I noticed that part the other day as well. My hypothesis is that it's an air duct. The center console is cool when I have the AC on and I didn't see any possible air duct other than this part. See the small slot on the part facing the interior.

Ya that makes sense. In case you have something running in there it can be kept cool!

the receptacle at the right is for the phone snap-in adaptor carrier. See below:

Attachment 17393
Attachment 17394

The pivoting arm has a catch on it that locks into the hole on the underside of the protrusion.

Phone snap-in adaptor carrier makes more sense ;)

However, I checked the hole and could feel the cold air blowing out of it. On the other hand, it does not look like an air duct at all. Interesting...

Thanks. My rubber mat at the bottom of the centre console doesn't have that space for a flashlight.

Do you have the 3.0i or 4.8i? I read in another thread here that only the V8s came with the flashlight. However, it's an old post so I don't know whether it's still true.

I have a '07' 3.0 and it came with a flashlight

Probably the post I read applied to older models of X5s then. Thanks.

Anyway, I purchased a Fenix L1D-CE flashlight. The missing BMW flashlight cost me $41 :)

Probably true and that's why they come up for sale on ebay every so often for a quarter of their retail price.