My 2021 BMW X5 xDrive45e is now charging up to a 50 miles range, it started out with 30 when I bought it last fall. AFAIK, there wasn't an update to do this. I'm getting 49.1 combined MPG. Very happy with the car and the increased range.
I've had this ex five for a year so far. I am really impressed at how all of his critiques are very accurate especially with the charging time even with a level two! One thing, though, that only comes out with a lot of time. Is that in sport mode your battery gets charged using regen braking.
Excellent SUV, in my opinion one of the best. Average person driving between 25-27 miles per day , so for local commuting your can use always electric, if need more powerful engine can start!
Very thorough review!!! Please review the 2024 X5 50E. My wife talked me into purchasing it over the 24’ M60i. (I’m afraid this is my traditional vehicle to fill-electric) btw, I am coming out of a 21’ M550i (the v8 will be missed 😢) please review new release!
Great information but a few suggestions to improve your videos. 1.)Don't look at the camera while you are driving 2.) try to film during a time of day where the sun is not shining into the camera. Again great information that was very useful in my search for a new vehicle.
Tom, by far the best and most thorough review I've seen yet on the xDrive45e - Thank You! The insight offered on the battery and charging limitations is really helpful. I completely agree, it seems very odd BMW hasn't upgrade the onboard charging rate. Perhaps they're counting on more regenerative brake charging with the car left in adaptive mode to reduce the amount of charge time needed to top the car off at the end of a trip? What were your impressions of ride quality? With the 21" wheels vs the standard 19" wheels on the non M Sport equipped 45e, or even the 20" wheels that come with the M Sport package, I would be a bit concerned about harshness of ride with the 21" wheels. Also - I think your car did have Gesture Control - perhaps it was turned off? Gesture Control is part of the Executive Package (12 upgrades) and your car had that (Glass Cut shifter only comes with that package).
I thought the ride quality was excellent - but I'm kinda used to my Model 3, which doesn't really offer a supple ride. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the gesture control if it was optioned with it - but I didn't really try hard I admit. I used it for a while when I reviewed the X3 PHEV last year so I didn't really need to do it again. Thanks for the compliment.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Thanks for the additional feedback Tom. Last Friday we finally had an opportunity to drive the xDrive45e and we too thought the ride quality was excellent. The car was equipped with the M Sport package and 20" wheels. The ride was very smooth and comfortable. The air suspension absorbed pot holes, rail road tracks and road imperfections flawlessly. The cabin was very quiet. You could definitely feel the weight difference in the car versus the X5 40i. The 45e felt very solid and well grounded. We were very impressed. We met with a BMW Genius at the dealership to discuss charging options for the garage. We don't currently have access to a 240V outlet in our garage. Her advice was to stick with 110V overnight charging using the provided cable that comes with the car rather than going to the expense of installing a 240V circuit and the purchase of a Level 2 charger as with 110V charging the car will go from depleted to fully charged if plugged in overnight.
I completely agree that 3.6kw is too slow, but I would say it's too slow for any size battery. A smaller battery must be charged more often, but if you can't get any reasonable amount of charge you are forced to use gas more often. I had a Volt and found that I could not make tow outings in the same day. I had a 1st gen Leaf at the same time, and often found that the Volt was unavailable due to charging. Yeah, you can always use gas, but that's not why I got a plug in car. We dumped the Volt but replaced the Leaf with a next gen.
Great review Tom. The 9.1 kW versus 24 kW is a factor of 2.637 which should be the equivalent of 37 miles which you predicted in the warmer months over the previous 14 miles. I agree the rate at which you can recharge definitely needs to be upped as many people will have a short period of time between arrival at work and a break for lunch or a travel back home from an arrival at a ball practice or other event they can top off at. The reserve battery capacity is disappointing and wonder if it’s based on the number of 2-3 year leases stateside versus our counter parts. If they can tweak the settings to maintain or increase the range in three years it’s a no parts upgrade to make the next lease or purchase a no reservation event as they could advertise a greater range that when originally sold. 🤔
Aaaaaaaa Mario, whys u change ya name to Gary Clark? How ya brotha luigi doing? u's still able to get ya fatass through them pipes? anyways, that peaches shes a real looka, u a lucky guy.. take it easy broskee Aaaaaaaaaaaaa.. . . .. . . .... ..
