There’s a new BMW M5 coming in 2024 for the 2025 model year and it’ll be the first in the model’s almost 40-year run to be equipped with a hybrid powertrain. But for many buyers, it’s the changes to the car’s skin and not what’s happening under it, that has captured their attention because a Touring body is back on the M5 menu after more than a decade away – and for the first time ever in the U.S. if the rumors are true.
We’ve captured both the M5 sedan and wagon testing multiple times over the past couple of years but until now the Touring prototypes have always hidden their face behind heavy bumper disguise. But as these images show, those camouflage panels have been dropped for the latest tests revealing the shape and and position of the vents in the nose feeding air to the V8 behind it.
To be fair, we had already seen the same undisguised bumpers on certain (but not all) M5 sedan prototypes a year ago, but it’s still interesting to get a look at how the trapezoidal lower grille setup works with the long-roof body. You’ll have your own opinion, but it looks just the right amount of mean to us.
Related: Is This The 2025 BMW M5 Showing Us Its Angular Rear-End Way Ahead Of Official Unveiling?
As is always the case with M5s, the overall look is far more subtle than what you get when you order its Audi RS6 rival. But the M kidney grille, M mirrors, discretely flared arches and a quad-tailpipe exhaust nestling alongside a rear diffuser will offer plenty of identification clues to other drivers, even if the owner ticks the de-badge option. Like the rest of the new 5-Series line, the M5 gets flush door handles and a curved dashboard display consisting of a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch infotainment system running BMW OS 8.5.
That new dash layout will make the M5 feel very different inside, but then so will the ability to travel short distances on electric power. The G90-code mid-size rocket is expected to get a version of the 4.4-liter, twin-turbo hybrid V8 from the XM SUV, complete with an electric motor housed inside the eight-speed automatic transmission.
The top-spec Label Red already makes 738 hp (748 PS) and 737 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque, which is far in excess of the 617 hp (625 PS) and 537 lb-ft (728 Nm) the outgoing, gas-only M5 produces, but rumors suggest BMW M could boost the M5 to almost 800 hp (811 PS). That would, however, be an odd decision, given that the XM is meant to be the flagship M car, so we’ll have to wait until BMW pulls the covers off the M5 next year to find out for sure.
