New South Wales Police has taken delivery of a BMW 540d xDrive and is putting the diesel sedan through a three-week evaluation to decide whether it belongs in its Highway Patrol fleet. The trial is the second time a 5 Series has been considered for the role, following the previous-generation 530d that served in several Australian states after local V8 sedan production ended.
A NSW Police spokesperson said that if the evaluation is successful, 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 clear that the plan is to swap cars out, not to grow the Highway Patrol fleet. NSW has not 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 will not be paying that sticker price 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.
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-litre 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, while the 540d manages about 923 km. 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.
The shift to BMW diesels followed the end of Australian large sedan production. 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.