BMW X5

Is this PHEV really all the car youneedin your daily life? Here's our finaljudgement

- ALASTAIR CLEMENTS

WHY WE RAN IT

To find out if this plug-in hybrid luxury SUV can offer the best of both worlds

Every time I see a jumbo jet take off, I get a disconcerting sense that there is some kind of fault in the fabric of the universe. Something that big, that heavy, that lumbering on the ground should never be able to get airborne, let alone look so elegant once it gets there.

You get a similar sensation on a country lane in this X5. Laden with all its hybrid technology, the BMW weighs 5kg shy of two and a half tonnes before you've even sat in it, yet its willingness to go, stop and change direction comes as a shock every time, no matter how often you've already experienced it. With Sport mode engaged, it sits lower on its air suspension, the petrol engine is awakened to run in parallel with the electric motor, and the performance is simply outrageous as a combined 483bhp punches it from rest to 62mph in less than 5sec, accompanied by an addictive growl as you flick through the eight speeds of the auto 'box with the wheel-mounted paddles.

Yet it's in the mid range when it's really impressive, dispatching slower cars on short straights, then shedding speed with its massive brakes (uprated M Sport items with blue calipers on my car, part of the £2100 M Sport Pro Pack) and diving in to the next corner. With vast grip, there's no understeer unless you pitch it in far too quickly, the steering is beautifully weighted (if a touch low-geared), and if you get on the power early on the way out, there is even a little twitch from the back end as the 516lb ft of torque reveals its rearward bias.