To answer your question the reason why they leave more of the kilowatts as reserve for the US based plug-ins is because they have to offer a longer warranty here than in Europe, I guess they figured after five years they don’t have to warrantee the battery technology, so why not give you a longer range whereas in the US they have to warrantee it for eight years or 80,000 miles
Tom, have you followed up with BMW about humongous buffer for USA pack? This car has liquid cooled pack, right? If so, it makes no sense. BMW knows how to keep batteries happy due to i3 experience.
Wife just bought this car, the pick up on electric only mode is very slow. Also the electric consumption is horrible - 30-40 miles with 24kw is not good (comparing to a full electric). It’s a beautiful car and the hybrid engine is fast when gas gets involved are the reasons she purchased this. She also hates going to the gas station.
You can’t compare it to a full electric because it’s not one. 24kw will of course go a lot farther on say a LEAF then a massive SUV with an ICE engine and an electric power train. As far as range goes for PHEVs go 30-40 miles is excellent
Good review. Don't know that I'd call the interior 'extremely lavish' or anything close. I'd say it's at best ok for a supposed 'premium' SUV. Disappointingly, there's hard plastic on door pillar and other touch points are less than premium. Mercedes, Genesis are better and Range Rover is significantly better. For me, seat bolsters a bit too tight, especially in the thighs. Seat adjustability could be better - miss my Rover's seat. The slow on-board 3.6kw charger is a very big miss - should definitely be the 7.7kw charger. Also, the ridiculously low usable battery capacity in the US is incomprehensible - why lug around 7KW of battery if it's not being used? That's damn near 30% of the battery pack - and it needlessly drops the available range. Hopefully BMW USA pulls their head out of their backsides and opens up the 21.8kw Euro capacity.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney lol not yet. I mean realistically if I'm thinking about leasing this car maybe I should? And sorry if I missed your sarcasm 😅.
I went by BMW's estimated time that they provided in the media guide. They *may* have been referring to the European version with the larger usable capacity. It would still probably take about 14 hours with charging losses, as the vehicle needs about 18.5 to 18.75 kWh to fully charge.
Takes my Volt about 9-10 hours to charge its full 14.4 kWh usable at 12A/120v, so yes, 12-13 hours seems about right. Bit odd coming from Tom who's the charging expert. ;)
@@updlate4756 I plugged in the supplied 120v charger to check and it was only drawing 1.2 kW - so with charging losses, 14 hours may be closer to reality.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Great video thank you I paused 16 minutes 30 seconds Now I just finished watching it and have one question for you. Should I charge my Pacifica hybrid to 100%? I don’t really see a way to stop at 80% unless I stand outside with it
Contentwise good review. But please show us the dashboard while driving instead of the reviewer. That is so annoying. We watch to see the car, not someone who is talking all the time.
Aaaaa Tomy mBoy! how ya doing?! Hey Tommy, when u talk hows about u show the car inside view rather then your mug ya? I mean, u aint a bad lookin guy or notin but eh! i didnt come here to see your beautiful mouth ya know? so yea, next time u show the car! atta boy Tommy keep em coming! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
I am not a big fans of plug in hybrid . I firmly believe a vehicle should be fully electric or purely petrol. If you don’t fully utilise the battery , the vehicle is just carrying excessive baggage ( battery)
i get its a place holder vehicle for ppl in the top tax brackets to tout being green , just too bad that at this price ppl are not willing to jump into MY performance (60K) for example. keep pushing BMW!
