What 37 owners told NHTSA about the 2019 BMW 5 Series Hybrid Sedan Phev

Start blowing black smoke-while idling, over heated, stalled.

NHTSA ODI 11731708

I was driving my car for about 7 min (in 0 degree weather) and it overheated and just shut off on the road. I noticed it was over heating and headed to the repair shop. It stalled again. Even after apparently it was fixed the engine continues to act like it wants to stall. It’s says malfunction, but codes do not show up in the system. They keep telling me it’s fine and they fixed it, it keeps wanting to shut off.

NHTSA ODI 11722692

On the night of 9/4/25, I parked my 2019 BMW 530i in my closed garage and believed I had turned off the vehicle. I removed the key fob. Hours later, our household carbon monoxide detector activated. The fire department responded and measured 480 ppm CO throughout the house and 1,500 ppm inside the vehicle. They stated we were seconds from death due to carbon monoxide exposure. The engine bay reached nearly 600°F, and oxygen in the garage dropped to 7%. The fire department incident report is not yet available, but I will provide it once obtained. The keyless ignition system did not shut off the engine when the fob was removed, even though the vehicle usually shuts off automatically during brief stops (via Auto Start/Stop). The engine continued running indefinitely, creating a life-threatening hazard. My family survived only because the CO detector activated in time.

NHTSA ODI 11685194

Dear NTSB Team, I am writing to formally report a serious safety incident involving my 2019 BMW 530E, which occurred last night on [XXX] in Danville, CA. My vehicle was parked in my friend’s private driveway, with the parking brake engaged and the gear selector set to Park. I was chatting with my friend who was in the passenger seat . My feet were on the floorboard, my seat belt was on and the engine was idling to provide heat as it was a cold night. Suddenly, about 10 minutes into our conversation, my car accelerated forward with speed, hit my friend’s garage door and then reversed with the same speed and stopped in the middle of the street. This happened within the span of a few seconds at most. I think that I applied the brakes while the car was reversing with speed and I remember the car not slowing down but then it coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street. There were deep skid marks on the driveway, my friend’s garage door was damaged, my friend’s Tesla X was damaged with impact to the rear bumper, this parked Tesla had moved forward and crashed in the wall of the garage and a garage cabinet door dislodged and fell on the hood of this Tesla. My friends parked Toyota Prius also had bumper damage. The garage drywall sustained cracks as well. The force from these unexpected accelerations and impact has left me and my friend with aches and pains in the back, shoulder, knees, hands, head and neck; thankfully, we did not suffer more severe injuries. I am gravely concerned about the potential for this defect to cause a catastrophic accident. Had there been pedestrians, pets or another vehicle in the path of my rapidly reversing vehicle, it could have led to serious injuries or even fatalities. I called my car insurance company, local police and I will notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and BMW of North America. I am hoping for a comprehensive investigation into what appears to be a dangerous electronic or software malfunction. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11642943

I purchased a used BMW from Apolo Auto in New Jersey around July 2021 the car was in perfect condition and it did not appear to have any mechanical or electrical defects. However, the prior owner had many aftermarket things done to the car and that was a big selling point as it was upgraded with low miles. After purchasing the vehicle some strange things started happening but I didn't pay close attention, and then my son was kidnapped from my home May 2022. It was at the beginning of June 2022 that I noticed we were being tracked, and private conversations inside the vehicle were publicly being communicated. I found evidence of infrared and bluetooth technology as well as GPS tracking technology and specific infrared technology is in the ceiling of the vehicle. The devices are close together & many. The vehicle was vandalized several times, broken into and the seatbelts in the back were pushed inwards so that I couldn't place my child into a proper seatbelt. I reported this to the insurance company and BMW in PA failed to repair the vandalism and they also failed to remove the tracking devices which I recently found. The highway violence consists of many vehicle swerving into my lane many times one after another, and I've almost crashed my car several times. Many instances have happened where motorcycles have pulled up next to the car at a stop light to rev up their engines to the point where my son beings to cry and it happens often. The consistently and level of aggressive behaviors have put my life in danger as well as my child's since he's special needs and can't be safely secured into his seatbelt due to vandalism, there are strange vehicles attempting to run us off the road on a regular basis, my vehicle has had significant mechanical vandalism which has yet to be repaired and it is known that the car is vulnerable therefore it is exploited. I fear the vandalism, tracking and consistent assaults on the road will cause our car to crash, injuring others.

