In keeping with its stated “electrified vehicles” goal, BMW will be releasing a new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in early 2017, the BMW 530e iPerformance. The BMW 530e iPerformance is, as the name implies, an electrified 5 Series offering — one that will reportedly feature combined performance of 248 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque.
This performance is split between an electric motor providing 95 horsepower & 184 lb-feet of torque and a 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder providing 180 horsepower & 215 lb-feet of torque. The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) offering’s 0 to 60 mph time will reportedly be 6.1 seconds.
A couple of other things to note about the soon-to-be-released BMW 530e iPerformance: the model features a 9.2 kilowatt-hour (kWh) lithium-ion battery pack; this battery pack is placed so as to not diminish storage space in the trunk; and xDrive all-wheel-drive is available as an option.
Perhaps more important than any of that information, though, is the pricing, which has yet to be revealed. Going by BMW’s strategy to date, there will probably be a fairly large markup for the plug-in 5 Series offering as compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) 5 Series variants.
Also notable is that fuel economy/efficiency figures have yet to be publicly announced. Is that a sign that they aren’t the best selling points of the model? Or does that not mean anything at all? Probably nothing at all.
Though, one thing is pretty certain: the BMW 530e iPerformance isn’t likely to be cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
Having closely observed the launch of several PHEV BMWs with nominal all-electric ranges now, I’m not holding out much hope that the model sells particularly well, but we’ll have to wait to see.
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