Drive Notes: 2024 BMW i5 M60 xDrive

by Tim Healey

Published: April 1st, 2024

I tested a 2024 BMW i5 M60 xDrive last week, and I have thoughts.

Hit the jump for more.

The all-electric i5 is not cheap, starting at $84,100 and checking out at $93,495 as-tested. It's luxurious, fast, and has a distressingly low range. Read on.

Pros

It's quick. Yes, yes, most EVs feel quick thanks to instant torque. But this one has 593 horsepower and 586 lb-ft of torque and you feel it when you need to pass or merge.
The "Iconic Sounds" system seems to provide both a fake-exhaust sound and some sort of spaceship-like sounds, depending on drive mode, when you tromp hard on the accelerator. We've mostly been skeptical of this sort of thing here at TTAC, but it actually sounded kind of cool.
I like the boost paddle that gives you a bit more oomph for a few seconds.
BMW got the ride/handling mix right on this one.
The large infotainment screen extending out from the instrument cluster looks good.
Interior comfort is nice and the materials are price appropriate.
Highway cruising is quite comfy.

Cons

The range was only about 150 miles at 78 percent of capacity when I picked the car up, and charging on an old-school outlet is slooooow. I didn't have the chance to fast charge.
The shifter has no "Park" function, you either shut the system down or set the parking brake. This is annoying and I nearly had the car roll on me a couple of times.
Similarly, sometimes I shut the system off, but the radio was still playing, at least until I locked the doors. I've seen this on other Bimmers, and it remains confusing.
I couldn't figure out the name for the voice assistant, and clicking on it via the infotainment system and asking for its name went nowhere.
There's no front trunk, and therefore, no corresponding increase in storage space.
The price feels $20K too high.

We'll be back later this week with some scattered thoughts on the new Nissan Versa.

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 34 comments

MaintenanceCosts on Apr 02, 2024

The iX is a styling disaster, but this one is tolerable to me. But at this size and price, I'd rather go taller and have a CUV. It's not like a three-ton sedan is going to have much of a driving quality advantage.

1 Reply
Dana on Apr 13, 2024

You don’t need park, you set auto hold (button on the console). Every BMW answers to ‘Hey, BMW’, but you can set your own personal wake word in iDrive. It takes less than 5 minutes to figure that that out, btw. The audio stays on which is handy for Teams meetings. Once your phone is out of range, the audio is stopped on the car. You can always press down on the audio volume wheel which will mute it, if it bothers you. I found all the controls very intuitive.

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Recent Comments

TheMrFreeze Difficult call...the more the mainstream automakers discontinue their more affordable models and only sell crazy overpriced EVs and trucks, the more appealing the idea of letting in cheap imported cars becomes with the buying public. If the government is going to impose tariffs on Chinese vehicles, at the same time they need to be getting with the Big 3 and telling them to fill the void with affordable models and not use the tariff as an excuse to simply raise prices. Otherwise, public pressure could see the tariffs withdrawn.I seem to recall the last administration put a 25% tariff on Chinese steel, at which point the US manufacturers immediately used the opportunity to raise their prices 25%...that needs to not happen.
Daniel J The real problem I see is it's about 8K too much. I'd prefer a lower trim but they don't offer enough HP for my tastes.
Teddyc73 Beautiful color, although the overused black wheels detract from it. It's nice to see a car in an interesting color instead of the also grossly overused dull greys.
Master Baiter If you rear-end someone, it's your fault, period. If motorcycles need more time to stop, then riders need to increase their following distance.
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