EV v PHEV v Petrol. Real World Tests of BMW 5 Series

[DRD]

Found this an interesting watch. A simultaneous real world in-convoy driving test of three brand new, equivalent performance, 5 series models

Spoiler alert - if buying privately and you aren't made of money, go for the petrol one.

 

[Asiapinball]

That's the best comparison of the merits of each of the drivetrains I have seen. Unbiased and stuck to the facts rather than the opinion of the reviewer. And none of the "user error" issues with the full ev review that were very typical a few years back.

As it was as a new car review what wasn't mentioned was used car resale values of evs are typically much lower than for a like for like petrol. So the conclusion for the private buyer from a financial perspective would likely also be the ev if you looked at one year old cars with say 10,000 miles on the clock.

And if running an aged ev that's out of initial warranty (typically 3 years) you really need to buy the extended warranty each year if your pockets are not deep enough for occasional huge repair bills.

 

[Asiapinball]

As an example of repair bills my heater stopped working on my jaguar ipace. The heater does both cabin interior and also batteries when they are cold. The manufacturer of the heater unit changed some of the components to save on costs but didn't tell Jaguar about it. Same heater unit is used in Porsche and they have the same issue. So there are a load of 2022 Jaguar and porsche evs driving around that have heaters in them that will fail sooner or later.

Mine failed at 2.5 years so still within the 3 year warranty so Jaguar fixed it free of charge. Service manager told me hat the heater manufacturer was supplying Jaguar with new heaters free of charge and also paying the labour bill. She also told me that the bill would have been around £3k for the job as they have to drop the drive battery to replace the heater unit.

I have also had to have the rear drive motor replaced. It developed an isolation fault. Basically a short within the motor. New motor is £6K plus vat and the labour is £2k+ so its a £10k job if not under warranty. I suspect this was a also a manufacturing fault as the car always had an intermittent warning that would flash up and go away. Since the motor was replaced I no longer get warnings.

And the Battery Energy Control Module also had to be replaced. I understand its not much labour but the part is £1,500 so about £2k total.

All this happened within a few months at about 35,000 miles. So that's £15k of repairs over 3 months.

Car is now 3 years old and goes out of warranty next week so I will be buying an extension which costs £1k including comprehensive breakdown coverage.

 

[Asiapinball]

I was unlucky with my current car.

My previous ipace went back after 3 years with 35000 miles on it and was only at the dealer once and that was for its first service at 2 years old / 21,000 miles. Service items are:

1. Check ev system for faults
2. Check brakes
3. Change brake fluid
4. Check if new wiper blades needed
5. Replace cabin pollen filter.