If you're looking at the E60 then I'd personally stay with the 530/535d as the 525d is sub 200bhp and, with the 6 speed box in the E60, is IMHO noticeably slower than the other 2. If you can stretch to the F10 then the 525d 3.0d (with the 8 speed auto) is more than adequate and the performance is not that different from the E60 530d.
No plug-in hybrid F10 5 Series was ever built. The diesels are much easier to understand. They ran 518d, 520d, 525d, 530d and then 535d. Most of these were four-cylinder units, the 525d originally launching with a 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine with 204hp, but later replaced (in 2012) by a 2.0-litre four with 218hp.
A number of gas and diesel inline 4 and inline 6 engines were offered, as well as a V8 for the top of the line F10 M5. Other variants offered for the F10 included the 528i, 535d, 535i, 535xi, 550i, and 550i xDrive. This generation of 5 Series also saw the introduction of a hybrid variant, the ActiveHybrid 5. BMW 5 series 2010 2.0 diesel description. Sedan BMW 525d xDrive has been produced from January, 2011 to January, 2013. It has four-cylinder diesel engine with displacement of 2.0 litres, which produces power of 218 horsepower on 4400 rpm and torque 450 Nm (Newton metres) on 1500 revolutions per minute. This 4-cylinder 16-valve engine camshaft nmAS8Go. 67 154 210 245 16 335 483 495 108