local version, it’s still unknown when it will arrive here, but it would be nice to have at least one of the plug-in hybrid options.
