[Flaneur]

I might be asking the question in the wrong way here, but on a long road trip using the 50e in hybrid mode, how many miles can be covered before the battery is dead weight. I know there are a lot of factors in terms of road conditions, speed, regen etc. But if you set your battery to stop being used at whatever a reasonable minimum limit is, e.g. 20%, how many miles in hybrid mode before you get there.

[Flaneur]

Originally Posted by cellarrat

When I am on the road, I mostly treat the 45e as an ICE. I'll use battery control to make sure I can precondition, but otherwise just drive it like a gas vehicle. But the vast majority of my miles are around town, when I am almost always in electric.

Do you set your battery at a high threshold so the battery doesn't run down at all on a long road trip?

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by Flaneur

I might be asking the question in the wrong way here, but on a long road trip using the 50e in hybrid mode, how many miles can be covered before the battery is dead weight. I know there are a lot of factors in terms of road conditions, speed, regen etc. But if you set your battery to stop being used at whatever a reasonable minimum limit is, e.g. 20%, how many miles in hybrid mode before you get there.

even when the usable capacity is depleted, the HV battery won’t ever become “dead weight” as the 50e will then recharge it to a minimum level (varies depending on drive mode) so the electric motor will always be online and available to assist the ICE when needed

how fast it depletes is highly variable when factoring ambient temps, HVAC use, terrain, driving style, etc

as mentioned, if you anticipate the need to precondition, activate Battery Hold early

[eelnoraa]

Originally Posted by Flaneur

I might be asking the question in the wrong way here, but on a long road trip using the 50e in hybrid mode, how many miles can be covered before the battery is dead weight. I know there are a lot of factors in terms of road conditions, speed, regen etc. But if you set your battery to stop being used at whatever a reasonable minimum limit is, e.g. 20%, how many miles in hybrid mode before you get there.

As you said, it really depend on the drive. If you are cruising at speed allowed by Edrive, then it is like you are in electric mode, you get 40-45 miles. If you are cruising above the Edrive speed limit in hybrid mode, then you are using ICE. You can go for a long time before HVB is depleted. I would say easily 2-3 tank worth of gas. I have done 2, HVB level is still above 50%. Under this situation, HVB is just powering AC, keeping 12V operations. Not much.

[jad03060]

The 50e incorporated the ADAPTIVE drive mode available on the earlier iteration with the hybrid mode. But, in the description on prior models, ADAPTIVE mode, when you have a destination set in the NAV system would try to reserve some battery capacity for lower speed roads and especially for urban locations. The computer manages when to use the battery, and when to use the ICE for best economy and function. IOW, don't really worry about it. If you desire to maintain some additional battery capacity, on the 50e, you would have to turn on battery hold once that level was reached. On the 45e, you could set a percentage you wanted, and it would hold or regain enough to stay there.

[KMath]

I’ve had my 50e since May (amongst the 1st in UK) a full charge in summer delivered c62 miles which more than covers my daily driving on long journeys there is little benefit if any
My reasons for choosing a 50e were (1) spectacular performance for such a big lump of metal. (2) if more cities ban fossil fuel vehicles I’m covered. (3) excellent driving experience on electric.
Just to say - You don’t really buy an X5 if money or saving money is a concern.

[dcorn]

Buy a 40i if you are always going on long drives. I just did a 2800 mile road trip over the course of 2 weeks in a rental 2024 X5, averaged 29 mpg. When I filled up, the range estimate was just over 700 miles. The mild hybrid was phenomenal to drive.

[jad03060]

The PHEV's gas tank is smaller, which affects its maximum trip range per tank, but I've gotten over 500 without refilling on my 45e...that's generally more than I want to go without stopping, so tank size isn't a big deal most of the time...you want to stop way before you run out of gas and choosing to refill while stopped is the norm. The 50e should do better.

[aaaaaaaaaz]

50e:
Assuming you start your road trip with a full tank of gas and full battery, and you use hybrid mode to exhaust the battery, expect some 500+ miles before you need to refuel.

Assume you then only refuel but not plug in to charge the battery on your trip, expect 450+ miles every time you need get gas again.

[cobramite]

Originally Posted by dcorn

Buy a 40i if you are always going on long drives. I just did a 2800 mile road trip over the course of 2 weeks in a rental 2024 X5, averaged 29 mpg. When I filled up, the range estimate was just over 700 miles. The mild hybrid was phenomenal to drive.

