- This is the third-generation G99 BMW M5 and it's the biggest and most powerful ever.
- It has almost identical performance to the G90 M5 sedan but with more trunk space and coolness.
- It's coming to the U.S. with a starting price of $122,675.
BMW has pulled the wraps off the new G99 M5 Touring, the plug-in hybrid super wagon that’s coming to the United States. It has nearly identical specs and dimensions to the M5 sedan that we’ve already seen, but its long roof design makes it a third of an inch taller than the three-box.
It looks a lot like the i5 Touring M60 that we sampled not long ago but with blistered wheel arches and four exhausts poking out from under the massive diffuser. We really liked the look of the i5 Touring, which looks better in person than it does in the photos, and this M5 Touring will look even sportier, although it probably needs a darker color to hide its true size (and extra height over the previous generation of the model).
There has been a lot of talk about how much the M5 sedan weighs, which is 5,390 pounds, but the Touring variant is even heavier at 5,530 lbs. Getting this extra mass off the line adds one-tenth of a second to the acceleration time from 0 to 60 mph, which rises to 3.5 seconds. Both body styles are limited to 155 mph at the top end, which you can increase to 190 mph by selecting the optional M Driver’s Package.
Gallery: BMW M5 Touring (2024)
The sprint time to 60 mph doesn’t tell the whole story with the M5. What’s more impressive is that it can hit 124 mph from a standstill in 11.1 seconds. Power is sent to all four wheels through a permanent xDrive system, but the car can decouple the front axle if all you want to do is turn the rear tires into smoke.
Power comes from the same twin-turbocharged V8 engine with 577 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. The eight-speed automatic gearbox incorporates a permanently excited synchronous electric motor, producing 194 hp and 207 lb-ft on its own. Total system output is a mighty 717 hp and 738 lb-ft, which should make the Touring’s extra 150 lbs disappear under hard acceleration.
The electric motor should feel even more torquey than it actually is, delivering “as much as 332 lb-ft at the transmission input for the motor with the help of a pre-gearing stage patented by BMW. This innovation enables the compact electric drive unit to generate effective propulsive power that could normally only be achieved using a far larger motor.”
Helping the car stick to the corners is an active four-wheel steering system coupled with variable-ratio steering. This system seems to rob new BMW models of some feel, but it improves the feeling of steering precision and you have to apply less lock to get the car to turn. There’s also an electronic M limited-slip differential working in the background to keep the rear of the car in check when you put the power down—it’s what also allows the car to pull massive smoky drifts.
With its 14.8 kWh battery, the M5 Touring has a maximum electric range of 25 miles and you can easily drive it at highway speeds on battery alone with its electric top speed of 87 mph. Charging the battery can only be done at up to 11 kW through the onboard AC charger; this isn’t one of those PHEVs that can DC fast-charge.
The interior layout is the same as in the sedan, with the same array of two curved screens dominating the dashboard. We’ve seen this interior in the i5 Touring, including the flat-bottom steering wheel with a red center marking, but the M5 will get more aggressive seats that are unique to the M model as well as other sporty touches to make it feel more special.
There’s also a big and very bright head-up display that projects directly onto the windscreen. What you see changes depending on the driving mode, but it can show you a full navigation map or a rev counter so that you don’t have to look down at the digital gauge cluster. The lower part of your field of view should catch the shift lights that appear at the top of the driver’s display.
The trunk grows from 16.5 cubic feet in the M5 sedan to 17.7 cu ft in the Touring. Folding the rear seat increases the available space to 57.6 cu ft. The M5 Touring comes with a pass-through so that you can carry skis inside the car without having to fold down any part of the rear seat.
When it arrives in the US, sometime after its Q4 2024 global launch, the M5 Touring will cost from $122,675 destination charge included.
