New BMW 545e xDrive plug-in hybrid – BMW’s 5 Series PERFORMANCE plug-in arrives

The BMW 545e xDrive plug-in hybrid is officially revealed as BMW deliver their fifth 5 Series plug-in, this time a performance-oriented model.

With the new BMW 5-Series, BMW has so far delivered a range of four plug-in hybrids – the 530e Saloon and Touring and the 530e xDrive Saloon and Touring – as it seeks to lower its average CO2 and give buyers cars which can, if you plug-in every day, give cheap EV running and overall economy.

But the beauty of plug-in hybrids, as long as you do keep the battery charged, is that if the power on offer is enough you can do your slow commute and pop to the shops as an EV for pennies, and use that electric power to boost performance to something quite interesting.

That ‘quite interesting’ now arrives in the new 5 Series range with the new BMW 545e PHEV, a range-topping PHEV for the 5 Series range with a 3.0 litre turbo borrowed from the 540i coupled to the 107bhp gearbox-mounted electric motor from the 530e – powered by a 12kWh battery – giving a combined output of 338bhp and 442lb/ft of torque, enough to get to 62mph in 4.7 seconds when you’re tired of poodling along as an EV.

Despite the performance, the 545e adds up to a car promising official economy of 134mpg and official emissions of 38g/km, with a 34-mile EV range. All that means that, if you’re a company car driver, you’ll have a BIK rate of around half an equivalent pure ICE 5 Series.

No prizes for guessing where the bulk of 545e sales will be, especially with a starting price of £55k when it arrives. But it could also be the pick of the new 5 Series range, especially when the 545e xDrive Touring arrives to join the saloon.