You are comparing apples to oranges. The clarity is designed to be a small light weight EV. The X5 is a huge very heavy PHEV designed to be an ICE vehicle. It’s frankly a feat they can get 30+ miles out of it (and is actually impressive for a PHEV)
PHEVs were fine 5 years ago. Now not so much. All electric vehicles are the future. There is a climate crisis. We need to ditch gas and diesel engines.
@@2Greenlid Every adult and child should own a bicycle and ride it regularly. Healthy exercise, fossil fuels free transportation and great for social distancing.
Relax. If car companies cared about the climate crisis, they would be selling electric vehicles for 20 grand. PHEV has the best of both worlds and this X5 will probably be my next purchase. Don’t forget though that the lithium-ion batteries that make the electric cars go are being dumped in landfills all over the world. So much for climate crisis. I am typing this remark while riding my Yeti MTB because pumping my heart is great for my health.
@@Good1vibes Obviously you aren’t a business person, you can’t sell anything for $20,000 that costs more than $20,000. If there is no profit they can’t stay in business..It’s not their job to save the planet, people who care need to buy what they think will save the planet.....
My 2021 BMW X5 xDrive45e is now charging up to a 50 miles range, it started out with 30 when I bought it last fall. AFAIK, there wasn't an update to do this. I'm getting 49.1 combined MPG. Very happy with the car and the increased range.
Nice! Glad to see they put a decent sized battery in it.
Thought your review is one of the best I have watched, you and Harry’s garage 10/10 regards Jonathan Cambridge UK 🇬🇧
Great presentation! Thank you for sharing
I think I'm the only guy who is not disappointed with the battery charger for this BMW.
I've had this ex five for a year so far. I am really impressed at how all of his critiques are very accurate especially with the charging time even with a level two!
One thing, though, that only comes out with a lot of time. Is that in sport mode your battery gets charged using regen braking.
Larger buffer to protect battery from excessive litigation in the US.
That's what I was thinking.
Funny stuff Tony. But true🙄
can this be coded to the EU version?
@@jkquach probably but you are risking your battery warranty then
Excellent SUV, in my opinion one of the best. Average person driving between 25-27 miles per day , so for local commuting your can use always electric, if need more powerful engine can start!
No car should have under 7kw on board charger in 2021,plug in or electric.
Very thorough review!!! Please review the 2024 X5 50E. My wife talked me into purchasing it over the 24’ M60i. (I’m afraid this is my traditional vehicle to fill-electric) btw, I am coming out of a 21’ M550i (the v8 will be missed 😢) please review new release!
Great information but a few suggestions to improve your videos.
1.)Don't look at the camera while you are driving
2.) try to film during a time of day where the sun is not shining into the camera.
Again great information that was very useful in my search for a new vehicle.
Tom, by far the best and most thorough review I've seen yet on the xDrive45e - Thank You! The insight offered on the battery and charging limitations is really helpful. I completely agree, it seems very odd BMW hasn't upgrade the onboard charging rate. Perhaps they're counting on more regenerative brake charging with the car left in adaptive mode to reduce the amount of charge time needed to top the car off at the end of a trip?
What were your impressions of ride quality? With the 21" wheels vs the standard 19" wheels on the non M Sport equipped 45e, or even the 20" wheels that come with the M Sport package, I would be a bit concerned about harshness of ride with the 21" wheels.
Also - I think your car did have Gesture Control - perhaps it was turned off? Gesture Control is part of the Executive Package (12 upgrades) and your car had that (Glass Cut shifter only comes with that package).
I thought the ride quality was excellent - but I'm kinda used to my Model 3, which doesn't really offer a supple ride. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the gesture control if it was optioned with it - but I didn't really try hard I admit. I used it for a while when I reviewed the X3 PHEV last year so I didn't really need to do it again. Thanks for the compliment.