29 MPG for a 5,000 lb vehicle is phenomenal.

[cellarrat]

Originally Posted by jad03060

The PHEV's gas tank is smaller, which affects its maximum trip range per tank, but I've gotten over 500 without refilling on my 45e...that's generally more than I want to go without stopping, so tank size isn't a big deal most of the time...you want to stop way before you run out of gas and choosing to refill while stopped is the norm. The 50e should do better.

I routinely approach 1k miles on a tank in my 45e if no road trips have intervened. I am currently about 600 miles in on my current tank, which includes about 250 on battery control highway miles. I use the vehicle in all-electric mode primarily when driving around town.

[jad03060]

At one point, I went 6-months before I had to refill my tank...it all depends on how you use it.

On an actual, long road-trip, about 500-miles is close to your limit before refueling, though, and that's if you keep it under 80mph on the 45e. The 50e should get a little bit more on a trip.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by cellarrat

I routinely approach 1k miles on a tank in my 45e if no road trips have intervened. I am currently about 600 miles in on my current tank, which includes about 250 on battery control highway miles. I use the vehicle in all-electric mode primarily when driving around town.

your use case of driving mainly electric will stretch out that one tank of fuel. that’s not surprising. I’m the same. in my first year of ownership, I went 7 months on one tank of fuel and traveled over 4200 miles. That’s all fine and dandy but that just tells us how little we use the ICE on a daily basis.

FWIW, on a single road trip, I’ve traveled 563 miles on one tank PLUS a full charge using Hybrid Eco Pro mode

[jad03060]

No, we were discussing road trips, so the point between 40i and 45e or 50e, some of the maximum range would be determined by the size of the tank, even if they were the same efficiency with the ICE...but, understand about local use and time between filling the tank.

[eluded]

My 50e seems to do ~23MPG on highway all ICE

[WagonFan]

Originally Posted by eluded

My 50e seems to do ~23MPG on highway all ICE

It seems that you are using “The Ultimate Driving Machine” for “sheer driving pleasure” 😉

[eelnoraa]

Originally Posted by eluded

My 50e seems to do ~23MPG on highway all ICE

maybe doing 100MPH on highway?

[Lionel Hutz]

Originally Posted by eluded

My 50e seems to do ~23MPG on highway all ICE

I get better than 23mpg on the highway with a 29er mountain bike and a massive cargo container hanging off the bank of my 50e. Easily into the 30s without the accessories.

[velopod]

Originally Posted by eluded

My 50e seems to do ~23MPG on highway all ICE

Yeah, seems a little low. Just did 300 mile trip (all ICE, saving battery for arrival). Traveling at 84 mph (speed limit for hands free driving) on 21 inch winter tires in the cold at ~37 degrees F (so poor case scenario).

Stats were: 293 miles, 76.8 mph avg, 24.7 mpg per app.

25 mpg at that speed for an SUV is pretty crazy. Moderate temps and 70-75 mph should see 28 mpg by my estimation. My wife's Lexus RX is about 23 mpg for the same trip (we do this one frequently). Then at the destination, 25 miles or so of pure EV. Nice.

[SwissBeemer]

Worst case in winter in the snow/rain on winter tires so far was around 25mpg doing 80mph on the highway here in Switzerland. Slower speeds make it comparatively better due to regen and going electric around the city. Best case so far in summer was around 33mpg on summer tires when doing b-roads, so slower speeds with less drag. I usually reset the individual counter as soon as the battery is empty, so all numbers at 0% battery.

So that would mean a range of roughly 450mi on the low end to close to 600mi under ideal conditions, plus whatever you have in the battery.

[jad03060]

Drag goes up exponentially, so a small increase in speed relates to a much larger increase in drag. This is true for any vehicle, not just a PHEV or EV or ICE. Once you're at speed, weight isn't a huge factor until you need to speed up again.

[SwissBeemer]

Sorry I was trying to say that the PHEV really shines compared to a pure ICE at slower speeds due to regen and being able to go electric in areas where the ICE has the worst fuel economy. (City, stop&go, etc)

At higher speeds it won't be a lot more efficient than a pure ICE car, depending on traffic and driving style. (The more you need to brake the better the PHEV will become.) On a highway with little traffic it really is mostly about drag coefficient and speed. A few years ago I was doing 30,000mi per year in Germany on the same route and could really see what huge difference just doing 75mph instead of 90mph would make in terms of consumption. At night doing 80mph instead of >120mph when there was no speed limit (which was about 40% of the route) would save me maybe 20 minutes on my 350mi trip due to having to stop for gas 3x instead of once so going fast really hardly made any sense, especially in my 135i with a tiny gas tank. But from time to time it's fun.