[SunFun]

18,000 miles and two years and I’m loving it.

2021, X5 xDrive 45e, MSRP $78,150.
C3D Manhattan Green, VATQ Tarturfo Marino Leather, ZDY Driving Assit. Pro pkg., ZPX Executive pkg., ZLS Seating pkg., 4T7 Massage Seats, ZPK Parking Assist, 3AC Trailer Hitch, 4HB Heated Steering Wheel and Armrests.

Since Factory, I have 54.4 mpg., Electric miles 10,367 @ 3.2 mi/kWh, (someone posted that the shown electric mileage is not accurate). On a road trip with no charging I get 28 mpg, with a best of 33 mpg. I’ve experienced zero problems and the vehicle has been an absolute joy to drive.

With the Dealer discount + Fed. Tax Credit + BMWCCA Rebate I ended up with 20% off the MSRP, best deal I’ve ever received on a new car. There are multiple ways to interact with iDrive, using the iDrive controller, Touch Screen and Voice command, I use all three. The amount of Individual settings offered, further enhances the driver experience. It’s not an exciting car to drive (for that I have my F23) but a very comfortable, well equipped, good handling, luxury suv with a well laid out controls, that gets 50+ mpg and delivers the Freude am Fahren I hoped for.

 

[ScaldedDog]

It was your experience that caused us to start looking at a 45e for my wife almost a year ago. She's had it since June, and absolutely loves it. Thanks for sharing your experience, then and now!

Mark

 

[Me530]

How's the Manhattan Green aged for you? It's an uncommon color here but I think it looks nice.

 

[propchef]

Great to hear, thanks for sharing! I still get a big smile when I get to drive ours (it's the wife's daily).

Love that color.

 

[eelnoraa]

MGM is such a nice color. I like it a lot as well

...
Since Factory, I have 54.4 mpg., Electric miles 10,367 @ 3.2 mi/kWh, (someone posted that the shown electric mileage is not accurate). On a road trip with no charging I get 28 mpg, with a best of 33 mpg. I’ve experienced zero problems and the vehicle has been an absolute joy to drive.
...

Not that the mileage isn't accurate, just BMW decided to use a confusing way of calculating MPG and mi/kWh. Basically double counting. With this info you provided, here is the actual MPG for ICE and mi/kWh for EV

Very much within reason.

 

[speedyman]

MGM is such a nice color. I like it a lot as well



Not that the mileage isn't accurate, just BMW decided to use a confusing way of calculating MPG and mi/kWh. Basically double counting. With this info you provided, here is the actual MPG for ICE and mi/kWh for EV

View attachment 1077206

Very much within reason.

This is a well needed dose of reality. I nearly laugh out loud when I see posts where John Q Plugin is boasting about the 55 MPG he gets with his 45e. Some how these guys never mention the cost of their nearly continuous recharging which in the case above would be in the neighborhood of a thousand bucs depending on one's electric rates which are currently going ballistic in many areas.
As if anyone is getting an actual, overall, 54 MPG in a near 6,000 lb. SUV.
My '21 M50i shows 18 MPG average over its 13,000 mile career so far. I'll take that by comparrison with all the other benefits every day of the week.
A 45e would save me 250 bucks a year at this point.

 

[eelnoraa]

...
Since Factory, I have 54.4 mpg., Electric miles 10,367 @ 3.2 mi/kWh, (someone posted that the shown electric mileage is not accurate). On a road trip with no charging I get 28 mpg, with a best of 33 mpg. I’ve experienced zero problems and the vehicle has been an absolute joy to drive.
...

This is a well needed dose of reality. I nearly laugh out loud when I see posts where John Q Plugin is boasting about the 55 MPG he gets with his 45e. Some how these guys never mention the cost of their nearly continuous recharging which in the case above would be in the neighborhood of a thousand bucs depending on one's electric rates which are currently going ballistic in many areas.
As if anyone is getting an actual, overall, 54 MPG in a near 6,000 lb. SUV.
My '21 M50i shows 18 MPG average over its 13,000 mile career so far. I'll take that by comparrison with all the other benefits every day of the week.
A 45e would save me 250 bucks a year at this point.

I think we all know 45e cannot get 55mpg. This is Prius territory. The operation saving really depends on usage and cost of electricity. We have regions with $0.55/kWh, and regions with $0.13/kWh. The later coupled with the correct usage pattern can have bigger saving. Having that said, average Americans don’t spend that much on gas anyway, so saving on fuel should never be the single reason for PHEV or even EV.

back to OP, I do think his/her usage is the right demographic for PHEV, where EV and ICE usage are compatible. For people who is proud of filling up once or twice a year in 45e, range anxiety side, they are better served with an pure EV. Because for 90+% of time, they are just lugging the ICE as dead weight and suffering from a slow charging inefficient EV. On the other hand, people don’t charge at all are better served with 40i, more efficient, significant lighter weight, better dynamic in all driving condition. 45e is for the in between usage, lot is short travel in daily commute, but also drive long distance often enough. By long distance, I mean > 250 miles, which a pure EV may need a charge session on road.

