The BMW i5 Touring – the electric version of the upcoming 5 Series wagon – has been leaked completely undisguised ahead of its debut around March or April.
These photos look as though they were taken at a studio photography shoot for the new ‘G61’ wagon, and were published overnight by user Wilco Blok on their Instagram account.
The low resolution images seemingly confirm the patent images which surfaced online in October 2023.
It’s unclear if the new 5 Series/i5 wagon will be offered in Australia. The current ‘G31’ wagon was sold in Australia until 2020, after which it was only available to police forces.
Given BMW doesn’t offer any wagon variants in China or the US, it’s possible the new 5 Series wagon will be sold only in Europe and Japan.
Like the sedan, the 5 Series wagon has a window line that sweeps upward near the trailing edge of the rear door. Combined with the more subtle shoulder line of the latest generation, it lends the rear a chunkier feel than the outgoing model.
Compared to earlier 5 Series wagons, which had rectangular rear windscreens, the new version has a piece of glass that’s slightly trapezoidal.
The new 5 Series and i5 wagon range should be offered with a subset of the sedan’s drivetrains, which include mild-hybrid turbocharged four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, plug-in hybrids, and single and dual motor electric offerings.
As with the 5 Series sedan, the exterior differences between the petrol- and diesel-powered 5 Series wagon and their all-electric i5 counterparts will be limited to items such as lower body trim, grille inserts, badging, and wheel designs.
At present the internal combustion range tops out with the 550e xDrive, which has a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight six at the heart of a plug-in hybrid drivetrain making a total of 365kW and 700Nm.
This will soon be topped by a M560e xDrive variant, and later a new M5. The drivetrain for the M5 sedan and M5 Touring has yet to be confirmed, but it could feature the V8 plug-in hybrid setup from the XM Red Line, which develops a total of 550kW and 1000Nm.
On the other side of the electric fence is the i5 M60 xDrive, which has a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup making 442kW and 800Nm.
MORE: Everything BMW 5 Series
MORE: Everything BMW i5
