BMW has announced the X5 eDrive concept will reach production phase in the years to come. The news comes from the company’s chief of production line for large models, Peter Wolf, who gave an interview to Motoring.com.au in which he said BMW has green-lighted this model but added the car won’t enter production in 2014, letting us believe it will reach dealerships in 2015 or 2016. The main reason why we won’t see it sooner has to do with the battery packaging, not only for this model but for other cars wearing the BMW badge.
To refresh your memory, the concept came with a TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder engine working together with an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery. The setup enables the plug-in hybrid SUV to run the 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) sprint in less than seven seconds and have a fuel consumption of just 3.8 liters / 100 km (61.8 mpg US or 74.3 mpg UK). BMW mentions the car has an electric range of 19 miles (30 km) and during this time it can hit a maximum speed of 75 mph (120 km/h).
