BMW to Unveil Two New Plug-In Hybrid Variants of the 5 Series

BMW has announced that the BMW 5 Series range will soon get two new plug-in hybrid variants. This announcement will be made at IAA Mobility 2023 which is scheduled to take place between September 5 and September 10. The company says that these models will arrive as early as spring 2024. The 6-cylinder and 4-cylinder petrol models will be combined with the latest BMW Drive technology for plug-in hybrid systems. Both these upcoming variants will be paired to an 8-speed automatic transmission.

The BMW 550e will churn out a combined output of 489 bhp and 450 Nm of peak torque. Out of this 195 bhp is produced by the electric motor while the torque too can be increased from 280 Nm to the aforementioned figure. The claimed electric range for the 550e stands between 79 to 90 km, while the 530e does slightly better with 87 to 101 km. Since BMW has fitted the lithium-ion batteries within the 5 Series’ underbody, the boot space capacity is same as the other models at 520 litres.

Moreover, BMW claims that the usable energy provided by the batteries has climbed to 19.4 kWh. In fact, even the maximum charging capacity is now double compared to the outgoing models and now stands at 7.4 kW. This means a 0 to 100 per cent charging time of 3 hours. When using a conventional power socket though, the full charge time climbs to 9.8 hours. Apart from this, BMW will showcase other new models like the iX5 Hydrogen and i7 Protection at IAA Mobility 2023.