ESTATES are back. We hope. Volvo has done a U-turn and will reintroduce the V60 and V90 shortly.
Now the first serious electric estate has hit the market courtesy of BMW.
I say serious as MG already has the budget MG5, but that’s chalk and cheese compared to this premium German effort.
Capable of over 300 miles on a single charge, carrying 570 litres of luggage with the rear seats up (1,700 with them down), and doing so with remarkable comfort and pace, this does exactly what you want from an estate just without the emissions.
Costing a £2,250 premium over its less practical sister, the BMW i5 saloon, it retains the devilishly good chiselled looks plus some added beef round the back which makes it, to me at least, more handsome still.
It’s available from launch in two states of tune.
Entry-level eDrive40 is rear-wheel drive, delivers 340hp, 0-62mph in 6.1 seconds and has a range of up to 333 miles with an 84kWh battery.
While the bells and whistles M60 xDrive is four-wheel drive, delivers 601hp, 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and has a range of up to 310 miles with an 84kWh battery.
Glorious statistics across the board then, until you look at the price.
It starts at £69,945 and rises to, er, £111,795. That’s too much.
Unsurprisingly, at this price point, the i5 Touring is a tour de force in the tech department including hands-free motorway lane changing (in countries where it’s legal) overtaking by just looking at the wing-mirrors, and smartphone-controlled remote summoning to extricate your 5m long, 2.2m wide wagon from a tight parking spot while you watch.
Your smartphone also replaces the car keys for up to five users.
The cabin is a complicated affair, however.
A far cry from Tesla’s extreme one-screen-to-rule-them-all minimalism there is a lot going on to get your head around in this overly illuminated and bejeweled cocoon.
On the road, you’ll be pleased to learn things are refreshingly less fussy.
The i5 Touring, even in its “entry-level” form, handles beautifully as you hunker down and string a series of bends together in the 2.4 tonne executive non-SUV.
And in the case of the M60 xDrive, incredibly so.
If you’ve never driven an electric car before, because there wasn’t an estate, you simply must try the i5 Touring because, once you do, you won’t be looking back to fossil-fueling again.
That said, if you’re a seasoned BMW wagoneer, you’ll mourn the fact the rear window no longer opens independently from the rest of the tailgate.
A loss put down to “efficiency gains”.
So will this impressive modern take on traditional motoring mark the end of the ubiquitous electric SUV?
Obviously not. That tide is unturnable. But it’s a start – a genuine alternative.
And a bloody good one at that.
