It was late, dark and chilly if not as cold as when it snowed and the car obliged with 213 miles, or 2.6mpkWh, from 100%) and fast chargers are expensive.
If I’d backed off, I’d probably have reached home, by slipstreaming a coach or truck if things had become critical. Or I could have carried on driving at the speed limit and taken five minutes for a ‘splash and dash’.
That would probably have taken a few minutes longer than plodding on. The battery would have needed only a tickle to confidently get me home. I’d have been in the cold while plugging in, but I’d have had time to buy sweets and drive faster after.
A bit nervy, I caved and stopped at the pricey Shell chargers at Tot Hill services, plugged in, checked it was working, strolled into the shop, came back out and found the charge had failed. Blast. I think the cable was too taut. It was the worst of both worlds: taking the time to stop for no reward.
I was too cross to try again, so I drove off and took it easy, drafting a coach for a while and returning home with 5% remaining.
So I managed 3.2mpkWh that day, consuming 81KWh of energy and a bag of Haribo per 261 miles.
Final update
The BMW i5 Touring has returned to its maker, having spent several months on the Autocar fleet in my custody. A time that has been almost entirely pleasurable.
To recap, the i5 is an electric version of BMW’s 5 Series Touring, once (perhaps still) the archetypal big executive wagon. Bigger than ever, in fact, at more than 5.0 metres long and 1.9m wide, and with a lot of architecture that’s common between 5 and 7 Series BMWs.
In making the car electric, BMW has fitted it with 81.2kWh of (usable) battery, and because this is the M version, it has 592bhp deployed through all four wheels. That’s enough to give it a 0-62mph time of 3.9sec and a top speed, although I didn’t get near trying it, of 143mph.
As a result of the hardware, it’s heavy, at 2425kg – but that is still lighter than the latest M5 Touring. But while it says M in the name, has nearly 600bhp and acceleration figures that would have stolen many a Top Trumps hand only a few years ago, this car is very much 5 Series first and an M car only in passing.
