BMW’s first electric wagon hits the Nurburgring

The BMW i5 Touring, a new electric wagon from the Bavarian brand, has been spied at the Nurburgring wearing minimal camouflage.

BMW has already revealed its new 5 Series sedan in both combustion-powered and electric i5 guises, but the new-generation wagon has yet to be officially unveiled.

That explains why the rear of this prototype remains camouflaged, but the front is undisguised.

It’s unclear however, whether the i5 Touring (and its combustion-powered 5 Series Touring sibling) will come to Australia as sales of the current 5 Series wagon to private buyers ended here back in 2020.

As expected, the front half of the prototype is nearly indistinguishable from the sedan.

Although the rear of the car is covered in camouflage, not much is left to the imagination after the Touring’s exterior was leaked in a patent filing in the UK.

Having a look at the rear, the beltline rises up more sharply aft of the C-pillar than in the current 5 Series Touring, for a somewhat sleeker look.

The rear of the car features a split-level tail light design similar to that of the sedan, with the lights stretching from the rear quarter panels onto the tailgate.

The wagon also sticks with the split tailgate configuration of the outgoing 5 Series Touring, allowing you to just open the upper section.

For the i5 sedan, there are two variants to choose from locally: the single-motor i5 eDrive40 and the dual-motor i5 M60 xDrive. These models are priced from $155,900 before on-roads and $215,900 before on-roads, respectively.

5 Series Touring patent images

It is unclear how much of a premium BMW will charge for the Touring.

The i5 eDrive40 features a single rear-mounted electric motor producing 250kW of power and up to 430Nm of torque with the Sport Boost or Launch Control function, while the dual-motor all-wheel drive i5 M60 xDrive sees its outputs bumped up to 442kW and up to 820Nm of torque.

Both i5 models use an 84kWh battery, a 400V electrical system, and support three-phase AC charging at up to 22kW and DC fast charging at up to 205kW. WLTP range is 582km with the eDrive40 and 516km in the M60 xDrive.

i5 M60 xDrive sedan

As with other recent BMW vehicles, the next 5 Series has a dashboard that’s dominated by a curved display area housing a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, and a 14.9-inch touchscreen running BMW Operating System 8.5.

The i5 Touring will have little in the way of direct competition.

Mercedes-Benz won’t build a wagon version of its new EQE, though Audi has previewed a concept version of its A6 Avant e-tron.

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