2025 BMW 550e PHEV Review: The Baby M5 Nobody Noticed

There are patterns at BMW that have been there for decades. For instance, although we may not always agree with the way a new BMW M3 looks, we all know it’s going to be a fantastic performance sedan. And while we all collectively scratched our heads at the sight of a G90 BMW M5 that weighs more than a Ford F-150, we were all pretty confident it would still deliver on performance, technology and daily driveability. And it did.

I recently drove the new M5. I’ll be back here soon with a complete review of it. But a few weeks before being handed the keys to BMW’s flagship, big-boy sedan, I had a run in this; the 2025 BMW 550e. It was pretty darn good. So good, in fact, that it reminded me of a consistent pattern that’s happening at BMW. Behind the M cars, the Bavarians have always hidden an overachieving model that too often doesn’t get the attention it deserves. And the 550e is such a car. It’s the baby M5 nobody noticed.

2025 BMW 550e First Impressions

The Very Definition Of A Stealth Missile

The current G60 BMW 5 Series doesn’t look as wild as some of BMW’s other designs. But it’s still a large pill to swallow. Yes, the car does bring with it the elegant, understated look we’ve come to appreciate from this nameplate, and the Hofmeister kink in the car’s C pillar is actually pretty cool.

Its best angles are the side profile and the rear three-quarter views, where the 5 Series looks all strong and boxy. It has strong shoulder lines and a proper stance that signals it can still brawl on a winding stretch of back road. The Carbon Black paint of my tester, which is actually very dark blue, was absolutely appropriate for what was essentially a stealth missile on wheels. Only the 21-inch wheels, courtesy of the M Sport package, along with the upgraded M Sport brakes with blue calipers, truly signal the dynamic abilities of the 550e.

But, man. That front fascia remains an atrocious thing. Most of the incoherence in that face comes from the infamous kidney grille, which, in recent years, has somehow quadrupled in size. It’s also all mostly plastic at this point, which doesn’t exactly feel expensive. There’s also no grace in this front end, no refinement.

2025 BMW 550e Exterior Dimensions

2025 BMW 550e: Differences Between The U.S. And Canadian Market

U.S. Versus Canada Lineup Breakdown And Starting MSRP (model tested in bold below)

Driving Impressions And Performance

Quietly Fast And Supremely Efficient

The general setup for the 550e is very similar to the M5’s. Yes, this is also a plug-in hybrid, but the entire electric powertrain delivers less performance, while the main internal combustion engine (ICE) is an inline six instead of a V8.

But just like the M5, there’s a duality in the 550e that has always been proper to range-topping models within the 5 Series family. I don’t know if it’s because the M5 is now large and very heavy, but when I drove it, it really felt very much like a much faster 550e, which is why I’m actually more intrigued by the latter.

There are similarities to my very own E39 540i Sport, too, in the sense that the 550e is a car that only true BMW connoisseurs will understand. Everyone else would mistake it for just another BMW 5 Series. But from behind the wheel, stomping the throttle on the 550e when that battery is fully charged will lead to an unexpected fury of forward thrust. The 550e is brutally fast off the line, but gets even faster once it starts to pick up speed. Not enough? Pull back and hold the left paddle shifter for a short boost. You’re welcome.

That’s all courtesy of BMW’s overachieving turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, also known internally at BMW as the B58. Combined with a 19.4-kWh lithium-ion battery that powers a tiny electric motor squeezed between the inline six and the ZF-sourced eight-speed transmission, the 550e pumps out a combined output of 486 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. This translates into a solid 4.1-second 0-60 MPH time, as per BMW’s claims. For those keeping track, that’s almost a full second faster than an E39 M5.

So, yes, the 550e will brawl with some of the fastest sports sedans currently on sale. But while the level of grip generated by its xDrive all-wheel-drive system on a curvy bit of tarmac is immense, this remains a hard car to understand dynamically. Like the M5, the 550e’s chassis, steering, and suspension, all adjustable through diverse drive modes, really only come alive in its most hardcore settings, and when driving the car to its limits.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. This is a formidable athlete, impressive considering its nearly 5,000-pound curb weight. But the 550e also always feels like just that: a very large, heavy sedan, which somewhat fools your sense of confidence when pushing it hard.

This leads to a car that doesn’t quite know what it’s supposed to be. There’s also always a dead-on-center feeling through the steering wheel. That wheel is also way too over-assisted. In other words, you’ll be covering ground fast in a 550e, but you might not really feel anything in the process.

2025 BMW 550e Technical Specifications

But that sense of isolation also reinforces the 5 Series’ promise of being a formidable daily usable luxury apparatus. It’s always vault-quiet, smooth, comfortable, and oh-so-refined. Tone things back to its more casual drive modes, and this is the transportation device of choice for anyone seeking calm and serenity during their daily runs, to say nothing of its all-electric mode of propulsion, which I’ll get back to in a bit. Oh, and the 550e does without the M5’s annoying “bouncy” behavior on broken roads.