 

[speedyman]

I think we all know 45e cannot get 55mpg. This is Prius territory. The operation saving really depends on usage and cost of electricity. We have regions with $0.55/kWh, and regions with $0.13/kWh. The later coupled with the correct usage pattern can have bigger saving. Having that said, average Americans don’t spend that much on gas anyway, so saving on fuel should never be the single reason for PHEV or even EV.

back to OP, I do think his/her usage is the right demographic for PHEV, where EV and ICE usage are compatible. For people who is proud of filling up once or twice a year in 45e, range anxiety side, they are better served with an pure EV. Because for 90+% of time, they are just lugging the ICE as dead weight and suffering from a slow charging inefficient EV. On the other hand, people don’t charge at all are better served with 40i, more efficient, significant lighter weight, better dynamic in all driving condition. 45e is for the in between usage, lot is short travel in daily commute, but also drive long distance often enough. By long distance, I mean > 250 miles, which a pure EV may need a charge session on road.

Another excellent post based on reality not internet hype and gross misconceptions. Unfortunately we do not all know that a 45e is no where near capable of achieving 55 MPG. That is abundantly clear on this and other internet forums from 45e owners or potential adopters who belive that falacy for what ever reason.
Some will counter this with "I have solar panels and my electric is free". Great if you are the .001 percent of folks whose house and entire property are covered in solar panels but your electric is still not "free'.

 

[eelnoraa]

Another excellent post based on reality not internet hype and gross misconceptions. Unfortunately we do not all know that a 45e is no where near capable of achieving 55 MPG. That is abundantly clear on this and other internet forums from 45e owners or potential adopters who belive that falacy for what ever reason.
Some will counter this with "I have solar panels and my electric is free". Great if you are the .001 percent of folks whose house and entire property are covered in solar panels but your electric is still not "free'.

Agree, it is the “ you don’t know what you don’t know” scenario for first time owner. I only came to this conclusion after after 5 months of ownership, I do like the car, and my usage fit. But I do want potential buyer to know some of the reality.

As for solar panels, no they don’t make electricity free. Basically you prepay for 6-10 years of electricity usage up front. And eventually if the usage break even, then electricity become kind of free, assuming you don’t use more than the panel generate with EV charging.

 

[speedyman]

Agree, it is the “ you don’t know what you don’t know” scenario for first time owner. I only came to this conclusion after after 5 months of ownership, I do like the car, and my usage fit. But I do want potential buyer to know some of the reality.

As for solar panels, no they don’t make electricity free. Basically you prepay for 6-10 years of electricity usage up front. And eventually if the usage break even, then electricity become kind of free, assuming you don’t use more than the panel generate with EV charging.

You get it and Thank You. There are a number of posters here who really need to listen to you.

 

[Me530]

MGM is such a nice color. I like it a lot as well



Not that the mileage isn't accurate, just BMW decided to use a confusing way of calculating MPG and mi/kWh. Basically double counting. With this info you provided, here is the actual MPG for ICE and mi/kWh for EV

View attachment 1077206

Very much within reason.

Note that the EPA counts MPG this way as well for PHEV's.

 

[eelnoraa]

Note that the EPA counts MPG this way as well for PHEV's.

View attachment 1077274

we went through this number in another thread. The issue is mpge was develop to attend to make equivalent between EV and ICE. Their PHEV calculation is a bit arbitrary.

here is what they did. 1gal = 33.7kWh. 45e’s 50 mpge ks from 90% EV, 10% ICE, (ice driven miles + ev driven miles) / (gas uses + electricity used converted to mpg using 33.7).

so No, EPA’s number is NOT the trip computer number. The problem is trip comp mpg doesn’t count electricity. So EPA cannot use the same calculation. If they do, EV will be infinite MPGe. And electricity is not free, the usage must be counted for consumption

 

[Me530]

we went through this number in another thread.

We did?

Anyway, which column in your table are you considering the trip computer?

 

[speedyman]

Amazing that anyone would honestly believe that a 6,000 lb vehicle is getting 55 MPG. Safe to say that there are more than a few who bought the 45e believing so and still do. Gotta wonder what the actual MPG is for the folks who are paying 40 or 50 cents /kw.

 

[Me530]

View attachment 1077143
18,000 miles and two years and I’m loving it.

2021, X5 xDrive 45e, MSRP $78,150.
C3D Manhattan Green, VATQ Tarturfo Marino Leather, ZDY Driving Assit. Pro pkg., ZPX Executive pkg., ZLS Seating pkg., 4T7 Massage Seats, ZPK Parking Assist, 3AC Trailer Hitch, 4HB Heated Steering Wheel and Armrests.

