It was only yesterday when the M5 Touring was caught testing and now there’s spy footage of a different sports wagon earmarked for the 5 Series lineup. The fully electric i5 Touring was seen at the Nürburgring running at full throttle in M Performance flavor with matte Individual paint. It appears to be Frozen Dark Gray, and the prototype fails to hide the M60-specific kidney grille with horizontal bars.
BMW didn’t even bother camouflaging the front half of the car since it’ll be essentially carried over from the i5 M60 Sedan. It hid the roundel on the hood and the M logo on the front fenders along with everything from the B-pillars to the rear. We’re hoping to be wrong, but it looks as though you won’t be able to open the rear glass independently from the tailgate anymore. The button mounted at the base of the wiper on all Touring models is not there, so unless BMW has come up with a different solution, the glass stays in place.
The BMW i5 Touring will play in a rarified segment since electric wagons are still few and far between, especially in the luxury class. Audi is cooking up an RS6 E-Tron Avant or something to that effect, but it’ll arrive later. In the meantime, the long-roof i5 M60 will debut in the first months of 2024 with the same punch as its four-door sibling. By that we mean it’ll pack 593 hp and 820 Nm (605 lb-ft) when the M Sport Boost or M Launch Control function is on.
The greater practicality will come at the expense of weight since the i5 M60 Touring is likely to be slightly heavier than its sedan cousin. The i5 M60 Sedan is no ballerina either, tipping the scales at 2,305 kilograms (5,082 pounds) in European specification. Logic tells us the performance loss will be negligible, so expect a 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in around four seconds considering the sedan does it in 3.8 seconds. Top speed will be electronically limited, at 143 mph (230 km/h) in the case of the regular i5 M60.
While the M5 Touring we mentioned in the beginning is all but confirmed for the United States, the i5 M60 Touring sadly isn’t coming. Production of the wagon in both 5 Series and i5 variants is scheduled to begin in March but the hot M5 (G99) won’t hit the assembly line until November.
Source: CarSpyMedia / YouTube