Can you believe the BMW X5 has been around for almost 27 years? Since September of 1999, it’s been an absolute mainstay of the luxury SUV market, arriving not just to the unibody club but the party in general. Since then, we’ve seen straight-sixes and V8s and plug-in hybrids and diesels, and BMW’s really leaning into offering something for everyone with the new 2027 model.
This new fifth-generation X5, codenamed G65, doesn’t just replace the outgoing X5, it also replaces the iX with the option of electric power. It’s also the biggest departure from the original X5 yet. In fact, it loses a feature that’s been a hallmark of the model since the very beginning, one that predates BMW’s once-infamous iDrive knob.
If you’ve seen the new BMW iX3, you won’t be surprised by the new X5’s face. It’s another take on the marque’s Neue Klasse styling language, shrinking the kidney grilles back down to a rather respectable size. The bumper trims around the lower grilles are rather tall on this M Sport model, but those seeking more restraint can skip the M Sport treatment altogether.
The most interesting thing here is the headlight treatment, a pair of X-shaped elements in each lamp assembly. It’s some obvious heavy-handed branding, but it works better here than the three-pointed stars in Mercedes-Benz’s latest headlamps simply due to pedigree. Back in the days of glass lenses, many racers taped up their headlamps in an X-formation to mitigate the risk of a puncture from broken glass should the lens be compromised.
Around the side of the new X5, things get even more interesting. The rear glass has been laid forward, then the rake’s been cheated further with some black trim. It’s a treatment that ties in with the forward-leaning flats around the arches, although its true effect on cargo space is yet to be seen. The time-honored Hofmeister kink, a staple of pretty much every BMW greenhouse since the 1960s, is almost unrecognizable now, and the door handles are little winglet-style affairs like you get on the Volvo EX60 and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Throw in the lack of a defined crease running longitudinally from the taillight to the front fender, and you get the largest departure from tradition of any X5 generation.
My main point of contention with the new X5 only arrives when you come around to the back. For more than a quarter-century, the X5 has featured a convenient split-tailgate with a top-hinged top section and a bottom-hinged bottom section. This arrangement stops cargo from rolling out when the vehicle’s parked uphill, can provide a support surface for slightly longer cargo that won’t quite fit with the tailgate closed, and can even double as an emergency changing table for new parents. It also makes for a very rectangular cargo area aperture, and now it’s gone. The new X5 no longer has a split tailgate, and that feels like a miss. Not only are the benefits of the prior design gone, the liftover height on the new X5 seems like it could be higher than on the old one, and that painted bumper surface is liable to get marked up by heavy or cumbersome loads.
Inside the new X5, BMW’s latest Panoramic iDrive infotainment system is on full display. The full-width instrument projection at the base of the windscreen, the unusually shaped main infotainment screen, even the same sort of passenger screen we’ve seen in the updated 7 Series. The funny steering wheel with the vertical spokes is here too, but so are some lovely-looking materials. Huge stitched sections on the dashboard and door cards, crystal on the seat switches, metallic finishes on the trim bezels, and a top-spec Bowers & Wilkins audio system. You can even option slate trim on the console. There’s no undue barrage of Vegas-style ambient lighting on display, nor huge slabs of cheap-looking shiny black plastic. However, I’d be curious to know how those HVAC vents are adjusted.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the new X5 beyond its look is the sheer variety of choice. BMW’s already announced a huge mix of available propulsion methods: Traditional internal combustion, plug-in hybridization, battery electric models, at least one diesel for Europe, and a hydrogen fuel-cell model for, well, that’s a good question. The launch model in America will be the X5 40, powered by a 394-horsepower variant of BMW’s tried-and-true B58 turbocharged inline-six hitched to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Want more power? A 483-horsepower X5 50e plug-in hybrid is incoming with 44 miles of electric range, along with an iX5 60 with a 144 kWh battery pack and 800-volt architecture promising 460 kW DC fast charging, 435 miles of range, and 570 horsepower.
The new BMW X5 is definitely different, but so long as you aren’t a split-tailgate ride-or-die, it should offer something for everyone. Expect the first examples to arrive in American showrooms this autumn, starting at $73,550 for the all-wheel-drive X5 40 xDrive model.
Top graphic image: BMW
Holy shit. I thought the headlights were you guys doing a photoshop goof.
You were not.
Holy shit.
Ded
Not something I would be able to afford anytime soon, but I don’t think it looks horrible. The interior seems relatively usable and practical for the most part.
I also like they kept the powertrain choices, diesel, hybrid, electric.
Not a fan of the X lights or the passenger side screen, but for the target market it’s probably a strong selling point.
It’s a no from me.
I might be able to warm up to the ungainly exterior formation, but the steering wheel with the spoke on the top is one of the most offensive car design elements in some time. No thank you.
The split tailgate loss is also my biggest gripe with this generation. But it’ll be ok, I’ve had X5s since the E70 and I’m sure I’ll eventually have one of these too.
They are great cars
Man those “X” headlights look disturbingly like Elon’s X (formerly Twitter) logo. That’s sad.