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Thanks for the additional feedback Tom. Last Friday we finally had an opportunity to drive the xDrive45e and we too thought the ride quality was excellent. The car was equipped with the M Sport package and 20" wheels. The ride was very smooth and comfortable. The air suspension absorbed pot holes, rail road tracks and road imperfections flawlessly. The cabin was very quiet. You could definitely feel the weight difference in the car versus the X5 40i. The 45e felt very solid and well grounded. We were very impressed. We met with a BMW Genius at the dealership to discuss charging options for the garage. We don't currently have access to a 240V outlet in our garage. Her advice was to stick with 110V overnight charging using the provided cable that comes with the car rather than going to the expense of installing a 240V circuit and the purchase of a Level 2 charger as with 110V charging the car will go from depleted to fully charged if plugged in overnight.
I completely agree that 3.6kw is too slow, but I would say it's too slow for any size battery. A smaller battery must be charged more often, but if you can't get any reasonable amount of charge you are forced to use gas more often. I had a Volt and found that I could not make tow outings in the same day. I had a 1st gen Leaf at the same time, and often found that the Volt was unavailable due to charging. Yeah, you can always use gas, but that's not why I got a plug in car. We dumped the Volt but replaced the Leaf with a next gen.
I own a 330e and didn't know that about about friction brakes part. Thank you. 👌👍✌
GREAT REVIEW
Great review!
You had gesture control but it was off. With you animated hand movement it would drive you crazy. Probably useful if you were not filming.
Great review! Off-topic, what brand of jacket are you wearing? Very nice.
Great review Tom. The 9.1 kW versus 24 kW is a factor of 2.637 which should be the equivalent of 37 miles which you predicted in the warmer months over the previous 14 miles. I agree the rate at which you can recharge definitely needs to be upped as many people will have a short period of time between arrival at work and a break for lunch or a travel back home from an arrival at a ball practice or other event they can top off at. The reserve battery capacity is disappointing and wonder if it’s based on the number of 2-3 year leases stateside versus our counter parts. If they can tweak the settings to maintain or increase the range in three years it’s a no parts upgrade to make the next lease or purchase a no reservation event as they could advertise a greater range that when originally sold. 🤔
Aaaaaaaa Mario, whys u change ya name to Gary Clark? How ya brotha luigi doing? u's still able to get ya fatass through them pipes? anyways, that peaches shes a real looka, u a lucky guy.. take it easy broskee Aaaaaaaaaaaaa.. . . .. . . .... ..
To answer your question the reason why they leave more of the kilowatts as reserve for the US based plug-ins is because they have to offer a longer warranty here than in Europe, I guess they figured after five years they don’t have to warrantee the battery technology, so why not give you a longer range whereas in the US they have to warrantee it for eight years or 80,000 miles
Even the Pacifica hybrid has a 6.6 kw charger.
The amount of available battery explains why EU reviewers are getting more mileage on pure electric. Thanks for that info.
Tom, have you followed up with BMW about humongous buffer for USA pack? This car has liquid cooled pack, right? If so, it makes no sense. BMW knows how to keep batteries happy due to i3 experience.
Wife just bought this car, the pick up on electric only mode is very slow. Also the electric consumption is horrible - 30-40 miles with 24kw is not good (comparing to a full electric). It’s a beautiful car and the hybrid engine is fast when gas gets involved are the reasons she purchased this. She also hates going to the gas station.
You can’t compare it to a full electric because it’s not one. 24kw will of course go a lot farther on say a LEAF then a massive SUV with an ICE engine and an electric power train. As far as range goes for PHEVs go 30-40 miles is excellent
Is the electric cargo cover still an option on this x5 PHEV?
it is made in USA for north American market , GERMAN MADE IS VERY WELL BUILT !
What color exterior is this car?
Us BMW customers are so picky haha. always want something more.
Good review. Don't know that I'd call the interior 'extremely lavish' or anything close. I'd say it's at best ok for a supposed 'premium' SUV. Disappointingly, there's hard plastic on door pillar and other touch points are less than premium. Mercedes, Genesis are better and Range Rover is significantly better. For me, seat bolsters a bit too tight, especially in the thighs. Seat adjustability could be better - miss my Rover's seat.
