Living with a… BMW i5 Touring (Month 3)

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Month 1 – Off to a smooth start Month 2 – Potholes strike again Month 3 – Smooth operator

I’m a single mum with 12-year-old and 14-year-old sons, a six-year-old black Labrador, a boyfriend and sometimes his two sons (aged 15 and 17). So “it’s complicated” sums it up in our household, as are our car needs. It’s a real mix of local and motorway runs, of one or four people, with or without dog, on any given day. I mean, who knows?

Erin says: “It’s smooth as smooth can be, which makes setting off every morning one of life’s little joys. No murmur, no whirr or whizz or glitch”

How much has it cost you?

Pennies, dear boy, mere pennies. Seriously, could this BE any cheaper to run on a home charger? I’m getting 220 miles for £5.76 precisely, based on the battery size multiplied by my overnight off-peak electric-car tariff from British Gas. I don’t get that in one charge, because I only have the 7p per kWh option from midnight to 5am, and only get about 70 miles in five hours from my slow domestic supply. But that’s ok: I’m just religious about plugging it in every night.

Where have you been?

Luckily, nowhere far enough yet in a round trip that would force me to use the public charging network with the expense and hassle that can incur (it can also be straight forward, but you don’t know which experience you’re gonna get until you rock up). So we’ve been doing the daily school run of a few miles, the gym and supermarket, and train station for the work commute into London, which together probably adds up to about 25-30 miles a day. We’ve also one one motorway trip of Tunbridge Wells to Twickenham and back, which totalled about 120 miles. I just made sure we charged to 100 per cent overnight the night before.

What have you been carrying?

The dog (thank goodness for an estate with a large and low opening - poor Milo has some arthritis in his shoulder now, so a high-riding SUV wouldn’t be any use). Endless school bags, hockey bags, electric guitars… anything that comes with having a teenage boy. Plus the heaviest and bulkiest things in the world, and the ultimate loathed signifier of the middle-class, pushy, south-east helicopter parent: Dry Robes. I know, I know, shoot me now, but they really are THAT waterproof and warm.

Delights

Even among the electric-car fraternity, where the smoothness of an engine-free powertrain is a given, this is a smooth car. It glides. It’s the Torville and Dean of the EV brigade (minus the spins hopefully). It’s smooth as smooth can be, which makes setting off every morning one of life’s little joys. No murmur, no whirr or whizz or glitch: it just flows into the stream of traffic and you are away. Yet somehow, you feel connected to the road, which keeps the driver happy. If I understood how BMW does that, I’d be a chief engineer instead of your underpaid correspondent.

Frustrations

Remind me why BMW insist on Eighties-style thick steering wheels. Anyone? They actually make my hands ache, and they look like they’ve been accessorised at Halfords and are now queueing for their turn to chug down Southend seafront at 4mph on a Friday night with neon lights under the chassis and Bomb the Bass’s “Beat Dis” playing via the Panasonic subwoofer in the boot. Can’t they nick the ones out of sister brand Rolls-Royce? They know how to rock a steering wheel, and the answer is: KEEP IT THIN. Also: the range. 330 miles maximum? Please. I know it’s been one degree above freezing this January, but I can’t get above 220 mile on a full charge. That’s over 100 miles off. Not good.

This month in a nutshell

Big, heavy car means you’re not getting an efficient electric experience, and the range is way off the quoted maximum. However, it’s a stunning car, inside and out. Back to top

Erin says: “The fact this is a 2.5-tonne electric car with good-looking but ultimately useless low-profile tyres doesn't help matters”

How much as it cost you?

A painful financial month for the BMW, with my fourth puncture this year, all of them in different cars. Bloody potholes, though the culprit this time was more accurately described as a broken surface with bits of crumbling Tarmac in a lay-by. Whatever, it's all the same rubbish of the roads being in a parlous state. No wonder potholes rank so high on Government to-do lists – fix a pothole, gain a vote. In total the puncture cost me just over £300 once VAT and fitting it at the local BMW dealer were factored in. That's a hell of a lot of money. The fact this is a 2.5-tonne electric car with good-looking but ultimately useless low-profile tyres doesn't help matters – it's too much strain on the rubber.