I was mildly hopeful for BMW styling when the Neue Klasse concept came out. Seriously, how did they get rid of the massive beaver nostrils, replace them with sensibly sized kidneys and somehow manage to make the car look worse? The headlights and lower grill treatment are absolutely horrific.
LATE EDIT: I truly and seriously thought the “X” headlights were a brilliant photoshopped joke for the topshot. It took some time to realize those were the actual headlights.
Oh no! Porky Pig’s been shot dead!
Daffy took it way too far this time.
Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
If you grew up on Looney Tunes, you don’t even need a YouTube link.
Awesome, I looked directly at the front end and now I need new eyeballs.
The X shaped headlights are silly. And the lack of the split tailgate is a massive bummer. I love it on my 2015 x5. Really nice for swapping wheels when I’m out downhill longboarding. But the diverse power plant options are very nice.
But that buttonless steering wheel is killing me. Every single legacy car company that’s tried it has been forced back to physical buttons. Even Ferrari said “mea culpa” and is giving people the option for physical steering wheel buttons.
I think the trend of shaping your headlights is sorta dumb but nobody asked me so, whatever.
But, but… why would you make them into the Xitter logo?
I don’t hate it. I prefer this design language over the giant grilles we had before. I do have issues with the tacky “X” headlights, the terrible interior and the stupid door handles.
The pig noses are getting weird
Woof. I am one of the 3-4 people that defended this design language when the iX3 was unveiled…but after seeing a few in person I will say it photographs better than it looks in the flesh. This just grafts that design onto a bigger vehicle, adds dead anime eyes, and calls it a day. I’ll also add the iX3 looks like a minivan from the side in person.
Does that matter to this crowd? Of course not, but to the average person dropping $70,000 on a statement piece luxury crossover it almost certainly does. Add in the screen overkill on the interior and the fact that BMW now wants everything to look like an EV blob and I don’t really have anything nice to say.
But hey their bizarre Neue Klasse design language does look great on the electric M3 concept, so they have that going for them, I guess?
I don’t hate the graphics as much as the outgoing Bimmers, but the proportions are just as ungainly, if not more.
The disjointed, adjacent screens and the graphics on them look like they’re about to deliver me a Microsoft Teams meeting invite. Very Office Cubicle Chic.
Sigh. I remember when BMW used to make cars I liked. I miss my old 2002tii
That’s it. I’m officially tearing up and burning my automotive enthusiast card. I guess I’ll take up gardening. How hard can it be?
At least the grass will always be greener… on your side.
Sooo, when can you tell the steering wheel is right side up? What a colossal mistake.
There isn’t a single bit on this car that won’t be obsolete or in style in <7 years.
Genuinely curious has anyone actually driven one of these dual screen cars with a tech savvy passenger? Is there anything actually useful/interesting that can be done with the passenger screen or is it as pointless and tacked on as I assume it is? Most people are pretty comfortable using their phones as mini computers these days what is the passenger value add of a second slightly larger screen that can’t be positioned-can it be paired to a second device?
My 2025 Q5 has it. It was standard on the Prestige trim I selected or else I would never have gotten it. The screen has absolutely 0 functional use cases. The only thing I have ever used it for was watching youtube podcasts on a road trip. The screen is polarized so I couldn’t see it as the driver, but my wife in the passenger seat could and the audio went through the car’s speakers. However, I am too cheap to pay for the 5G subscription so the screen has been turned off since the 5G trial ran out.
wow, genuinely hoped I was missing something. a passenger watching TV on a road trip was about the only use case I could think of.
Can your wife not pair her phone separately to it and then watch youtube etc? (and I would think then also pair her own head phones to it?) Or is this really a play to get you to pay that 5G subscription?
And just when I thought BMW was starting to make some limited progress towards not aggressively humping my eye sockets, they come out with this.
Woof.
For real, I was actually kind of digging some of the early photos of the new i3 and think they’re back, then I see this overflowing diaper pail of a design.
What an absolute monstronsity from any angle. What the F is going on at BMW.
Side and rear view: Nice! Generic SUV looking, but generically attractive.
Front view: What happened? Who KO’d this thing, and what groundhog died so that this this vehicle could have it’s face?
Those X headlights are so tacky. This is almost the reverse of the IX which has a frumpy form but some nice details, this actually has some nice form and shape to the body that is ruined by awkward overwrought and tacky detailing.
Are BMW and Mercedes in a race to see who can make the worst car interior? That new corporate 4 spoke steering wheel is still the ugliest car steering wheel of all time, and then those awful trapezoidal screens.
Am I the only one who thinks something is dead when there are Xs over the “eyes?”
The rear looks like a Vinfast knock-off.
Nein, danke.
Nope I’m here with you. What died is BMW’s self respect.
I am also getting the international cartoonist* indication for death with those X DRLs
*I may have made this up
Nah, I thought the same thing, it’s a bizarre choice.
Apparently those X headlights are so expensive that BMW couldn’t afford to install door handles on a $75K car
“Why use regular door handles that have worked for 100 years when you can over engineer a highly complex alternative that’s exponentially more likely to fail?”
-Ze Germans