X5 x50e owner here — I looked at comparable Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, and Land Rovers.
In terms of balancing the newest tech, ride quality (comfort+capability), and luxury, you’ll be challenged to find a better vehicle than the x50e. If Land Rover PHEVs weren’t sold for the year with a waiting list, it’s the only vehicle (in my opinion), that rivals the X5.
In regards to Japanese vehicles… can’t help you there. Subjectively, I don’t think they’re in the same league. You either want “great” or “good enough”.
My history:
‘89 325i ‘08 335i ‘12 528i ‘15 SQ5 ‘18 S5 ‘20 SQ5 ‘22 SQ8 ‘24 X5 x50e
I love both of these brands.
My opinion:
Audis are comfortable and capable. As a daily, I would pick Audi. The suspension on the SQ8 was superb at balancing sport and luxury, with a drool inducing V8 exhaust note. BUT, the last few model year cabins, across the brand, started to feel stale and a little dated compared to a rapidly modernizing market.
BMW’s are emotional. Super responsive to throttle inputs, love being whipped around, and the cabin design on higher end models and trims are truly beautiful. Their cabins are rapidly modernizing, feeling FAR more luxurious and tech adorned than Audi (although Audi seat comfort, HUD positioning, ambient lighting, steering wheel controls, and a few other details feel more thoughtfully designed & executed)
I ultimated ended up with this impression:
Audis do almost everything well. Almost every feature is designed for ease of use. It’s a very driver-centric design approach… you can feel the engineers and designers considering YOU in their decision making. Because of that, I rarely had unreconcilable issues with Audis.
BMW has tons of features on paper, they look gorgeous, and they’re sporty — BUT, some aspects of the execution feel like they checked a box but never thoroughly user-tested it. Wheel cabin noise, lackluster “premium” sound, questionable UI decisions, loads of black plastic trim on $100k+ cars, etc…
We’re talking details here. At the end of the day, they’re both wonderful brands with some truly special vehicles in their lineups. I’m happy with my current vehicle, but may migrate back to VW Group for my next ride…