If you’re a BMW fan, it’s likely that fun and performance are your two foremost priorities when it comes to buying a car. BMW’s slogan is “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, not the ultimate luxury machine or ultimate economy machine. BMWs are for people who like to drive. So, it’s likely that if you have a BMW, you have a sporty one, like a 2 Series, 4 Series or even an M car.However, a sporty BMW isn’t always the ideal car for all situations. Running errands, picking up children or friends or even going on a long trip are all things sporty BMWs aren’t always best at. Fun, yes. Practicality, not always. So often times, BMW owners have a second car, one for fun and one for everything else.
If this is the case for you and you need a second BMW, we’d highly recommend an EV or a hybrid for a myriad of reasons. And BMW offers quite a few of those now, enough to have one for pretty much any circumstance. And of these BMW EVs or hybrids, there are some really great options.
We recently just drove the BMW X5 xDrive40e, which is the first plug-in hybrid SUV in BMW’s history. As a plug-in hybrid family vehicle, it’s superb. Is it the most economical hybrid ever or the most efficient? No, of course not, it weights almost 5,000 lbs and gets from 0-60 mph in the mid six-second range. However, it’s efficient enough as it can carry five adults and plenty of cargo in supreme comfort and luxury and can even be useful in harsh weather. So it’s pretty much a do-all vehicle that is also more efficient than almost everything else in its class. Also, if your daily commute is less than around 15 miles, you won’t have to use gasoline all week.
BMW also has the famous i3 electric hatchback. The BMW i3 has won numerous awards, broken new ground and become one of the best EVs on the market today. It’s practical, affordable and efficient while also being fun to drive and good looking. So it makes the perfect car to own as a daily, while having a sporty fun BMW on the side. Also, being a pure BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle), it uses no gasoline, saving it all for your other BMW.
Another car that’s a sort of Jack-of-all-Trades is the BMW 330e. As a 3 Series, the 330e meets all of the reasonable practicalities anyone ever want, as the 3 Series is a fantastic all-rounder. However, the 330e is a plug-in hybrid, making it incredibly efficient and economic. And because the 330e is still a 3 Series, it handles well, is fun to drive, has great performance and is essentially an executive luxury sports car, so it’s a fantastic second car to the sports car.
When someone wants to buy a BMW, they’re typically thinking about how fun it’s going to be or how luxurious. But being that sports cars aren’t always the most practical or efficient or affordable cars to drive everyday, it’s great to have a hybrid or EV on the side as well to mix things up, help become a bit more environmentally friendly and be an early adopter of an upcoming technology. Having two BMWs, one for fun and one for efficiency, allows you to have your cake and eat it, too. If I had my way, there’d be an M235i in one garage bay and an X5 xDrive40e in the other.
