Driving the 2016 BMW X5 eDrive, the plugged-in SUV

Automakers worldwide have gradually (some would say grudgingly) attempted to make their high-profit and highly popular SUVs as efficient and clean-running as their lower weight passenger cars — namely through the grafting of a plug-in hybrid system.

For the past few years, BMW has been offering a mildly ambitious system called ActiveHybrid on several models in its car and truck range. Frankly, none of these heavy ActiveHybrid models have convinced a lot of people to plunk down the premium price tag because all felt precisely like placeholder models. And with BMW launching the electric-driven “I” range, the ActiveHybrid setup was never meant to be the basket holding all the green eggs in Munich.

And on paper, the 2016 BMW X5 eDrive plug-in hybrid takes a much bigger step. To help contain the weight, the gas-powered engine is the tried and true turbocharged and direct-injected 2.0-liter four-cylinder, tuned to 241 hp and 258 lb.-ft. of torque. The electric motor mounted between that engine and the transmission provides 94 more horses and 184 lb-ft of rotational force.

The e-motor is fed by a 300+-pound lithium ion battery pack, storing a total of 9 kWh of energy tucked beneath the cargo floor. This is the same 96-cell pack used in the upcoming i8, only here in a different configuration for packaging reasons. The outlet for the plug-in cable for kWh “fill-ups” is up high on the left front quarter panel. Full of fuel and electrons, the X5 has a range of 1,390 miles, thus more or less 62 miles per gallon. These results depend on myriad user habits, sure, but pas mal for a 2.5-ton SUV, eh?

On a whole series of laps snaking through BMW’s French proving grounds, was made to try out all driving modes of the eDrive system. How you choose your eDrive mode is via the rheostat menu-search knob for the iDrive on-board interface, between Max eDrive, Auto eDrive and Save Battery.