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
This is a joke, right? BMW kidneys and cartoon dead eyes pasted on a Highlander or Outlander or something?
The lack of split tail gate reeks of cost cutting.
Seems to be trendy to hate on any new BMW, previous gen always becomes ‘the last real’ BMW, until the next one comes out. They literally cannot do anything to please the internet mob. I fear this senseless social media knee-jerk negative reaction to anything new and different would affect an already very conservative and risk-averse industry.
Objectively viewed it looks a tidy piece of design as cars from this segment go. Last couple generations have been very derivative and increasingly gawdy. This feels like something new and executed quite well. Proportions are typical X5. Graphics are cool and distinctive, DRL Xs can be switched off from the infotainment. Interior is very futuristic and striking, especially compared to previous gen BMWs.
If you think the comments here are bad, check out any OEM group (reddit, fb, etc) and see what that looks like when a new model is released.
“IF THIS IS THE DIRECTION [INSERT OEM] IS GOING THEN I’M HOLDING ON TO MY 2023 FOREVER!!!!1!!”. “THEY’RE STEALING DESIGNS FROM HYUNDAI NOW”.
Then 8 months later…
“Just took delivery of my new 2027 Dingus GTD Turbo Premium [heart eyes emoji].
“OMG it’s beautiful, that concrete grey color is awesome, good choice on the black rims!”
Idk man I’d opt for the Dingus GTD X-Sport
The last real BMWs were a LONG time ago now, thankfully I own two of them.
This is bloody hideous. BMW interiors should be a place for focused driving, not “futuristic and striking”. Like this, since the world seems to have forgotten what that is like:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/bmw-e30-3-series-buyers-guide/#image-11
I’m sorry a family looking for a luxury car would no longer accept a tiny 1400kg tin can with an optional radio and electric windows. Things have moved on.
The interior of a full loaded 7-series looked pretty much the same. Just a few more buttons and some wood trim. Even my 2011a are still serious places for driving, even with a bit more bling than I would prefer. Once iDrive became mandatory, they have increasingly lost the plot.
Time has not moved on for the better, only for the more stupid and distracting from the task at hand.
I was thinking the same thing. I love my F15 X5 along with my E46 ZHP, both are better than my first BMW, E21, or E92. Styles change, and we evolve. I don’t hate the new X5 or the new style direction. What I hate is how long it will take for the facelifts. As with most BMW models, the facelifts are typically better (save the e46 coupe facelift – the original was better). Given that, I will be looking for 4th gen x5 because buying new isn’t worth it.
This is bullshit. As the maker of some of the most beautiful cars ever, BMW has to be called out when they design shit, and they have been designing shit for the last few years.
Domagoj what’s his name designer – the one who got us the beaver tooth grille and told us to shut up – distressed their design so much they had to escape to something completely new. Well, they didn’t need to – they just had to shake off the PTSD from him, the same way they managed to survive the Bangle Butt.
BMW has always had great design, crashed into the ground by designers who thought themselves important enough to tell the public to fuck off. Well, fuck them back. This thing is ugly as hell, and if this design language could somehow, somewhat, work in a flat sedan, it can’t work in something that is vertically elongated, because it’s already all about verticals.
Yes, we’ll get used to it, yes, at some point someone will find the right makeup (combination of color, trim details color and whatnot) to make it non-puke material, but it didn’t have to be like that.
I won’t go and tell which one was the last real X5, but all I can tell is that the design from say 2014ish to 2020ish before domagoj may the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits got it all to shit, was actually quite good. Good thing they never let him touch the 8 series.
By the mid 90s BMW were digging themselves into a stylistic dead end, After Luthe left Design was very much squashed under the needs and wants of Engineering. And you can see it in all these cars e36, e38, e39, they were old people’s cars, still carrying the baggage of 70s designs. I think the courage to try something new and fresh, that Bangle brought, was very much needed. After he left there was a string of derivative safe designs which now look more outdated than the Bangle era stuff. The Neue Klasse I view as a similar break back to exploration of new themes.
