Ok, this long-term sort of breaks one of my long held rules on never “double dipping” on cars, unless there’s a good excuse like Carbitrage. There are just so many cars, why would you ever get something again, especially within the same product generation!? I know there are tons of people that purely get the same car over and over again, even in the same color, but I have tried to literally taste the rainbow when it comes to cars. We had a 2019 X5 that we ended up flipping out of for our Audi e-tron, drawn in by the lure of a highly discounted lease and no gas costs! At that time we had considered the then-new X5 Plug in Hybrid, or PHEV, but it was pretty hard to come by and no good lease deals on them. Well, in 2022 the story was largely the same, X5 PHEVs were fairly scarce and still no good lease deals as BMW still wasn’t providing any lease cash or credit for the federal tax credit, which itself was a little up in the air with all the changes around EV tax credits.
We spoke with our delightful friend in sales (ask for Nichita!), at BMW of Alexandria, and he was able to get us in their queue for a custom build order and confirmed that we’d be able to receive it within 2022 to be eligible for the $7,500 tax credit, but we’d have to purchase it for that. At a time when many dealers were still looking for markups, this was an easy choice. And it was the first time that we had done a true factory order (outside of our pending Rivian reservation). My wife enjoyed being able to choose the exact colors, trim and options, this is what all car buyers should strive for!
Our build was a 2023 X5 xDrive45e
- Exterior Phytonic Blue
- Interior Silverstone Sensafin (BMW’s name for pleather)
- Packages included: M Sport Package, Driving Assistance Professional Package, Luxury Seating Package (important for those massaging front seats!), Parking Assistance Package (360 camera is also critical), Executive Package, Harman Kardon Sound and Heated Seats/Steering Wheel.
Biggest change from our 2019 X5 was the Driving Assistance Professional Package, Air Suspension and of course the PHEV portion. The X5 PHEV combines its supremely smooth turbo inline 6-cylinder engine with powerful electric motor for a total system output of 389 horsepower and 443 of the torques. It provides roughly 30 miles of all-electric driving range thanks to a 24 kWh battery. That electric range is similar to what we had with our Pacifica Hybrid as well. We are pretty diligent about charging at home thanks to our wall-mounted Clipper Creek unit. So much so that we made it to 1,538 miles before needing to fill up our first tank of gas. We drove 1,206, or 78%, of those first miles as electric. A ton of that was also as gas prices had spiked and were cresting the $5 mark here in Virginia, we’ve since seen regular gas drop back towards $3 thankfully.
I will say that it’s good to be back in the BMW. The handling is definitely sharper than what we had on our GV80, and the ride, now with air suspension is able to be smooth and yet buttoned down at the same time. The 2023 BMW X5 does support using the Phone as a Key, but it’s not a seamless as in our Polestar. You have to take the phone out of your pocket and almost tap it to the driver door handle to unlock, and then you place the phone on the wireless charging pad inside to start the car. In our Polestar you can enter and drive, all while keeping the phone in your pocket/purse/European carryall.
One odd change I noticed from our 2019 to this 2023 was the deletion of the fold releases for the back seats from the cargo area. This is a pretty common function in many SUVs. BMW removed the levers that were built into the side of the cargo area and left a weird plastic bezel in its place. Hello cost cutting? Although for us it’s not really that big of an issue since we now welcomed our second daughter and thus we have car seats installed in both outboard positions 99.9% of the time. That is also the reason we opted to not elect for the rear heated seats.
Backseat does feel a hair tighter than with our GV80, but I might just be imagining that. Also doesn’t help that I now have a giant infant seat behind me that requires me to push forward my seating position. This is where something like a front wheel drive platform pays some dividends by allowing a bit more passenger space for a given footprint, but alas, premium-ness.
We look forward to continuing to march forward with our maximum EV quest in the PHEV while having the supreme flexibility to take longer treks on a moments notice without having to think twice or make charging stops with kids in tow.