2024 BMW 550e xDrive M Sport Pro | PH Review
Where once there was a V8, there is now a 489hp hybrid. We try not to look back in anger...
We rather liked the old BMW 550i. It was hard not to. Here was a car that featured the same 4.4-litre V8 as the M5 - albeit outputting a detuned 530hp - but cost less, tried less hard dynamically and blended into its surroundings like cream into hot coffee. It was the last in a long line of big capacity, petrol-quaffing 5 Series, all of them built to imperiously occupy the outside lane of an autobahn with their indicators on. It may not have been quite as good as the Alpina B5, which succeeded in being quieter and more comfortable. But the G30 was good nonetheless. Imagine a good concierge built like a linebacker and with a nice line in conspiratorial winks. That was the 550i.
The new one wants to be exactly the same, but obviously isn’t. The V8 casts too long a shadow, both conceptually and sonically, for any combination of straight-six and electric motor to replicate its husky presence. Consequently, the new 550e (which most closely resembles the old 545e) does the whole velvet glove thing very well - yet there is no iron fist underwriting the experience. It is slower to 62mph than its predecessor, less good-looking and paunchier. And there is no accompanying satisfaction from knowing that there’s party keg of expensive combustion going on in the engine bay. The 550i was quietly boastful of its M Performance status. The 550e is just quiet.
But very companionable. Probably we didn’t need another car that exemplifies just how affable a modern hybrid can be, but there’s no denying that some of what the 550e lacks in V8-based fulfilment, it makes back in usability. You can thank the 197hp electric motor embedded in the eight-speed transmission for much of that; assuming you’ve been diligent enough to keep the 19.4 kWh battery topped up (an assumption we’ll return to in a minute) the car zips along in fine style. In fact, it’ll zip all the way up to 87mph and cover as many as 56 miles without troubling its 3.0-litre bunkmate very much at all if you let it. Keep your throttle openings fairly moderate and you’ll barely notice the assistance of the straight-six - it is as subtle and as noiseless as an Atlantic tailwind.
That the 550e makes for an excellent gateway drug to the various pleasures of full electrification is hardly a surprise; that there is also a moreish quality to the performance more generally is less expected. Not even the V8, with 553lb ft of torque to call upon from 1,800rpm, was quite so effortless from a standing start and when it does pass the baton to the engine, there hardly seems any let up in the 550e’s relish for getting you up the road. And while you’re not as emotionally invested in the rise and fall of its distant revs, BMW’s straight six has no issue summoning them. The result is a car that rarely leaves you in any doubt about its straight-line performance credentials or its overall capacity for shrinking journey times.
It helps, of course, that BMW has opted for chassis settings that befit such a serene powertrain. The 550e comes as standard with lowered suspension and something called Adaptive Chassis Professional (meaning cleverer electronically-controlled dampers) and while its maker has felt the need to give the drive modes stupid names, the most balanced of these treads the line between soft-riding comfort and BMW-style dynamism very nicely. The 550e seems glossy and remarkably light-footed around town, and it manages irregular and sudden gradient changes - i.e. the sort you seem to encounter on B roads every 30 feet - with a progressiveness that anyone this side of Bentley Bentayga owner would think is plush. It is exactly the sort of thoughtful, well-reasoned response that helps make the near silence of its other moving parts seem like a virtue.
It also doubles down on the model’s capacity for conveying effortlessness. If your idea of an executive-level hybrid encompasses soothing and supremely rapid progress (and why wouldn’t it?) the 550e makes all kinds of sense. Like all new 5 Series, the cabin suffers mildly for another round of BMW button tidying, and doesn’t totally triumph on the look and feel of the ones left behind - but the tech-heavy ambience is appropriately upmarket (helped in this case by a £5k Comfort Plus Pack) and the driving position, augmented by very good front seats, is bang on. Factor in a 520-litre boot that sacrifices none of its volume to the battery and there is no question that when it comes to the job of wafting four adults to a faraway meeting, the 550e is a convincing rival for any four-door hybrid you’d care to suggest.
But its talent still seems narrower than the previous badge incumbent. Not just for the absence of its additional cylinders or even the deficit in top-tier performance should you let the battery charge fall to zero, but also because the 550e’s otherwise impressive sense of cohesiveness does start to taper if you really chase after it. Admittedly it needs a highly cavalier attitude toward the national speed limit to get to that stage, but there is occasionally the sense that the car’s rear-wheel-steered keenness for turning in is slightly at odds with the permissive chassis settings and the reality of its 2,230kg kerbweight. Eventually, both come home to roost, unaided by slightly over-assisted steering that feels insufficiently dialled in for complete driver confidence.
This eventual fraying of dynamic finesse is unlikely to dissuade many buyers, and it speaks to the quality of what precedes it in the car’s handling repertoire that it didn’t dissuade us either. Granted, the 550e comes with the usual hybrid provisos (its efficiency gains are very much tied to your preparedness for plugging it in regularly) and it does seem astonishingly expensive when it starts at £76,605 - especially given the M550i we drove back in 2020 started at £67,595 - but these are familiar shortcomings for petrol-electric users, and should be set against the fact that the new model is fundamentally good to drive and very pleasant to be in. Assuming practicality is among your buying criteria, the 550e probably ranks highly among the best hybrids available for any price. It just isn’t as good to drive or as desirable as the V8-powered 5 Series that came before. But we knew that coming in.
SPECIFICATION | 2024 BMW 550e xDrive M Sport Pro
Engine: 6cyl in-line, 2,998cc, turbocharged petrol, electric motor
Transmission: eight-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Power: 489hp (total system output)
Torque: 516lb ft (total system output)
0-62mph: 4.3sec
Top speed: 155mph (limited)
Weight: 2230kg
Economy: 282.5mpg
CO2: 22g/km
Price: £79,605 (starting; price as tested: £99,325)
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