BMW has been selling a 5 Series Touring for 30 years but it has given hot wagon enthusiasts only two M5s with a long roof. There was the E34 made in just 891 examples and the glorious V10-powered E61 produced in 1,009 units. Arriving around 2025, the G99 should be the first M5 Touring with broader availability. As a matter of fact, sources close to the company say M is finally coming after the AMG E63 Estate and Audi RS6 Avant in the United States.
First Plug-in Hybrid M5
While the next-generation M5 Sedan (G90) has already been spied testing, we’ll have to wait a bit more for its more practical counterpart. In the meantime, a new unofficial rendering attempts to see into the future of the third M5 Touring using design cues we’ve seen in recent months on prototypes of the sedan. The regular 5 Series Sedan (G60) and 5 Series Touring (G61) will play it safe in terms of design, so there shouldn’t be any controversy surrounding the styling of the M5 models.
Test vehicles of both M and non-M versions have been spotted with their production bodies, without split headlights or exaggerated kidney grille proportions. Flush door handles will be standard across the range, and so will the iDrive 8.5 debuting this summer with the regular 5 Series Sedan.
Sources close to the German luxury brand have told us the M5 will be the only 5 Series with a V8 engine. It means BMW won’t have a direct successor to today’s M550i, but rather something along the lines of an M Performance plug-in hybrid, inline-six setup mirroring the M760e. If the bank account can handle it, we’ve heard the next M5 will hit the 700-horsepower mark and offer somewhere in the region of 800 Newton-meters (590 pound-feet).
These are some healthy output numbers no doubt, but logic tells us the extra hardware commanded by the plug-in hybrid system will make the M5 even heavier. Needless to say, the Touring will carry some extra bulk compared to the equivalent sedan. How much is it going to weigh? Well, today’s 530e xDrive Touring tips the scales at 1,960 kilograms (4,321 pounds), but a potentially larger next-generation model with four more cylinders will definitely result in a curb weight of well over 2,000 kg (4,409 lbs).
Seeing the glass half full, BMW intends to keep the V8 for one more generation of the M5. We can’t say the same thing about archrival Mercedes as the AMG E63 will allegedly lose the V8 in favor of an inline-six. The combustion engine developed in Affalterbach will also be at the heart of a plug-in hybrid setup.
Source: Germany’s Finest / Instagram