Where have you been?

Well, it was off the road for a few days because I had the puncture on a Friday evening, and the breakdown service would only transport it back to theirs for the evening, and then on to the BMW dealership the next morning where it then sat waiting for a new tyre for another day. But apart from that brief hiatus, we've been to Gatwick and back for a short work trip (60 miles), and done lot of school trips and dog walks with it. This is the joy of a large estate – our big Labrador fits comfortably in the boot while the mileage means a couple of charges a week at home on an overnight cheap tariff have been plenty.

What have you been carrying?

An overweight gun dog who smells of pond water, mainly. Other than that, a cabin-luggage suitcase for a work trip that rattled around the massive boot, two lanky teenage boys and an alarming collection of guitars belonging to one child which appear to multiply every time we leave his grandfather. See picture, and note this is the acoustic collection. The electric ones mean transporting the sodding amp too.

Delights

Size is everything when you have a growing family, and it's such a luxury to be driving a decent car that isn't an SUV and has loads of space for big people in the rear as well as endless stuff in the boot. And all that while looking as good as the i5 Touring does.

Frustrations

The maximum range is still well off the 300-plus mileage BMW claims. We were at a maximum 225 miles when it was one degree; we're now up to 257 miles in milder 14-degree weather.

This month in a nutshell

No long journeys, and no need for public charging, thank god. In the meantime, brands building 2.5-tonne cars should not fit low-profile tyres on them. Back to top

Erin says: “The warmer weather has extended the range of the car to almost 300 miles – not far short of the claimed 330”

How much as it cost you?

Peanuts, which is to say £4.72 for every 200 miles of charge on the home charger. It would have cost more on an expensive public charger in Bournemouth one day but, surprise, surprise, the charger wasn’t working and wouldn’t take payment. So, we inched to the hotel where I used £50 of credit I forgot I had on my PodPoint account for public charging, so really that was free money, right? I am, however, waiting to receive a Dart Crossing fine for forgetting to pay.

Where have you been?

I’ve been an intrepid explorer this month in my electric BMW. Normally if it’s a journey of several hundred miles, I frantically scout about for a fossil-fuelled car to get me there and back to avoid the vagaries of the public-charging network. However, I decided to bite the bullet this month. We did a section of the South West 660 route, which takes you through Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. Our bit began in Bournemouths, so we drove there from Tunbridge Wells, tried to charge, failed, and managed to get to our overnight stop at Moonfleet Manor just outside Weymouth with about 60 miles left on tap. We then pottered around the coastline to Lyme Regis and inland to Exeter and various places, charging overnight at our next stop, Lympstone Manor, before streaming back up the M5 and home on one charge. I felt very pleased with myself, and grateful that the warmer weather has extended the range of the car to almost 300 miles – not far short of the claimed 330.

What have you been carrying?

The dog (a big old black Labrador) has made himself at home in the commodious boot for the past few months. He particularly likes leaping up into it when it’s parked on our drive with the tailgate up, and lying down to sun himself. Thankfully, I’d kept forgetting to take out the extra charging lead from the boot and store it at our house, which was just as well because we needed our own charging cable for the PodPoint charger at Moonfleet Manor.

Delights

Really pleasing to discover just how far 280 miles of charge will take you – it’s certainly enough for a mini break, and phoning the hotel ahead of arrival to check if they’ve got at least one charging point, what sort it is and whether it’s tethered (has a cable attached) or untethered (bring your own) will save you even more anxiety. Also … my partner says that the noise the i5 Touring makes when you accelerate is exactly the same as the Enterprise from Star Trek, so obviously that’s a major win.

Frustrations

The £94,000 price feels slightly insane. This is a gorgeous estate, with beautiful air suspension and a flowing, smooth manner, but the interior is not that of an almost-£100,000 car.

This month in a nutshell

Proper three-day electric-car road trip completed in style and relative ease, with only one failed charge. Back to top