Did I get converted to the EV Life?: 72 hours with an i5 M60

This is dedicated to Chris Learmonth, my fellow BMW Buddy, Best Friend and Apple Enthusiast!

As most of you will know I’m a self-confessed BMW Fan/petrolhead - I will drive anything big and blacked out with nothing less than 20” wheels recently I opted for something more economical on fuel hence my last car swap, switching my Ford Mustang for a BMW 530e (when people say smiles for miles - I was crying at my MPG being 11! ??)

Over the years I considered switching to an EVvehicle but a few reasons discouraged me:

1. Most EV vehicles on the market have an SUV body style, I am more of a Saloon/Coupe kind of woman.
2. My brand loyalty for BMW - although X models are available, they aren’t the right body style for me, so I was pleased when BMW launched their new range of i4 and i5.

With the launch of the new i5, Chris kindly invited me down to Mayfair to collect their demonstrator i5 M60 - with a BHP of 600, every available option on it and 72 hours to play around with this bad boy - how could I refuse?

Before getting into the details it is worth pointing out the external and internal factors that affect most people’s decision when considering the switch to an EV.

• I work from home 5 days a week
• I go to the office once a month which is around 88 miles return
• I travel around 15-20 miles daily (if that) for daily trips to the supermarket, town, gym, gurdwara etc
• My current vehicle is a Plugin Hybrid with a battery capacity of around 12kWh and although it says I get 19 miles on a full charge realistically it’s about 9/10 miles.
• My current car tax is ￡560 (Due to Luxury Car Tax)
• I do not have any dependents (kids/pets/elderly)
• I currently spend ￡25-￡30 on petrol every 10 days (It used to be ￡40 weekly before I started charging it)

A few days before I was due to collect the car, I was lying awake at night thinking how I was about to have a fully electric vehicle with no home charger, this sparked an initial anxiety reaction. Even though I have a 2.3kWh 3pin charger in my garage there was no way I could wait 5 days for a full charge - more so because I only had the car for three days!. I texted Chris out of panic and insisted I should have an M3 or M4 for the weekend instead and he laughed and said that the i5 was perfect for me and to stop stressing as there were a lot of public charging options around.

I googled Charging Points near me and was surprised that the Sainsburys 1.5 miles away from my house (also 0.5 miles from my Parent's house) had new rapid electric points installed featuring 8-10 new 150kWh chargers. There was also a Tesco nearby with 2 Osprey Fast Chargers at 22kWh. In general, I am very risk-averse and like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory I like comfort and routine so this threw me outside of my comfort zone as I kept thinking the worst “What if the car runs out of battery while I am driving it??”

I drove down to BMW Park Lane on Friday morning and dropped off my G30. I spent the morning with Chris having a tour of the M cars and catching up on life. It was nice to finally meet up for the first time this year even though we talk daily. I left in the afternoon around 2pm on 99% charge with a range of 219 miles.

I had a 4-hour trip home (due to traffic in Central London and the lovely M40) after driving 140 miles with my heated seat on, charging my phone, and listening to music via Apple CarPlay I arrived in the Midlands with a 47% battery. I drove in cruise control most of the way doing around 65-70mph on the Motorway, however, If I had to return to London on the same day I probably would have struggled without stopping at a service station for 30 minutes to get some extra juice.

With a 47% battery on Friday afternoon, I drove another 65-70 miles around Birmingham and back home, again listening to music with the heating on and the battery had depleted to 16%. I drove the car in eco mode and sensibly .. more so because the i5 is a lot heavier than my car so I was getting used to it and it wasn’t my vehicle so I didn’t drive it like it was stolen as I do my own G30 ??. Chris asked me “How was the drive?” I said “I felt so “boujee” driving this through Central London. I know how you must feel every 6 months when you order your new car!”

On Saturday morning, I did a few errands driving a further 5 miles within the city and then to Sainsburys to charge it (now on 7%). The steps to charge the car were simple: Plug the charger into the car, make a card payment and the car was good to go. I connected the i5 to my BMW Profile and used the BMW App to track the charging status which I thought was very impressive (I am sure that other brands do this to date but having never had a fully electric car I was mind-blown).

The App told me the current battery status, range and how long it would take to charge. I went back to my parents for around 40 minutes by that time the app pinged me to say the Car had completed charging. As I used a public charger I paid around ￡27.41 for a full charge almost on a 150kWh charger - this gave me another 220 miles.

I picked up the i5 around 12pm and drove another 100 miles during the day, by the time I got back home the battery status was at 67%. Around 8pm, I checked the vehicle battery status on the BMW app and knew I needed at least 80% charge if I was going to make it to Park Lane tomorrow and because I was staying in for the rest of the night I thought I might as well plug it into the 2.3kWh wall charger (the one I use for my G30) and with a 14-hour charge it added another 17% of charge to the vehicle by the next morning

On Sunday morning, it was on 84% battery and I drove 154 miles to drop the car off and the battery was on 23% by the time I had parked up in Mayfair. To preserve the range, I was conscious about charging my phone so I made sure it was charged beforehand, I used the heat features to a minimum probably around 20 minutes and listened to music on high volume for the duration of my drive. This was a typical case of “I have never had an EV so I am being cautious” syndrome because looking back on my journey it would have been okay to do all those things, I guess once you get accustomed to learning what affects the range you can control some of those variables.

I sat back in my G30 and thought wow, the i5 was impressive as it was faster than my current car and the tech was just exquisite. I had no issues with not hearing the engine roar because the i5 had enough road presence there was no need for the extra pop and bangs. I never felt like I was driving a fully electric vehicle (maybe because I am used to a hybrid).

So to conclude my final thoughts, firstly I didn't want to give the car back because it was pure luxury, I joked with Chris that if I have to isolate because I have Covid does that mean I get to keep it for another 10 days? he laughed and said “Well I have your G30 as ransom” and I said “oh that's fine you can keep that car, I’ll have this one!”

Secondly in the real world, even if I did charge it publicly because I didn’t have a home charger, I could easily get away with a full charge for 7 days without needing to charge it again based on my current driving lifestyle (as mentioned above) - it would still work out cheaper than fueling my current G30 but in addition I get a new vehicle with the latest tech.

In my opinion when people think about charging cars they think about their mobiles or devices that need charging daily but realistically based on the number of miles that you drive would you need to charge it every day? I certainly don’t fuel my G30 at the petrol station every day and if I do make 1 or two trips I don’t always fill the tank fully.

Providing I had a home charger installed, yes I would switch my G30 to a fully electric G60 because the upgrade in interior and exterior is just WOW and based on my current lifestyle it would suit me fine for my everyday local trips however going further afield where I need to do more than 200 miles in a single day would be something I need to plan for but again that comes with education, confidence and adjusting your mindset to changing the way your fuel your car.