‘Ugly’ is a subjective statement, so weird to get angry about any of this, at the end it’s just cars my guy. I don’t see anything inherently ‘ugly’ about the iX5, all the surfacing is fairly clean and restrained, graphics well judged and healthy, very typical rwd suv proportions, even shutlines are generally tidy. My comment was about the common reaction of people to reject outright when they see something new. You’re well used to looking at 40yr old cars, so it’s hard to accept when a new one looks different.
You’re never gonna find some new aesthetic if you’re sticking to the old ways and what ppl are used to. I don’t disagree with you on the massive grille era (4 series, iX) i too believe that was misjudged, to me they were objectivelly ostentatious and shouty with some objectively shoddy unsolved areas. The Neue Klasse cars are very far from that.
If one has to explain design, sex appeal or a joke’s punch line – they failed.
I’m not getting angry at the design, I just disagree with the high and mighty explanation that we don’t like it because we’re idiots who will complain no matter what. I personally strongly insist on my idiot status, but I still can tell a good looking car from an ugly one, and I don’t complain when I see a good looking one.
As for ugly being subjective – in cars? Yeah, right. There’s zero subjectivity when one car needs a book full of PR explanations on why it looks how it looks, while another just needs mcrofiber cloths to wipe all the drool off.
Yeah, completely agreed…what a goofball. They’re just stirring the pot for no reason.
God, how the mighty have fallen…
Nope.
Not the first time in recent memory I looked at a BMW front end and refused to go any further.
For a moment I thought the front end was a goof by the Onion.
Does BMW use 14 year old kids to approve design ideas?
Wow! “X” headlights…they are so dope!
I am flabbergasted by the X’s, but really shouldn’t be since newer bimmer buckteeth and design is so awful that I’m not even surprised anymore.
They really should have just done 3 X’s: XXX and censor it so we don’t have to look at it! Ha ha
Overall, a fairly successful interpretation of the NK language, good and bad.
That greenish grey as a launch color is a big mistake. It completely washes out any interest the design has. The matte grey or the dark green are huge improvements.
The wheels on the dark green car look far too VW/Audi for me, they don’t work at all here.
144kwh for the iX5 is awesome. There seems to be room in the lineup for a more powerful iX5 M70 somewhere – 570hp isn’t particularly competitive for an EV this size.
At this level, I would expect frameless doors. Disappointing we don’t have them here.
The headlights remind me of a line from Liar Liar, where the gal asks Jim Carrey’s character what he thinks of her new dress: “Whatever takes the focus off your head.”
BMW’s grill designs don’t appear to be getting any better.
The only good news about this abomination is I’ve been alerted to the fact you can get the original X5 on club plates – a first-gen one could be a good occasional driver for when I need to carry lots of stuff and/or people.
As for this thing. Yeesh. If they didn’t do those dumb headlights it’d still be ugly but at least trending in the right direction (a bit like the iX3). I do like the interior though, apart from the weird mid-00s sci-fi steering wheel.
Well, it’s better than Mercedes Benz’s recent “styling”, but that’s not the high praise it once was . . .
“BMW’s really leaning into offering something for
everyonenobody with the new 2027 model.”There. Fixed it for you.
I married into a 2015 X5 with the M package. The M package ruins the ride to the point that other than interior appointments, it’s really not a luxury SUV anymore.
Between ridiculous soft compound run-flat tires that wear out in 10K miles and are unrepairable if you pick up a nail to the fact that the car would follow any little change in camber after just a few thousand miles, it was one of my least favorite cars of all time. When the airbag in the self-leveling rear suspension developed a leak, it was (past) time to say goodbye.
The 2015 was a fairly handsome car. This thing is hideous. Can’t wait for someone to catch a scarf or something on those door handles. And those lights. Do they still swivel around corners? That was kinda cool.
If vibe-coding was made manifest with four wheels.