2025 BMW 550e Fuel/Energy Consumption And Electric Range

When its battery is fully juiced up using a level 2 home AC charging unit, the 550e will run up to 34 miles on a full charge, according to BMW’s official data. What’s great about this system is that it automatically knows how to put the car in full electric mode once the battery is charged, so you don’t need to do anything to make it happen.

But BMW also allows you to override this through different settings and drive modes. The electric propulsion can either be used as a standalone method of moving the car around, or to assist the inline six-cylinder engine for more performance. You can also choose to utilize the battery as a hybrid system to reduce the ICE’s fuel consumption.

The EPA rates the 550e at an impressive 67 MPGe when running on both gasoline and electric propulsion, and 24 MPG when running on gas alone. During my full week with the car, not only was I able to complete the full 34 miles of electric range promised by BMW, with an additional three miles left, I also exceeded the official EPA gas ratings by a full MPG.

EPA And As-Tested Fuel/Energy Consumption And Range

Interior Design And Comfort

Expected 5 Series Comfort And Isolation, Some Questionable Quality Issues

There’s a consistent problem with luxury vehicle interiors these days, and that’s their over-reliance on screens and technology. This creates a sense of a spartan, almost naked-feeling cabin when the car’s main dashboard display is turned off. The 5 Series is no exception to this rule, taking away the model’s traditionally expected functional, straightforward, yet elegantly presented interiors.

Thankfully, once you turn everything on, the 550e doesn’t mess around in the art of creating an ambiance. Ambient lighting, which can be tailored to your favorite settings, really helps this cabin pop, especially through that elegant LED strip of what appears to be stained-glass (but actually plastic) that spans the dashboard and the door cards. Fancy-styled speaker grilles also help emphasize the lounge-like experience, and the build quality in a modern 5 Series remains what we expect from this nameplate.

But there are downfalls. For starters, I still can’t quite grasp BMW’s obsession with making its latest interiors look and feel like I’m sitting inside a mid-1970’s discotheque. The 550e’s interior also has some cheap-feeling plastic trim pieces in some of the interior’s lower sections, revealing signs of cost-cutting. Why? It’s not as though this is supposed to be a cheap car.

2025 BMW 550e Interior Dimensions

Technology And Ease Of Use

A Hot Mess Of Icons, But Generally Quick To Respond And Relatively Easy To Understand

All BMWs now come with the same kind of technology, so as I drive more of the automaker’s models, I get more familiar with its latest iDrive interface. Still operated via a rotary knob dial (for now), or through touch-operated controls, the system itself is generally quick to react. The main screen remains the same hot mess of icons as before, and the icons themselves are rather tiny. Not ideal when driving. It’s also still quite frustrating to use the climate control settings, which are inside the screen.

Accessing crucial controls, like removing adaptive cruise control or other driver assistance features, will also require you to cycle through the icons and find the right menu for them. That’s annoying, especially considering the car doesn’t remember your last settings, forcing you to repeat the process each time. Thankfully, the interface does at least remember where you went last, so the moment you open that main menu, the cursor will be right smack on the last icon you selected, which helps.

Otherwise, it’s the traditional stuff BMW sells these days, with drive modes grouped up under themes, a neat car status screen that gives you a bunch of useful telemetry about the car, such as its energy and fuel consumption. There’s also a rather cute animation of a tiny 550e in there, painted the same color as your car. You can pinch it, spin it, turn on its headlights, and even turn the front wheels using the car’s steering wheel. My son really gets a kick out of that gimmick. The digital instrumentation can also be tailored to your liking through different displays, as well as the contents of the heads-up display. And it’s all presented through nice graphics.

Cargo And Storage Space

A Practical Midsize Sedan

The 5 Series’ large size allows it to get a decent sized trunk, allowing this sedan to remain a solid daily drivable machine. To put things into context, you’ll actually get more total trunk space from a BMW 5 Series than a Toyota Camry (15.1 cu-ft) or a Honda Accord (16.7 cu-ft).

2025 BMW 550e Cargo Space

The Proper Sleeper Within BMW’s Lineup

BMW is no stranger to sleepers. But the 550e may be its best one yet. It looks absolutely understated, but retains the classic, elegant vibes of past 5 Series models. It looks athletic while remaining stealthy. It outperforms some seriously fast sports cars, and it can quietly hide in traffic during rush hour, gushing cool air-conditioned air on its passengers while blasting their ears with a bitchin’ audio system. The 550e also happens to be a pretty darn good hybrid, and a pretty useful electric vehicle (EV).

Indeed, BMW may have given birth to the perfect car with this one, a sedan that can become all cars in one. The 550e sure isn’t perfect, and at times a bit rough around the edges. But as far as being BMW’s iconic “almost an M5” model, I’d say this is mission accomplished.