NHTSA ODI 11590050

My vehicle was vandalized and the vandalism targeted the electrical, mechanical and the seat belts in the back. I reported cyber violence and stalking in 2023 to BMW, and my finance company Ally and at the beginning of 2024 my car overnight started leaving puddles oil and the entire electrical system would shut down (and it still does) as I'm driving with my seven year old child with autism. The seat belts are severely destroyed and my seven year old is not strong enough to push them down to the point where a safety belt cannot be latched. I contacted Gieco and they told me to take it to Caliber Collision on Cottman Ave as the vandalism did impact some body work but not much and the collision center took the vehicle to BMW of the Mainline in PA. First - Caliber Collision did not communicate the information I provided to them to BMW of the Mainline. Second- I contacted BMW of the mainline as I did not receive pictures and photos of the work they completed and did not complete Thirst - BMW of mainline stated that all the electrical and. mechanical issues were all attributed to wear and tear and that is blatant deception I have tried to work with Geico, Caliber and Geico to get this resolved but my car is dangerous to drive, and the people that were paid to do the work paid for by Geico failed and gave me back a vandalized car that is dangerous for me and my seven. year old to be in let alone drive on highways or anywhere we go. I reported BMW of the Mainline to BBB and I don't know what to do or where to take it because Geico closed the claim, refused to pay for additional days of rental and BMW of the Mainline refused to provide a loaner leaving me with a child and no car. There is anti-freeze that burning and another dealership said they can smell it, my son cannot be safely and securely belted in the backseat, I'm loosing a great deal of gas all the time and I have no idea how, and the car right after I got it back from BMW of Mainline began to shutter.

NHTSA ODI 11586293

The contact owns a 2019 BMW 530E. The contact stated that while her uncle was driving approximately 65 MPH, the instrument panel display became inoperable. During the failure, the speedometer was inoperable. The contact stated that the failure occurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer however, the mechanic found no failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 30,000.

NHTSA ODI 11517046

Date of accident: 8/10/2022 Location of accident: 2436 Krueger Dr, Concord, CA 94520 Accident Summary: My wife own’s the above mentioned home and was in the process of getting a new tenant. She reached the Krueger home at around 12:15 pm. She drove onto the driveway as she normally does, put the car in park and turned on the hand/parking brake. It is to be noted that driveway is on an upgrade. The prospective tenant did not show up. There was another potential tenant that was going to come around 2 pm. She decided to wait in the car and made herself comfortable by turning her body towards right, feet tucked closer to the seat, back was facing towards the driver side door, and rested her head against the back of the seat and made several phone calls. Around 12:40 pm, our daughter called my wife. She was talking to her for about 40-45 mins. While she was still on the phone talking, she heard a tripped kind of sound and the car experienced sudden acceleration and lurched forward with high speed. It felt like a bullet came out of a pistol. While she was in complete shock of what happened, she turned herself immediately in reaction to brake but before she could react to stop the car, she found her car hitting the closed garage door, and went inside and hit the front wall. All the air bags deployed and windshield was completely shattered. She felt a sharp pain on her right foot near her ankle and felt tightness due to swelling. Our daughter called 911 and she was taken to the ER. She was in a complete state of shock and tried to reason. The only possibility that comes to mind is that the car experienced a malfunction that cause sudden unintended acceleration.

NHTSA ODI 11489755

Serious crash from sudden unintended acceleration occurred yesterday where throttle seemed to be stuck in all gears and brakes didn’t work

NHTSA ODI 11430762

MY CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON FOR CHASSIS STABILIZATION AND DRIVETRAIN MALFUNCTION. I TOOK IT TO THE DEALERSHIP AND THEY TOLD ME THEY REPAIR WOULD NOT BE COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. DEALERSHIP ALLEGES A RODENT GNAWED ON A ENGINE WIRING HARNESS. FROM WHAT I GATHER FROM THE DEALERSHIP THIS OCCURS FREQUENTLY. THE MANUFACTURER IS AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM BUT HAS FAILED TO MAKE NECESSARY DESIGN CHANGES TO MAKE THESE WIRING HARNESSES INACCESSIBLE TO RODENTS. MY CASE IS NOT THE WORSE CASE SCENARIO BUT A FIRE COULD HAVE STARTED, MY VEHICLE COULD HAVE BECOME INOPERABLE AND CAUSE AN ACCIDENT WHILE OPERATING THE VEHICLE. I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST FMVSS BE UPDATED TO ADDRESS THESE PRODUCT DESIGN DEFECTS. A WIRING HARNESS THAT CAN POTENTIAL DISABLE REGULAR FUNCTIONS OF THE VEHICLE COULD RESULT IN DEATH SHOULD NOT BE EASILY DISABLED BY A RODENT. *TR

NHTSA ODI 11324466

CAR WAS PARKED/STATIONARY WITH THE EMERGENCY BRAKE ON AND ENGAGED, CAR WAS LOCKED AND NO-ONE WAS NEAR OR IN THE VEHICLE, THE CAR ROLLED INTO A CAR PARKED DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF IT. FURTHER, WHILE IN THE CAR AND AFTER ENGAGING THE CAR IN REVERSE TO PARK IN A PARKING SPOT, THEN SHIFTING INTO DRIVE (TO STRAIGHTEN OR PULL THE CAR FORWARD THE CAR CONTINUED TO AGGRESSIVELY ROLL BACKWARDS. THIS HAPPENED ON AT LEAST 3 SEPARATE OCCASIONS. FURTHER, THE CAR WAS PARKED/STATIONARY AND DOORS LOCKED WITH NO-ONE IN THE CAR AND THE WINDOWS ON THE PASSENGER SIDE BOTH FRONT AND REAR (ON 2 SEPARATE OCCASIONS) OPENED ALL THE WAY, ON THEIR OWN. FURTHER, THE BRAKES ON THE CAR SQUEAL LOUDLY UPON STEPPING ON THE BRAKES.

NHTSA ODI 11190425