[SNAP] [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Steve Elek. And this is the early
review for the 2024 BMW i5. First, it's an all-electric BMW. We bought the M60 trim,
which is pretty sweet because it's the performance
oriented version. But the reason we bought
it is because it's the only version that
comes with all wheel drive. Ours has about $6,000
worth of options, including the premium
package, which gets you adaptive cruise
control, heated steering wheel, and hey BMW natural speak. We also had to opt
for the 20-
inch wheels because that was the only setup
that gave us all season tires. We also got the
driving assist pro, which is an option that
allows for hands free driving on certain highways. Add in the metallic
oxide gray paint for $650, the destination
fee, total price of the car was $91,695. Not inexpensive by any
means, but fortunately, BMW gives us a lot of safety
features standard. Being an EV, you'll
probably want to know about charge
times and driving range. Ours has an 81
kilowatt hour batter
y which will take about 10
hours to charge on a level two charger from empty. According to the EPA,
this i5 gets 248 miles of driving range on a full
charge for this 20-inch wheel setup. Of course, we will conduct
our own EV range testing to see how those
numbers stack up. Now, this is the M60. So it's pretty
performance oriented. And this one has 590
horsepower, which is competitive with some
gas powered cars from BMW. Being an EV, one thing I do
miss is the exhaust note. But it's still a true
sport
sedan through and through. The i5 is a heavy car. It weighs over 5,000 pounds. But despite that, it handles
very well on the road. It's quite impressive. It'll be interesting to see
how it does in our emergency handling test. This i5 is basically a 5 Series. And it's on the same platform. Because of that reason, it's
lacking some traditional EV features, such as a frunk. The upside to that
is when you get in, it really feels like
a traditional sedan. It doesn't have any
of the new age quir
ks that you see on some newer EVs. And it really feels
like a BMW in here. I mean, quality is top notch. When you look at the
materials they chose, you have these soft leathers. When you touch the
plastic, there's no give. There's no cracking
noises, no squeaking. It really feels
substantial and solid. It has the ambient lighting. It's a quality experience
to be inside this cockpit. It's easy to get
comfortable in here. And that starts with
the driver's seat. There are so many adjustments
you ca
n make with this, I feel like anybody could
get comfortable in it. For me, I like the side
bolsters hugging me and the thigh extenders out. And I can just get a
absolute perfect cockpit setup for myself here. Driving position is
pretty good for a sedan. I can see over the hood. Mirrors are set correctly. There are some rear
3/4 blind spots. But after our official testing,
we'll see how that shakes out. The rear seat isn't as inviting. You're not going
to want a road trip back there because it's
a little
short on leg and headroom. Now moving on to controls,
this presents well. I mean, the screen is beautiful. As far as a tablet,
it looks great. The issue is you have
this one screen that has all the apps on it,
which includes the vehicle settings, Apple
CarPlay, Spotify, the radio, seat comfort, and
YouTube all on the same screen. So you have to
scroll through or use a browse menu, which
isn't reasonable to use while you're driving. You also have the climate,
which is pretty well integra
ted into the screen. It's not a bad application. But you still have
to click on it twice to get into the
heated steering wheel. You have shortcut
buttons, which allow you to get to driver
assistance, to charging, to drive train and chassis. While it's a good idea
that the shortcut's there. It's still multiple
levels that you have to go through to
accomplish whatever task you're trying to do. Now again, this is
an early review. It'll be interesting to see
how our usability testers rate this syste
m, especially
compared to the previous one. Now, BMW also has
this feature called My Modes, which
really just changes the personality of the vehicle. There's many to choose from
you can make it relaxing, it changes the sounds, it
changes the colors of the car. I honestly didn't even
notice this feature until someone told it to me. It's a cool trick. But it doesn't really
change much about how this car is going to drive. So that's the early
review of the 2024 BMW i5. BMW as a brand has been quite
reliable the last couple of years. But this is still
a brand new EV. We'll see if the i5 can
continue that trend. For more on EVs and the
full road test results, check out consumerreports.org.
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