NSW Police Is Putting The New BMW 540d xDrive Through A Three-Week Trial As A Highway Patrol Car
5 Series
The G60 BMW 5 Series diesel has 299 hp and all-wheel drive, and could join the X5 as a secondary NSW Highway Patrol pick.
Article Summary
- The 540d’s 670 Nm (494 lb-ft) beats the 530d by 50 Nm, and it reaches 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, half a second quicker.
I - t’s 145 kg (320 lb) heavier and has a smaller 60-liter tank, which cuts rated range from about 1,200 km to 923 km.
- Victoria Police says it has no current plans to put the 540d into Highway Patrol service.
New South Wales Police has taken delivery of a G60 BMW 540d xDrive and is running it through a three-week evaluation to decide whether the diesel sedan belongs in its Highway Patrol fleet. A pass wouldn’t mean more police cars on the road, though. NSW Police says the 540d would slot in as a replacement option next to the BMW X5, and the fleet would stay the same size.
It’s the second time a 5 Series has auditioned for this job. The previous-generation G30 530d was one of the cars Australian police turned to when the locally built Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon went out of production, and it went on to serve in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania.
What NSW Police Said About The 540d Trial
A NSW Police spokesperson told Drive Australia that if the evaluation goes well, the 540d would be deployed as “a secondary HWP vehicle replacement option” alongside the X5s already in service. HWP is police shorthand for Highway Patrol. The force was also clear that the plan is to swap cars out, not to grow the Highway Patrol fleet. NSW hasn’t said how many 540ds it would order or when a decision is due once the three weeks are up.
Private buyers pay A$137,400 before on-road costs for a 540d xDrive in Australia. Police forces usually order a different specification with fewer luxury features, so the force won’t be paying that sticker for a patrol car. BMW also has a head start on the hardware. Both the 5 Series and the X5 already work as police cars in Europe, so BMW has upgraded electrical systems to run patrol equipment and high-performance brakes to pass the braking tests a car needs before it can enter service.
How Does The 540d Compare With The 530d It Follows?
The 540d xDrive is the only diesel in the Australian G60 5 Series lineup, and it does the job the 530d used to do with more of everything except efficiency. It still runs a 3.0-liter turbo-diesel inline-six, now with 48V mild-hybrid assistance, and it now sends power to all four wheels instead of just the rears. On the official figures alone, a full tank in the 530d is good for roughly 1,200 km (746 miles), while the 540d manages about 923 km (574 miles).
What the 540d gives back is all-wheel-drive traction and half a second to 100 km/h, which counts for something in a car that has to catch people.
Why Australian Police Switched From V8 Sedans To BMW Diesels
Ford stopped building the Falcon in Australia in 2016, and Holden ended Commodore production a year later, taking the default rear-drive V8 police sedan with them. Each state picked its own replacement. Victoria Police announced the 530d in September 2017, with up to 80 cars due by the end of 2018, and today it also runs 530d Touring wagons. NSW ran the 530d alongside the Chrysler 300 SRT V8. Both states have since added the X5, mostly in six-cylinder petrol form.
Elsewhere, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory went with the twin-turbo V6 Kia Stinger, and Western Australia also took the Skoda Superb. Kia stopped building the Stinger in 2023, which leaves those forces needing a new answer too.
For now, the 540d’s police career rests on one car and three weeks in NSW. If it passes, NSW’s next Highway Patrol 5 Series will be quicker and grippier than the last one, and it will need to stop for fuel more often.
[Source: policelegacynsw.org.au]
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