Since Factory, I have 54.4 mpg., Electric miles 10,367 @ 3.2 mi/kWh, (someone posted that the shown electric mileage is not accurate). On a road trip with no charging I get 28 mpg, with a best of 33 mpg. I’ve experienced zero problems and the vehicle has been an absolute joy to drive.

With the Dealer discount + Fed. Tax Credit + BMWCCA Rebate I ended up with 20% off the MSRP, best deal I’ve ever received on a new car. There are multiple ways to interact with iDrive, using the iDrive controller, Touch Screen and Voice command, I use all three. The amount of Individual settings offered, further enhances the driver experience. It’s not an exciting car to drive (for that I have my F23) but a very comfortable, well equipped, good handling, luxury suv with a well laid out controls, that gets 50+ mpg and delivers the Freude am Fahren I hoped for.

Hey @SunFun, your car is fantastic. It's too bad people can't celebrate their awesome 45e's without certain members flooding the thread with rants about how deluded we all are. Every. Single. Time. It's getting really old and I don't blame people for avoiding joining the community to avoid the toxicity.

 

[speedyman]

Hey @SunFun, your car is fantastic. It's too bad people can't celebrate their awesome 45e's without certain members flooding the thread with rants about how deluded we all are. Every. Single. Time. It's getting really old and I don't blame people for avoiding joining the community to avoid the toxicity.

No reason to become cross.
A couple of us here are merely pointing out some misconceptions with a dose of reality.
All X5s are fine vehicles as I am sure we all agree.
Hope you are enjoying yours, I love mine and am looking to adopt one of the LCI '24 models next year.
I am a huge fan.
Enjoy your weekend!

 

[Diego G]

Your car looks beautiful! You fixed the one thing I don’t like, which is how from the factory, it comes with very dark glass behind the front doors. I would rather it didn't have that. But you made yours look fantastic! It seems perfectly matched. I want to do the same!!! Can you share what you did, exactly? I’ve read that tinting the front windows makes the display(s) misinterpret the light and they go dark as if it were night. Do you have any issues?

I admit I am biased; I’ve ordered one (twice). Manhattan Green Metallic has rapidly become very popular. On the first one, it showed error messages during dealer prep, and could not get it fixed for over a month. For the second one, I ended up going with an M Sport. It just arrived at the dealer and I will pick it up in two days!

This will be our 2nd X5 45e. It will replace the use of my '96 4Runner. My wife drives a white ’22. It’s not perfect, but we love it and we are keeping it. We use it often to drive to our vacation home that is 3 hours away and I get >22 MPG after the battery is depleted and it is used as a hybrid. We have 220v chargers at both homes, so we use it on electric mode around town. For long trips, we compare what the BMW nav says with Waze and if it’s the same, we use it on “Hybrid”, “ECO Pro” with the internal Nav, which then figures out when to use which method of power to provide the most efficient result. Waze stays on (on the phone) and warns us of anything on the way, just as if we were using it to navigate.

Seeing your post made me even more anxious to have mine. Your X5 is gorgeus! 👍

 

[SunFun]

How's the Manhattan Green aged for you? It's an uncommon color here but I think it looks nice.

Very nicely thank you. It was not a color I was looking for, my last 4 cars were white. Returning after shopping and looking for my car I realized that half the suv,s in the lot were white, time for a change! I ruled out black for the same reason, looking at available colors I came across Manhattan Green. I never heard of it and on line pictures didn’t help much so searched local inventories and found one. It was late afternoon on a sunny day, IMO when the color looks best, and was sold.
It’s a color that hides dirt well, I’ll notice the road film on my windshield and rear window long before the paint looks dirty. Most of the time it’s a quiet color but sometimes, as in the picture, it just pops.

 

[Me530]

No reason to become cross.
A couple of us here are merely pointing out some misconceptions with a dose of reality.
All X5s are fine vehicles as I am sure we all agree.
Hope you are enjoying yours, I love mine and am looking to adopt one of the LCI '24 models next year.
I am a huge fan.
Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for the gaslighting.

 

[SunFun]

Can you share what you did, exactly? I’ve read that tinting the front windows makes the display(s) misinterpret the light and they go dark as if it were night. Do you have any issues?

I had the windows done at a highly rated local tinter. It does look great but does have some drawbacks. One, in some states it’s illegal like mine. On my f23 I have a lighter, legal, tint. However the darker tint looks really nice on the vehicle. A visual survey showed about 20% of the vehicles in my area with a dark tint, so it’s not a highly enforced ordinance. Two, it does block some Infrared, and BMW uses IR light to set the display brightness. There are some lighting conditions where it will be noticeable. Also on some dark roads I will roll down my window for a better look when before making a left turn. As I rite this, I’m thinking, "the price we pay for vanity" LOL