Unveiling in September?
BMW is coming this year for the first time with a fully electric variant of the 5-series. It will be called BMW i5 and will not only come as a sedan, but also as a Touring. The i5 Touring is not yet showing BMW, but it does share an extensive photo series showing the electric BMW i5 sedan in frigid environments.
BMW has thrown a package of photos into the world on which the electric i5 can be seen extensively. Just as the i4 is the fully electric version of the 4-series Gran Coupé and the iX1, iX3 and i7 are successively of the X1, X3 and 7-series, the i5 will be that of the new 5-series that BMW will introduce this year. This means that BMW is following a different path than competitors such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi. With the EQE, Mercedes-Benz has an electric equivalent of the E-class that is completely separate from the E-class. Audi comes in the form of the A6 e-tron (Avant) with a car developed in the basis as an electric model that will be the electric alternative to the A6 (which will probably be called A7 soon). The BMW i5 comes as a sedan and as a Touring, the EQE is only available as a sedan. The BMW i5 Touring will not arrive until 2024.
The photos that BMW shares of packed test copies of the i5 were shot during test work in Arjeplog in the cold and snowy high north of Sweden, among others. The brand says it has spent about a year conducting cold tests with the BMW i5. We are shown photos of various prototypes of the i5, including ones with and without the final light units. We can reassure those who are not a fan of the ‘layered’ lighting that BMW applies to cars such as the X7, 7-series and XM: the i5 seems to have a more conventional front, just like the 5-series.
BMW is not yet saying when it will present the new 5-series and i5, but we are betting on a public debut in September at the Munich IAA.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl