► New BMW X5 SUV revealed ► New generation exterior and interior design ► Will come with five drivetrain options, from EV to diesel to hydrogen
It’s safe to say that no matter how you like to fill up your car, BMW has you covered with the brand-new X5. There will eventually, by 2028, be a total of FIVE drivetrain options: petrol, diesel, PHEV, EV and hydrogen. Or at least there will be if you live in Europe – in the UK, we have to make do without the pure petrol.
And of all those, one number in particular stands out – the iX5 EV will get a 140kWh battery. That is enormous. Not quite on Hummer EV levels, but vastly bigger than every other car on sale in the UK.
It gives the iX5 50 eDrive a theoretical range of 497 miles, making it the longest-legged of any large SUV. Plus it gets ultra-fast charge capacity of 450kW (although this isn’t in Denza’s flash charging territory). All those batteries come at a cost, though – the EV weighs 2890kg.
So even though it can muster 570bhp and 593lb ft, the headline sprint of 4.7 seconds isn’t that fast.
The rest of the engines, then. Petrol is a 40 xDrive (straight-six mild-hybrid, 394bhp, 5.4 seconds, 30.4-32.9 mpg, not coming to the UK), diesel is 40d xDrive (another straight-six mild-hybrid, 308bhp, 6.2 seconds, 37.2-40.4mpg) and there are two PHEVs. The 50e xDrive gets 483bhp thanks to a 194bhp electric motor and has a useful 53-63 mile electric range, although this isn’t dramatically more than the current PHEV. A more powerful M60e xDrive also has a straight six but total system output climbs to 603bhp and the 0-62mph headline drops to 4.5 seconds. Electric-only range is similar to the 50e.
Technical spec on the hydrogen model will be announced later, but what we do know now is that BMW has been clever with the engineering of this version because it can run down the same factory production line as the EV, thereby giving flexibility and hopefully making this, BMW’s first series production fuel cell, a more realistic prospect. Not that you’ll be able to fill up anywhere…
Two chassis set-ups will be offered. The base runs on air suspension and offers rear-wheel steer of up to 3.2 degrees, an impressive number but not at the level of the Range Rover (it can manage 7.3 degrees). Being on air, it means the X5 can lower or raise the ride height to help the aero.
Upper trim levels will get a similar set-up but this time add roll stabilisation, details of which are a little vague at the moment. BMW calls it a new Active Roll Comfort and claims it ‘actively counteracts rolling movement on uneven roads’. It sounds like this is achieved through an enhanced electronic anti-roll bar but we don’t know any more than that at this stage. What we do know is that it’ll be standard on the M Performance models in the UK.
The X5 continues the Neue Klasse trajectory outlined by the iX3 and i3, so follows the same styling cues inside and out. I’ll let you make your minds up about how it looks (those ‘X’ daylight running lights can be turned off, if so desired), but let’s just say no-one is going to miss it when it’s parked outside your house. If nothing else, the fact it’s available with 23-inch wheels for the first time tells you a lot.
Panoramic iDrive and Panoramic Vision (the full-width display running along the base of the windscreen) both make their debuts in the X5, as does a lot of the background hardware/software that we’ve all read so much about in this new BMW era. The electric version gets the same four-brain set-up as the i3, controlling all the major functions in the car, and making the set-up much less laggy and more coordinated.
It’s not all about tech, though, as BMW has used this all-new X5 as an excuse to up the luxury feel of the materials inside. There’s more complicated stitching on the doors (aping Bentley’s best efforts) and natural materials like slate and glass to lift the ambience. Soft-close doors are now standard (or they are if you live in the EU – they’re optional here), so luxury is quite clearly the play here.
It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out. We’ve always loved the X5 because it handled well – let’s hope the luxe and tech (and weight!) don’t get in the way of that.
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