Electric 5-Series wagon’s new design language works well with matte graphite paint and M60’s bumpers
by Chris Chilton
October 12, 2023 at 18:35
By all means tell us we’re wrong, but we think BMW did a great job with the design of the new 5-Series and its electric i5 brother. Sure, we’re even more excited about how the 2026 Neue Klasse sedan previewed by the recent Vision Neue Klasse concept will truly transform our understanding of what constitutes a BMW, but the 2024 5-Series puts just the right amount of modern into the mix to make it feel fresh, without alienating conservative buyers.
Color is key, though, when it comes to car design. Choose the wrong tone and you could undo much of the design team’s hard work; pick the right one and you’ll supercharge their efforts, accentuating every bulge, crease and curve. And from all the 5-Series and i5 cars we’ve seen in both spy shots and official press photos, the matte gray paint on this still-secret Touring wagon has to be one of our faves.
It looks like BMW Individual Frozen Pure Grey, a pricey $3,600 option on the i5 sedan, according to the BMW USA website, and yeah, we know that gray isn’t always the most exciting or imaginative color, but here, it just works. The vibrant Fire Red seen in some of BMW’s press shots will certainly turn heads, but it won’t make the i5 look like something you might drive to work if work involves engineering the next Stealth Bomber. Frozen Pure Grey does.
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Related: 2024 BMW 5-Series Touring Revealed In Patent Drawings
The light tone and matte finish really maximize the impact of the twin hood bulges that extend back from the twin kidney grilles, and contrast smartly with the grille itself, which is blanked off, this being an electric i5. Helping this particular i5’s cause is that it appears to be the sporty M60 variant riding on the optional 21-inch 954-code Individual wheels, rather than the stock 20s.
Compared with a basic eDrive M40 with the M Sport package, the full-blown M60 gets the all-black grille with no vertical strakes, M mirrors, and a healthy horsepower injection. Instead of a single motor sending 335 hp (340 PS) to the rear wheels, the bi-motor M60 splits 593 hp (601 PS) between both axles. BMW quotes zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 3.8 seconds for the sedan, and the slightly heavier wagon is unlikely to be more than a tenth slower, though it probably won’t be able to equal the notchback’s 315-mile (507 km) electric range.
We’re still waiting for BMW to officially unveil the Touring versions of the 5-Series and i5, but we can expect that to happen before the end of 2023, with deliveries starting in early 2024. There’s an M5 Touring coming too, the first in over a decade, but while BMW has been happy to confirm the car’s existence, and even tease us with a photo of a disguised car, the M5 wagon won’t make its public debut until next year.
