The Seventh Generation BMW M5 Is Here, And It's A Hybrid

The BMW M5 taught the world that a big, heavy sedan can be a true performance monster while still safely toting around the kids and most of your mistress’s luggage, as long as your bank account has enough zeros in it to cut the check. This new M5 is bigger, heavier, more powerful, and likely faster and better than ever before. Staying true to the modern M5 recipe, this super sedan is packed to the gills with the latest and greatest technology to make this 5,390-pound, twin-turbo V8 plug-in hybrid dance circles around lesser challengers.

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The new BMW M5 shares much with the brand’s fugly XM SUV, which is mercifully slated to go out of production in 2028. Like the XM, the M5 has a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 paired with a single electric motor inside the transmission and a 14.8 kWh battery pack that produces a combined BMW-claimed 717 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. Though still no slouch, those power numbers are slightly lower than the top-of-the-line BMW XM Label Red, but BMW is known to be a bit conservative when announcing its horsepower numbers. It rates the new M5 with an EV-only driving range of about 25 miles, which doesn’t totally suck for a PHEV.

Photo: BMW

Another number that BMW is notorious for underrating is its zero to 60 times. It claims this new M5 will clock a zero to 60 run in 3.4 seconds, and run on to a standard 155 mph top speed, or if you opt for the M Driver’s Package, that top speed jumps to a cheeky 190 mph. All of this technology and performance needs to be kept cool, so BMW developed an integrated cooling system for the new M5 that will manage heat on track and in everyday use.

All new M5s come standard with AWD, with different programming for different drive modes, of course, and BMW’s Active M Differential which allows you to disengage the front axle and send all that power to the rear wheels for some good old-fashioned tire-smoking fun. To get the M5 into its rear-wheel-drive modes, traction control must be disabled, so there are no nannies to help keep things on the straight and narrow.

Photo: BMW

There are several drive modes in the new M5, with significantly more customizable adjustments available within the touchscreen to allow owners to tune their M5’s demeanor precisely to their liking. Everything from the suspension to the steering, the transmission, the all-wheel-drive system and even the brakes are customizable. And you’d expect nothing less at this price point, with the new M5 starting at $120,675, including a $1,175 destination charge. That’s a huge sum, and that’s just the base price, but, unfortunately, that’s pretty standard for this level of performance and prestige. Deliveries are expected to begin later this year if you’re champing at the bit to get one.

While looks are subjective, the new BMW 5 Series and i5 already have some pretty questionable styling, and taking things to the M level has made things slightly more angular and aggressive. The prerequisite cooling ducts have been added and aerodynamic additions are present too. But this M5 still doesn’t stray too egregiously far from the standard 5 Series, keeping the M5 as a super sedan that can fly under the radar. The rear of the new M5 gets a bit weird, though, with the bumper looking like it has gauged piercings on either side, or like it arrives from the factory pre-dented, but again, looks are subjective.

Photo: BMW

BMW knows it can’t afford to fumble a legend like the M5. Despite the seventh generation car undergoing a lot of changes, the basics of a powerful, desirable, capable German super sedan remain where they belong; resting competently between a kidney grille up front and a trio of blue, violet, and red stripes stacked against one of the most important letters in the performance alphabet, M.