The slow on-board 3.6kw charger is a very big miss - should definitely be the 7.7kw charger. Also, the ridiculously low usable battery capacity in the US is incomprehensible - why lug around 7KW of battery if it's not being used? That's damn near 30% of the battery pack - and it needlessly drops the available range. Hopefully BMW USA pulls their head out of their backsides and opens up the 21.8kw Euro capacity.
Did he say only "40 thousand more" to be serious?
What, you don't have $40k to throw around for fun?
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney lol not yet. I mean realistically if I'm thinking about leasing this car maybe I should? And sorry if I missed your sarcasm 😅.
wait, 17kwh usable, charge at 12A/120v, could be done in ~12 hours no?
I went by BMW's estimated time that they provided in the media guide. They *may* have been referring to the European version with the larger usable capacity. It would still probably take about 14 hours with charging losses, as the vehicle needs about 18.5 to 18.75 kWh to fully charge.
Takes my Volt about 9-10 hours to charge its full 14.4 kWh usable at 12A/120v, so yes, 12-13 hours seems about right. Bit odd coming from Tom who's the charging expert. ;)
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney stupid losses
@@updlate4756 I plugged in the supplied 120v charger to check and it was only drawing 1.2 kW - so with charging losses, 14 hours may be closer to reality.
Does it have an ev only mode?
Yes, see at 17:15
@@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney Great video thank you I paused 16 minutes 30 seconds Now I just finished watching it and have one question for you. Should I charge my Pacifica hybrid to 100%? I don’t really see a way to stop at 80% unless I stand outside with it
This guy needs a full EV if he wants to drive in Electric only 😡
The only main negative is the slow ability to charge. Gesture control is annoying, I would pay not to get it
You are not the driver as you swing left and right in a s-turn...
Contentwise good review. But please show us the dashboard while driving instead of the reviewer. That is so annoying. We watch to see the car, not someone who is talking all the time.
Aaaaa Tomy mBoy! how ya doing?! Hey Tommy, when u talk hows about u show the car inside view rather then your mug ya? I mean, u aint a bad lookin guy or notin but eh! i didnt come here to see your beautiful mouth ya know? so yea, next time u show the car! atta boy Tommy keep em coming! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
I am not a big fans of plug in hybrid . I firmly believe a vehicle should be fully electric or purely petrol. If you don’t fully utilise the battery , the vehicle is just carrying excessive baggage ( battery)
i get its a place holder vehicle for ppl in the top tax brackets to tout being green , just too bad that at this price ppl are not willing to jump into MY performance (60K) for example. keep pushing BMW!
30mi from 24kWh is very low. Clarity EV did 89mi from 25.5kWh
You are comparing apples to oranges. The clarity is designed to be a small light weight EV. The X5 is a huge very heavy PHEV designed to be an ICE vehicle. It’s frankly a feat they can get 30+ miles out of it (and is actually impressive for a PHEV)
PHEVs were fine 5 years ago. Now not so much. All electric vehicles are the future.
There is a climate crisis. We need to ditch gas and diesel engines.
here's the shocking truth. Electric vehicles won't save the world. It's the companies that need to change.
So do you bike or walk everywhere ? Set an example but don’t preach to others like limousine liberals....
@@2Greenlid Every adult and child should own a bicycle and ride it regularly. Healthy exercise, fossil fuels free transportation and great for social distancing.
Relax. If car companies cared about the climate crisis, they would be selling electric vehicles for 20 grand. PHEV has the best of both worlds and this X5 will probably be my next purchase. Don’t forget though that the lithium-ion batteries that make the electric cars go are being dumped in landfills all over the world. So much for climate crisis. I am typing this remark while riding my Yeti MTB because pumping my heart is great for my health.
@@Good1vibes Obviously you aren’t a business person, you can’t sell anything for $20,000 that costs more than $20,000. If there is no profit they can’t stay in business..It’s not their job to save the planet, people who care need to buy what they think will save the planet.....
Made in America. Might as well buy a Ford....