Hybrid tech transforms X5

48 VOLT BOOST MAKES NOTICEABLE DIFFERENCE IN M60i’S PERFORMANCE

Goes 0-100 km/h in 4.18 seconds, faster than M50i’s 4.92.

What do you get somebody who has everything? A black BMW X5 with tinted windows to terrorise and antagonise the public with, it would seem.

I have never been a government official, so I don’t know what it is like to always be so late for the airport that I must drive in a convoy at 200km/h or draw so much attention to myself with flashing lights in the belief that the average Joe would instantly recognise me and pose an immediate danger to my safety.

But I did get a small taste of what this life of could be like when I spent a week with BMW’s updated X5 M60i.

You are going to think I am joking, but hit the fast lane of the highway, and charge up to the car in front of you, and they honestly move over in hurry – as though some government police officials were about to beat them for driving a VW Polo too slowly. It’s actually sad, but it shows just how conditioned we have become to this kind of behaviour.

Anyway, enough of the politics, but staying very much with charging up to cars in front of you and charging up (as in electricity).

One of the big changes on the updated X5 is the addition of 48V mild hybrid technology.

Before you roll your eyes and start to tell me about load shedding, this is not an electric car.

It does not need to be plugged in, the mild hybrid technology is an internal energy recovery system and it does its thing without you knowing or having to do anything.

Here is a direct lift out from the BMW SA press release: “This across-the-board application of electrification comes in the form of an electric motor integrated into the transmission.

“This motor generates an output boost of up to 9kW and 200Nm of torque, helping the combustion engine to deliver a smooth, dynamic drive along with high efficiency.”

When I first read this, I thought sure, who are they trying to kid?

I have driven several cars, albeit more mundane ones, fitted with mild hybrid technology and I felt no difference in performance: there is no way this power, and torque is on tap in the X5 M60i.

Its predecessor X5 M50i makes the exact same 390kW of power and 750Nm of torque as the new X5 M60i we were about to run at the Gerotek test facility.

I had a good look at our data for the X5 M50i and factored in the extra 100kg of the X5 M60i and the 12 degrees higher ambient temperature at test time, and I didn’t expect anything better.

The X5 M50i hit 100km/h in 4.92 seconds, 200km/h in 16.66sec, and the quarter mile in 13.14sec. All quick times.

But when my Racelogic VBOX spewed out a substantially quicker 4.18sec 0-100km/ h, a 15.35sec 0-200km/ h and a 12.44sec quarmile time, I started to believe the mild hybrid technology as fitted to the X5 M60i does make a noticeable difference.

Maybe there is something like 400kW of power and 950Nm of torque available when that juice kicks in?

If that wasn’t enough to convince me, or you, what we then found when we looked at our road test period fuel consumption figures sealed the deal.

During our week with the X5 M50i, we returned a figure of 17.2-litres per 100km – not great, but forgivable for a big, high-performance, petrol-powered SUV.

The number for the X5 M60i came in at a substantially better 14.9l/100km, and this included towing my BMW racecar from the workshop home, then to Zwartkops and back to the workshop. One thing is for sure, the X5 M60i is not the same as the X5 M50i in terms of onboard tech, which we didn’t even get to in this performance road test, but even more so out on the road.

If you need visual confirmation, too, look at the M Sport package as fitted which includes double bars and an M logo for the BMW kidney grille and M exterior mirror caps in black high-gloss.