Earlier this week, the next-generation BMW 5 Series Touring was unofficially revealed courtesy of a trademark filing showing the luxury wagon from basically all angles. An independent artist has now envisioned the model internally codenamed “G61” based on those leaked images, so these renderings should be as close to the real deal as possible.
However, we should point out that the images that were mistakenly published by the trademark office depicted a 5 Series Touring with a combustion engine while lacking the M Sport Package. This digital design exercise portrays a much more expensive variant as we’re dealing with the fully electric i5 in the M Performance flavor. It also happens to have the Shadowline headlights to go along with the numerous glossy black body accents we’ve seen on the i5 M60 sedan.
The technical specifications should mirror those of the saloon but the wagon will obviously have a more generous cargo capacity. BMW is also likely to sell the i5 Touring in the lesser eDrive40 specification with a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive setup, plus the usual gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid powertrains. We’re primarily excited to witness the return of the recently spied long-roof M5, which will be the only V8-powered 5 Series wagon.
The M5 Touring (G99) is expected to inherit the XM’s V8 PHEV setup with the combined output dialed to over 700 hp but without stepping on the XM Label Red’s toes. It’s going to be interesting to see how the wagon versions of the i5 M60 and M5 will stack up in a comparison test, especially since both will be the heaviest 5 Series models ever.
The i5 Touring is expected to get a little brother in the latter half of the decade when BMW will reportedly launch an i3 Touring (NA1) on the Neue Klasse platform, complete with a full-fat M i3 Touring (ZA1).
Meanwhile, the 5 Series Touring is slated to premiere in the first months of 2024 in ICE, PHEV, and EV configurations but an educated guess tells us we’ll have to wait until later in the year for the hot M5.
Source: Kolesa