The 5 series is arguably the most popular exec car of all time, so BMW will handle changes to it with great care. That's why we were a little confused when the first official photo of the up-coming i5 arrived in the WhichEV inbox, but the vehicle itself was covered head-to-toe in a black sheet. OK, you might think, they are worried about industrial espionage and don't want any details leaking early. Which is fair. But, upon closer inspection, there are a couple of very strange things happening around the bonnet. The official photo released by BMW, does not match anything that has been ‘seen in the wild' so far – including spy shots from BMW's own winter testing on the i5 Touring. Strange.
The previous generation of BMWs was mocked mercilessly about the huge beaver-teeth front grille. While everyone has a sense of humour, car designers would rather be lauded for clever/smooth/attractive design, than laughed at because they have made a mistake and gone too far with a key identifier. A ‘Marmite reaction' requires that at least as many people love something as hate it. It's not clear that BMW ever achieved that with it's beaver-teeth design.
BMW has told us that, “The flexible powertrain architecture means the new BMW 5 Series Sedan can be offered in all-electric and plug-in hybrid variants as well as powered by highly efficient petrol and diesel engines with 48V mild hybrid technology.” This would normally mean that the outer shell and interiors would be largely similar across all versions – and that production lines would switch smoothly between powertrains in real time – maximising production flexibility in the same way as Stellantis and some Volkswagen Group plants.
But that does not match up with the visuals provided. In this image, we can see part of a ‘spy shot' from BMW's winter testing on the i5 Touring (available across the web) vs the image of the new i5 that BMW sent us. There are a few things that caught our attention, but the significant ones centre on the fact that the ‘front drop to the kidney grille' and the headlights do not match at all. We have highlighted these in red.
At BMW's recent Annual Conference, Chairman Oliver Zipse presented information about the new BMW 5 Series model range, indicating that the 5 Series Sedan would also be made available as an all-electric BMW M Performance model. Clever move, given how impressive the all-electric BMW i4 M50 was (WhichEV Saloon of the Year, 2023). Creating an all-electric version of the i5 from BMW M GmbH would certainly be a draw for BMW fans.
This kind of presentation to the world includes shareholders – so the information presented would need to be accurate – including the image of the i5 shown above.
It will also be interesting to see how much powertrain technology is shared between the new i5 and products like the Rolls Royce. At the high-end, the Spectre and BMW i7 have batteries around the 100kWh mark. The i7 weighs a little more, given that it has 4 passenger doors, but both vehicles will hit 60 in around 4.5 seconds as they accelerate onto a top speed of around 150 mph.
The i5 would need to be more affordable, so may have smaller battery options – probably starting around the 70kWh mark. Performance is also likely to be ‘capped', in order to preserve the exclusivity higher marques. Maybe a 0 to 62 in a little over 6 seconds with a top speed of 125mph for entry level models. However, as we move up the range, probably with the ‘M' version, the performance is likely to become a little more predictable.
The last thing that BMW's i5 product management team will want is an endless stream of comparisons with the Tesla Model 3, where the i5 ‘doesn't quite match the Tesla's performance figures'.
For an i5 M, that means it will need to offer a top speed of 165mph and achieve a 0 to 60 of 3 seconds with a WLTP range of more than 320 miles. BMW is unlikely to match Tesla's pricing though, because a top-end i5 will have a much higher trim level. We'd expect a new BMW's on the road price to be around £15,000 more than the equivalent Tesla.
It would be nice if BMW could also address one of the weak points with both the Spectre and the i7: Slower than necessary DC charging. With Ionity and Gridserve both offering 350kW chargers, it seems strange that EVs costing between £110,000 and £350,000 would only be able to charge at 200kW. Perhaps the i5 will have a next-gen charger mechanism that will help fix the problem.
Right now, the interior design is a complete mystery, but BMW did make some interior concepts available at the start of the year so – who knows – maybe we can expect an exec car with dolphin trim.
