Edmunds paid less than $13,000 for a Tesla Model S with 135,000 miles on it, and on the team's range test it still covered 221 miles. What has aged is easy to list from the video: a whine from the single rear motor, a driver display warped by heat, seat leather showing wear and road rash on the nose. Edmunds sets the range against the best of just over 230 miles from the Performance car it ran from 2013, which is a different version, so this is not a clean degradation figure. It is still the most useful number in today's edition, because the battery is not where the complaints are.
The same holds for BMW's newest pack, which BMW describes, according to BMWBlog, as its largest in a production model. Three channels drove the iX5 this week, quoting 141 kWh, or 144 kWh usable in the US figure Out of Spec Reviews uses, and none of them found fault with it. Autogefühl charged a preconditioned car from 10 to 80 percent in about 20 minutes. The criticism lands on what surrounds the cells. Out of Spec's host found the screen laggy and blames the chip or the software, and felt the back seat was tighter than in the smaller iX3. Electrifying found a frunk smaller than the iX3's. Both point some of the blame at the platform. Out of Spec's host notes the iX5 sits on CLAR, an adaptation of the previous X5's underpinnings rather than BMW's dedicated Neue Klasse architecture, and Autogefühl says BMW uses the same platform for every X5 powertrain.
Put the BMW next to the Tesla and the buying question shifts. If the Model S is any guide, an iX5 bought now could still have a pack doing most of its original job a decade on, attached to a screen, a processor and a cabin that aged faster. Neither car settles it on its own: Edmunds' first Model S had its drive unit replaced three times and its battery once, all under warranty, and its new one has no warranty left.
Two Bit da Vinci makes the same argument about a house. By the host's numbers, selling midday solar in California for about 5 cents and buying evening power back at about 50 leaves panels alone a weak deal, saving his friend Carl $989 a year. Add storage and the modelled saving rises to $2,300. The panels are now the cheap part, eight of them for $1,090. The battery is the part that pays, and the part whose price the video leaves out.
What to watch: the official EPA figure for the iX5, which BMWBlog reports BMW now expects at up to 450 miles, due within weeks; whether BMW can fix the screen lag with software or whether the hardware sets the limit; and Edmunds' promised charging test on its Model S, which may show more of a 12-year-old pack's age than a range run does.
The iX5 Charged From 10 to 80 Percent in About 20 Minutes, and the Petrol X5 Still Felt Lighter
Autogefühl's Thomas drove the electric iX5 60 xDrive and the petrol xDrive40 near Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he says the X5 is built. He lists the iX5 at 141 kWh, with 22 kW AC charging as standard and a 460 kW DC peak. On a separate, preconditioned car at an IONNA station, his test peaked at about 469 kW, passed 50 percent in under 10 minutes and reached 80 percent in about 20, for about $20 by his count. His efficiency loop at 100 km/h, driven both ways in 33°C heat, came in close to 4 miles per kWh, which he projects to about 900 km, or 560 miles, at that speed. The petrol car, a 400 hp 3.0-litre six with mild hybrid assistance, returned about 7 L/100 km, or 34 mpg US, on the same kind of loop. The petrol test car, without roll stabilisation or rear-axle steering, felt more natural to him and his passenger through a fast highway curve. He prices US models from about $72,000 petrol and $80,000 electric before tax, and European ones from €95,000 and €103,000. BMWBlog reports a US start of $81,250 including destination, with cars reaching US dealers in the first quarter of next year.
Electrifying Likes the iX5, but Isn't Sure It Beats the iX3
Electrifying's Ginny Buckley reviewed the original X5 in 2000 and comes back for the electric iX5 xDrive60. Her figures: 141 kWh, 570 hp, an 800-volt system charging at up to 460 kW, and 525 miles on the WLTP cycle against the 435 miles she says BMW estimated for the US test. BMWBlog reports BMW has since raised that US estimate to 450 miles. She finds a comfortable family car where the first X5 sold itself as sporty and off-road ready. She gives the boot as about 650 litres, and about 1,850 with the seats folded, but the frunk holds 53 litres, roughly 5 litres less than the one in the smaller iX3, which she puts down to a platform built to take combustion engines too. ISOFIX points are on the two outer rear seats only, the step-in is high for small children and three larger adults across the back would struggle. Hands-off motorway driving is not yet available in the UK, she notes. Prices run from £85,375 to just over £88,000 for the M Sport Pro. She calls that good value against the electric Range Rover and Bentley's Torcal, then ends unsure she would choose it over the iX3.
