The BMW i5 Touring (or, to give this model its full name, the i5 eDrive40 M Sport Pro Touring) is the first pure electric estate car from the Bavarian brand. The i5 is to the 5-Series what the i7 is to the 7-Series, a pure EV version of a car that’s also available in more conventional ICE and PHEV set-up, with stylistic tweaks inside and out to reflect the whizzy electric ‘i'-ness of it all.
First things first. This is a really great car. It’s precisely what we’ve been hoping a volume manufacturer would do for the best part of a decade – electrify a proper, full-sized estate car – and it loses none of the character and verve that made big BMW saloons and estates such endearing cars to own and drive in the past. Admittedly, a lot of this praise stems from the fact that the i5 is emphatically not an SUV, but along with the good there are still a few quibbles.
No piece on a contemporary BMW can sidestep the issue of design. Even though the ‘standard’ new BMW 5/ i5-Series has standardised the muscley bulk once left to the flagship ‘M’ performance models, the basic form has always swung wildly between crisp, Teutonic perfection (the E28, E34 and E39 series produced between 1981 and 2003), wild experimentation (Chris Bangle’s infamous but now widely admired E60 model from 2003) and the rather wishy-washy (everything else).
For a long time, 5-Series production has been split between a four-door saloon and four-door estate, with the longer roof of the latter usually giving a bit of an aesthetic bump over the saloon.
BMW has electrified a proper, full-sized estate car –and it loses none of its character and verve
The G60 version of the 5-Series and i5 came to market last year, with the estate arriving 12 months later. It’s not clear how much longer BMW will persist with the i5/5-Series divide, now that it’s clear that customers simply want the choice between ICE, PHEV and EV, without having to sign up for a bunch of esoteric design decisions in the process.
Having driven the car, I think the i5 does EV pretty well, certainly from the rear three-quarters view that offers the most functional and practical vantage point of the cavernous estate car body. The less said about the large illuminated double kidney grille the better, save that it’s not completely clear what the massive scale is over-compensating for.
Inside, the story just gets better. The array of tech on display is almost dizzying, especially with the way the on-screen graphic theme is continued through the faceted light bars that ring the cabin.
Sport mode transforms the accelerator into a cosmic wah pedal
Switch the car to sport mode, for example, and you’re suddenly orbited by a pulsing slash of red. This continues even more unsubtly into the audio realm, with the availability of several driving ‘themes’ – sport, expressive, silent, etc. Each splashes the dash with a signature colour and wallpaper and also throws a dedicated ‘engine noise’ into the mix.
We had fun with these but what initially feels playful ends up being rather shallow. ‘Sport’ mode transforms the accelerator into a cosmic wah pedal, with a throbbing, vaguely sci-fi boost sound that passengers likened to a light sabre being waved around in the boot. 'Expressive' is even more OTT: fun for a minute in all its cinematic silliness (though it’s more Logan's Run than Interstellar) before you pull back and realise that this is a real physical object you’re flinging through space and time purely to hear a silly noise conjured up in a Munich music studio.
That said, the rest of the i5’s dashboard and controls score highly. The HMI is legible and logical, there are physical buttons where you need them, and you can forgive the odd wonky, wayward angle or over-designed speaker grille because the whole ensemble works together so well. BMW tends to pitch its design just ahead of where the mass market tolerance is, which not only adds longevity to its model line but ensures it looks sensational with the passing of a decent chunk of time. Come 2044, and this i5 will be a bona fide classic.
All that might change as the company slowly transitions into a more classically elegant design language. We’ve already seen things like the limited edition Skytop Roadster and the trim, minimal Vision Neue Klasse concept that’s said to be an accurate rendition of the next-generation 3-Series. Will the i5 and 5-Series follow suit or remain baroquely styled outliers?
What else did we like? A courtesy light that didn’t illuminate the pavement with a starry, splashy logo but actually lit up the curb instead. The handling and drivetrain were also pitch perfect, with EV weight cunningly balanced out of the suspension, and snappy acceleration that is more than you’ll need on a day-to-day basis (although fans of superfluous horsepower will enjoy the wheel-mounted boost paddle that brings up a disturbingly target-shaped graphic on the head-up display and throws even more power your way for a limited time).
Range? The official figure of just over 320 miles would be fantastic, if it felt even remotely achievable. Spend too much time playing with the hyperspace buttons and you’ll come up remarkably short.
In any case, if you absolutely, positively, unquestioningly need more power, then BMW will be delighted to sell you the i5 M60 xDrive Touring, at a premium of course. And that’s before you’ve delved into a copious options list. EVs, especially ones that are this good, are still very much at a premium. Right now, you suspect that’s the way BMW would like it to stay.
BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport Pro Touring, price as tested £96,995.00 (includes £17,640 of extras), BMW.co.uk
