Eighth-gen BMW 5 Series teased, to get fully-electric i5 variant too

By Anagh BhaskarBMW will reveal the 8th-gen 5 Series sedan to the world in just a few months’ time. The new car is set to extend the boundaries of comfort and performance, but the highlight of the new 5 Series will be the new fully-electric i5 sedan. Currently, the brand only has the i7 and the i4 which are EVs based on their ICE counterparts, and the iX which is an EV developed from the ground-up.

While design and visual changes for the new 5 Series are still under wraps, the car should follow an overall design theme similar to the current-gen car. For the BMW i5, the brand is expected to follow the norm of using blue coloured accents on the exterior.

BMW is capable of giving multiple powertrain options on the 5-Series by using a flexible architecture, which allows the car to use an ICE, plug-in and fully-electric powertrain without the need to develop a separate architecture for electrified powertrains.

Commenting at the BMW Ground Annual Conference 2023, Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said, “The all-electric BMW i4 M50 shows how BMW blends dynamic performance and electric mobility to perfection. 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.”

Zipse’s announcement confirms that BMW M will also be revealing an all-electric 5-Series too. He further added that the BMW 5 Series Touring (estate) will also go fully electric next year.

BMW says that the i5 sedan will be followed by the i5 Touring, making it a truly unique product in the market. The new 8th-gen BMW 5 Series will make it’s global debut in October this year.

The new BMW 5 Series Sedan will be built exclusively at BMW Group Plant Dingolfing. The facility in Lower Bavaria is the company’s largest manufacturing site in Europe. Production of the new BMW 5 Series will start in the same year the plant marks 50 years of manufacturing BMW models. The brand’s cars have been rolling off the production lines in Dingolfing since 1973, with its current portfolio including the BMW 7 Series and 8 Series luxury models and the all-electric BMW iX.

BMW Group Plant Dingolfing is also home to the company’s competence centre for electric drive system production, whose tasks include manufacturing both the electric motors and the high-voltage batteries for the BMW i5 directly on site.

India will get the new 8th-gen BMW 5 Series by the early part of next year. Interestingly, BMW will launch the new 5 Series in the LWB (long-wheelbase) guise only to counter the dominance of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class LWB. BMW recently discontinued the standard wheelbase 3 Series and is now only selling the 3 Series Gran Limousine here.