Out of Spec Calls the iX5 a Bargain, Then Lists What It Would Change
In a video sponsored by IONNA and Lincoln Electric, Out of Spec Reviews' host drives the iX5 xDrive60, which he says is the only electric trim at launch, and puts its usable capacity at 144 kWh, which he believes is the US rating for the same pack others list at 141. The iX5 sits on CLAR, he explains, an adaptation of the previous X5's platform rather than Neue Klasse, though it carries the newer software and driver assistance. The rear motor is an externally excited synchronous unit whose carbon brushes, he says, will need replacing at some point, the front is an induction motor, output is just over 570 hp and weight just over 6,000 lb. His complaints: a screen he finds laggy, steering-wheel controls that are hard to reach, power doors he still finds annoying, and no way to keep the climate running for a pet beyond 30 minutes of preconditioning. The back seat felt tighter to him than the iX3's. In town, the assistance system stopped for red lights and pulled away on green. He compares it with the Rivian R1S, which he puts at 145 kWh and around $90,000 in Max Pack form, and calls the BMW the better value. BMWBlog's report also gives the pack as 144 kWh. He gives its towing limit as 6,000 lb, against more than 7,700 for the petrol car.
Two Bit da Vinci's Solar Case Rests on a Battery It Doesn't Price
Two Bit da Vinci's Ricky Tinez starts from the case against solar in 2026: the federal tax credit is gone, he says, and under California's NEM 3 rules SDG&E pays an hourly export price of around 5 cents against about 50 cents, in his example, to buy it. Aurora Solar's reading of the 2025 budget law puts the end of the 25D residential credit at December 31, 2025. The answer he builds with Carl, an electrical engineer, is a ground-mount array of eight 590-watt panels feeding an EcoFlow Titan 5000 Plus with 15 kWh of storage through EcoFlow's Smart Home Panel 10. Panels cost $1,090, racking $850, and concrete, wire and trenching about $1,000, which the host puts at roughly 65 cents a watt with their own labour over five or six days and wiring laid 35 years ago reused. The video does not give the price of the battery system. On the grid, EcoFlow aims to keep the house's draw within 300 watts; with close to 9 kW of load running, the host saw the grid supplying 600 to 700 watts. Against Carl's projected $3,166 annual bill, the host's model saves $989 with solar alone, $311 with a battery alone and $2,300 with both, for a payback of five to six years. In a separate install covered in our October 14 edition, Everyday Chris put a 15 kWh Titan Plus at about $10,000 and noted the manual rules out GFCI and arc-fault breakers.
Edmunds' $13,000 Model S Still Covers 221 Miles at 135,000
Edmunds bought a single-motor, rear-drive Tesla Model S with 135,000 miles for under $13,000 to see how a high-mileage EV holds up. A vehicle history report, the video says, shows a $69,900 sticker, a first sale in Palo Alto in January 2014 and a first owner who sold it after five and a half years and 35,000 miles for about $40,000. On worn tyres it ran 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and the quarter mile in 13.3. It covered 221 miles on Edmunds' range test; the team compares that with the best of just over 230 from the Performance car it owned from 2013, a different version, so the pack's own loss cannot be read straight from it. The wear shows elsewhere: a whine from the rear motor, a driver display warped by heat, seat leather showing its age and road rash on the nose. Tesla still updates the software, and Alistair Weaver finds the screen responsive. Mike Schmidt, who looked after Edmunds' earlier car, recalls its drive unit being replaced three times and its battery once, all under warranty; this one has none left. On its January earnings call Tesla said it would bring the Model S and X programs to an end, KTVU reported.
Bottom line: If you are shopping for an iX5, spend less time on the battery and more on what a bigger pack cannot fix: a screen one reviewer finds slow, a back seat tighter than the iX3's and a frunk the combustion platform shrank. The Model S suggests the cells may be the safest part of the deal. For most families that makes the iX3 the smarter buy, and the iX5 worth its premium only if you genuinely drive 400 miles in a day. For solar, the lesson runs the other way: price the battery first.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.