Official: next-gen BMW 5 Series to include electric i5 saloon and estate

BMW has confirmed that the next generation 5 Series will include a fully-electric i5 Touring model. Happy Wednesday.

At the BMW Group’s annual conference, boss Oliver Zipse confirmed what we’ve known about estate cars for years. “The BMW 5 Series Touring is very popular,” he said. “From spring 2024 it will also come in an all-electric version, giving us a truly unique selling point in this segment.”

Unique, yes, but though electric estates remain a curiously rare breed in the current climate – in the face of the vast abundance of e-SUVs and hatches – the i5 Touring will come up against pretty stiff competition next year in the shape of Audi’s incoming electric A6 Avant e-tron.

Still, that's a discussion for 2024. We're told the i5 Touring will be offered alongside the i5 saloon, and the mild-hybrid petrol and diesel versions of the all new eighth generation BMW 5 Series, scheduled for an October 2023 launch. As ever, we’re promised ever more dynamism and comfort wrapped inside the new 5’s “signature elegantly sporting design”.

And on the topic of sporting, BMW also confirmed a fully electric M Performance version of the new BMW 5 Series saloon. Not a full-bore M5 by the sounds of it, mind. “The all-electric BMW i4 M50 shows how BMW blends dynamic performance and electric mobility to perfection,” said Zipse.

“It was the best-selling BMW M model worldwide in 2022. A fully electric Performance model from BMW M GmbH will also be included in the new BMW 5 Series Sedan line-up,” he added. Like we said, Happy Wednesday.