It’s not like I was considering a BMW anyway, they did a great job killing their desirability long before this… thing was shoved unceremoniously into an unsuspecting world.
I thought y’all were taking the piss with those headlights like Twitter’s new logo and then, when I realized you weren’t, I had the same reaction as Neo in The Matrix when they pull that thing out of his belly button
The X5 was one of the last remaining cars with a strong BMW design. No longer, I guess.
Though I’m surprised at the oversight at not having five illuminated X’s on the front. You know, to signify X5.
XXX so it can be censored so we don’t have to look at it…
Not the tailgate. Its the best thing about my car! (OK one of the best things).
“However, I’d be curious to know how those HVAC vents are adjusted.”
Probably not in an easy way and worse, if they’re like the X7, they really constrict air flow to fit in the design and don’t move enough cold air in high temps.
I saw a few videos of this thing and guess the doors can all auto open and close which is a nifty feature that will work GREAT for many years of use, just like the active air shutters they put in front of the radiator.
Also I had the same reaction of every other person that saw the X headlights. I guess you can turn that off which is nice, or they may fail in funny math equation patterns too
( / X=00= \ /)
I saw one of these in full camo testing on the highway in Chicago recently and couldn’t figure out what it was. Pretty sure I saw the electric version (couldn’t see any tail-pipe). Nice to have that mystery solved, the winglet door handles were really throwing me off.
Well the electric one sounds interesting, but wow that battery pack is hugeeeee!
Thank goodness it’s 800v; otherwise, DCFC times would be in the 40+ minute range.
Shame about the lack of split tailgate. That’s a huge miss imho. I always thought that was super cool.
The air vents get adjusted through the touchscreen. Not cool…
Overall, good news though. I’m thrilled to see BMW heading in the right direction with its EV offerings after years of very questionable styling and other decisions. This one is definitely too big for me, but the iX3 is similar but smaller and looks very compelling!
huge inheritance last year. retirement next month. i m splurging on a new car. I m down to Range Rover or Lincoln
Huge inheritance? I had a RR Seraph as a presser for a month,dear sweet pixies that was good, Probably cost around the same as the US debt (the would not tell me!) and the size of some smaller island nations but, and but it was truly brilliant.
“smaller island nations”
Jasonia? Ha ha
2 Things
1) share your eventual choice.
2) maybe become a paid member with that windfall.
I’d look into the VW Atlas if you’re set on a new SUV, I’ve heard nothing but good things about them.
Horizontal kidney grille would be so much better: https://imgur.com/a/biXjnL4
crazy how much that changes it, those X lights are still titanically bad though.
That does look better. Is that a Photoshop job? Or do they just plan on sell a better looking one in Europe.
Quick AI mockup
Is it just me, or do cars with X’s for headlights look like they’re dead?
Cartoon death mask.
If they ever make another Cars movie, Lightning McQueen and Mater could find this sitting on the side of the road…and the movie becomes a murder mystery.
Cars – the Haunting
directed by Wes Craven.
My very first thought.
It is henceforth and forevermore the “Can’t See Shit” x5.
I know! Just make the X’s invisible most of the time. And if the car breaks down somewhere…boom!
I honestly hope this flops harder than a dying fish. X5 used to be a real, actual SUV that could be respected. now it’s just another crossover, but with god-awful headlights and stupid door handles that look like warts.
“warts”
Yeah, I’d much rather have a Wartburg…ha ha
It’s for sure cleaner than their (and Mercedes’) overwrought designs, but I still don’t like it. I don’t think the small kidney grilles work on such a large vehicle; they went too far in the other direction, it needs to be proportionate to the rest of the car. But hey, an X5 has never and will never be on my list so as usual, my opinion on it is pretty worthless.
Interior looks like a high-end powerboat
So apparently you can turn off the xX00Xx DRLs and turn them into \\00// like the iX3, it’s a setting in some infotainment menu
is that supposed to be a feature?
Probably a subscription feature