Things just got serious at BMW – it has revealed the electrified ‘Neue Klasse’ version of its X5 SUV, the car that clever automotive historians would point to as the one that kicked off the current craze for large road-biased family SUVs when it launched back in 1999.
It was BMW’s first SUV and has made the Munich-based carmaker a tonne of cash over the years – so this new iX5 is a big deal. And it utilises all of BMW's Neue Klasse philosophy that's supposed to be dragging the German brand into the 21st century. The Neue Klasse name harks back to a similar effort that revitalised BMW back in the 1960s.
There are petrol and diesel versions of the new car available – yawn – but we’re just interested in the iX5 and its two electric motors producing a whopping 578hp, plus the absolutely ginormous 141kWh of usable battery that means the car can do 525 miles of WLTP range.
Like the iX3 and i3 models that have recently been launched, the impressive numbers don’t stop there – the iX5 can juice back up at 460kW and comes with V2L capability as standard, which means you can run electric stuff off the car’s battery (usually with the modestly priced purchase of a BMW branded adaptor).
These figures are for the BMW iX5 60 xDrive – the fully kitted out expensive four-wheel-drive version of the car. Again, like the iX3 and the i3 before it the iX5 will go on sale with the pricy option first and a cheaper, smaller batteried rear-wheel-drive version will follow later.
If you’re not feeling brave enough to go fully electric (but how could you say no to these kinds of numbers?) there is a PHEV version of the new X5 that has a 26.5kWh battery for a 63-mile electric range.
If you’re especially fashion forward, BMW is also launching a hydrogen-powered version of the new X5 that will do 466 miles on a tank, most of which you’ll spend looking for somewhere to fill up again. But some people say it’s the future…
As you would expect from a hulking great premium German family SUV like this one, it will come absolutely stuffed with kit at the right price. Fun things available on this car include a light-up BMW grille, a 3D head-up display, an infotainment screen for the passenger, Merino leather interior, magnetic holders to attach devices to the backs of the front seats, plus a swanky Bowers & Wilkins sound system.
We don’t know how much the new car will cost yet because BMW has only just revealed it (don't expect much loose change from £100k though), nor do we know exactly what UK buyers will get in their cars. But if you’d like to read what someone who’s actually seen the new iX5 thinks about it, then click right here because we sent Tom Ford to Munich to have a look.
It'll be interesting when we do get to have a drive – the new BMW iX5 is going to have to face off against the likes of the new Porsche Cayenne Electric and the electric Range Rover when that finally gets here towards the end of 2026.
