I have since traded this car in and purchased a Tesla Model Y. You can read about that here.
It’s 18 months since I collected my 2020 BMW 530e M-Sport (G30) from Donohoe BMW in Wexford. The short of it is, I love the car and it suits my driving. If you’re considering buying one and have stumbled across this page, I’ll give you my thoughts on 530e ownership.
I own the 12kWh battery pack model, this model received a slight bump in battery capacity over the 2017-2019 and even (H1 2020) models. It also received the new digital cockpit drivers display.
For electric only driving, you should expect to get around 35-40km range on average. The highest readout I’ve seen was 51km on the display during the summer of 2021. My driving mainly consists of short trips into town, school runs, doggy daycare, shopping, appointments etc. Combine that with working from home and the short range of the 530e works for me. I rarely, if ever need to use petrol. If you do any kind of long distance driving at all, I would not recommend this model to you.
I could count on one hand the number of long distance drives I do in any given year, and that’s when I use the petrol engine and stop off at charge points. It’s a slow enough charge though, and lugging around a Type 2 cable is probably not great for your fuel efficiency.
The 530e is a good compromise given how patchy the charging infrastructure is in Ireland right now. I have peace of mind knowing that I can fall back on the petrol reserve at any time (even if I’d prefer not to).
Not much to say about the styling, ride comfort and performance. It’s pretty much as you’d expect from a 5 Series, which is class leading. One small nit is that as this car still has the drivetrain of a non-EV vehicle, the electric acceleration isn’t as smooth as it would be in a true electric vehicle. You still feel the slight shifting of gears as you accelerate.
If this car was available in a full electric variant with 500km+ range tomorrow (like the rumoured BMW i5), I’d be first in line at the dealership.
2 Comments
Add Yours →Thanks very much Dan for the excellent review. I have driven 5 series Diesel’s most of my life and you have truthfully answered my questions and reservations. Thanks again
Hi Shane, thanks for the comment! I’ve moved on to a BMW IX since this (which I absolutely love, for different reasons), but I still reckon the 530E is a fabulous car if it suits your driving – well wear with it.