New 5 Series Touring ‘available from spring 2024’
BMW still isn't quite ready to show us the latest 5 Series wagon – but it sure is excited about it
By PH Staff / Wednesday, 18 October 2023 / Loading comments
BMW can’t seem to stop banging on about what it’s got in store on the new 5 Series Touring front. Back in June, it announced that an M5 wagon would be (at long last) returning to dealerships next year with its all-new, XM-donated powertrain; now, off the back of the European market launch of the saloon, the manufacturer has taken the opportunity to remind us that the regular 5 Series estate is inbound, too – confirming that it will be available from next spring with ‘the same range of drives’.
What it means by that of course is that you will be able to get the full engine lineup already made available in saloon format – and the significant thing there is that you’ll be able to buy an i5 Touring, BMW’s first dedicated all-electric estate car. Granted, the thought of a 550e xDrive Touring (i.e. the 489hp plug-in hybrid version furnished with a 3.0-litre straight six petrol and 50ish miles of electric range) might fit more conveniently into your life – and that’s if an entry-level 208hp 520i doesn’t – but rest assured it’ll be the exclusively battery-powered model that will steal all the limelight when the covers do finally come off.
Not just because you’ll be able to buy it in two derivatives – though you will, starting at the rear-drive eDrive40 and ending with the 601hp i5 M60 – but because everything is now primed for the Touring to go mano a mano with the incoming all-electric A6 E-tron, the car that Audi has tasked with propelling it back to the head of the stylish wagon market. Early indications are that it has launched itself at this design task with considerable gusto; based on the teaser pic (and some additional leakage elsewhere on the internet), early indications are that BMW has made the i5 Touring look like an i5, which may be a harder sell.
But there’s everything to play for as we hit the home stretch. Particularly as BMW is at pains to remind us that the new 5 Series Touring is the first ‘premium car of its kind’ to be offered with a choice of powertrains that include 48-volt assisted combustion engines, plug-in hybrids and all-electric drive. Which reflects the supreme flexibility of its Cluster Architecture (CLAR) platform if nothing else. Of course, if this all sounds like gravy with a yet-to-be-seen M5 Touring inbound, we’re with you. And with the Geneva Motor Show penciled in for the end of February, BMW apparently has every intention of making it a happy new year for fast estate fans. Which is all of us.
- BMW confirms all-new M5 Touring for 2024
- 601hp i5 M60 tops all-new BMW 5 Series range
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