BMW releases all-electric 5-series | Hacker News Reader

BMW releases all-electric 5-series

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31 pointsgautamcgoel19 comments

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Still no feature preventing BMW drivers from tailing behind other cars 2-3m at high speeds.

No automatic blinkers either.

That’s a subscription!

Indicators in all electric vehicles consume unnecessary energy. No indicators = extended range.

Drafting increases the i5's range.

They're secretly climate advocates.

Get out of the fast lane then ;) Nobody buys a bmw to go the speed limit and think about church.

I mean tailing a car driving at maximum allowed speed, while the car in front is overtaking a truck. The BMW could e.g. discharge the battery to electrocute the driver while situation like this is detected.

Direct link to BMW press release[1].

Meh, not a fan.

The LCI G30[2] is, in my opinion, amongst the best-looking 5-series ever released. This, the G60, is a significant downgrade, both in terms of exterior looks, and interior ergonomics. The new 5- (and 7-series, for that matter) have bonnets that remind me of American trucks and SUVs, which I detest; there's no curve, no elegance at all. Compare the side profiles of the LCI G30, and the G60[3,4].

Obviously the electrification is good, and as for iDrive 8.5, I am ambivalent, leaning on slightly negative—its implementation looks rubbish, essentially just a giant ultra-ultra-wide display bolted onto a dashboard[5] with no real thought of driver-facing ergonomics, but the software itself is not too bad, considering the competition.

More importantly, BMW is using the same platform for its ICE and fully-electric products, unlike Mercedes, Audi, or Volvo. This leads to some weird compromises, like transmission tunnels in a fully-electric car, and pretty bad floor clearance. I test-drove (and test-rear-passengered?) an i4 M50, and the leg clearance is... bad. I'm not even tall (~1.7 m), and the distance between the floor and the seat was so short, my legs stuck out a solid 20-30 cm above the seat.

I am again, so glad we own a BMW with iDrive 7 instead.

[1]: https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T041626...

[2]: https://cdn.bmwblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2021-bmw-...

[3]: https://images.wapcar.my/file1/4697fb7c5a524192bbf9350a84ebf...

[4]: https://mediapool.bmwgroup.com/cache/P9/202305/P90505080/P90...

[5]: https://mediapool.bmwgroup.com/cache/P9/202305/P90505743/P90...

Anecdotally, I have one of each, and the software in iDrive 8 is _much_ better.

I do not understand the serious regression in both with respect to screen placement vs my 2009 model though, where there is a sun shield and no touch screen.

I'm glad it's looking somewhat normal(I'd risk saying it looks good, at least from the front), the recent 4-series with the molerat front, the XM and the iX have been among the worst looking vehicles I have ever seen(on the outside at least, the insides are decent).

They really missed an opportunity to make the model naming make sense. The “i” in 530i means internal combustion. Why not call it the BMW 530e?

The 530e is a plug-in hybrid.

530ev

That would work. They've been using the i prefix for a while though. I still have fond memories of the first time I saw an i8 in person. It really looked like something from the future.

The i stands for injection, I believe to signify direct injection.

It could be repurposed for electric current.

https://archive.is/bxAUt

No touring models. I wonder how long until they release a touring EV.

It's on the way. Should be announced before the end of the year. Rumor is they're going to do an M version of the touring to compete with the RS6.

I've got an F11 535i touring. Absolutely love it, and would love to go electric. Tesla stopped selling the right hand drive version of the S, which is opening a door for other brands in the higher-end.

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