As the electrified variant of BMW’s venerable 5 series, the i5 is the brand’s final frontier in battery electric sedans.

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Photo: Jay Tee

SINGAPORE

Trust the Bavarians to cram an electric drivetrain into a platform shared with a petrol-propelled vehicle, but they’ve made it work. And you now have the power of choice between an EV or ICE version of the BMW 5 Series.

Short of the original BMW i3 and the flagship iX SUV, every battery-electric BMW has an ICE counterpart. But against all odds, BMW’s EVs work just as well as their ICE-powered vehicle. Better, in some cases. This latest BMW i5 eDrive40 is no exception.

The BMW i5 presents itself as the final frontier in BMW’s range of electrified luxury sedans. In essence, it’s an 8th generation 5 Series sedan that ditches its ICE powertrain for an electric one.

It boasts the same powertrain figures as the sublime i4 eDrive40 but it also receives much of the same tech you’d find in the i7 eDrive60 – and by extension the ICE-powered 735i. But the new car is significantly larger than before, rivalling that of the previous 7 series.

BMW i5 eDrive40 – Exterior

At over five meters long and just 10mm shy of two meters wide, the G60 i5 (and the 520i) is very nearly as long as a G11-generation 7 series and taller at 1,515mm high. Mercifully, it’s a handsomely styled vehicle so its large size just means there’s a lot of it to go around.

Par the course for modern BMWs, the kidney grilles are larger than before, and now feature BMW’s Iconic Glow illuminating the satin chrome bezels. The headlamps are vaguely reminiscent of the E60 5er’s with the tips tapering back toward the front fender, but the front fascia is all modern BMW with plenty of piano black trimmings.

Round the sides, the car’s silhouette is clean and featureless, save for the addition of gloss black panels on the side sills and a stamped “5” in the C-pillar just aft of the window aperture. The rear end sees a set of slim tail lamps, an expanse of gloss black on the bumpers and a small diffuser, courtesy of our test car’s M Sport kit – which also endows it with a set of sportier 20-inch rims.

Curiously, the i5 doesn’t wear the blue trim accents we’ve grown familiar with from BMW i vehicles. The only obvious indication of the car’s electrified underpinnings are the blue surrounds on the BMW roundels, so there isn’t much visual distinction between both EV and ICE variants of the 5 series, regardless of your trim line or package options.

BMW i5 eDrive40 – Interior

One can’t talk about the current 5er’s cabin without waxing lyrical about the cabin of the new G70 7 series, but the dashboard of the i5 and 520i is a near-perfect facsimile of the 7er’s. Think, shrunken and embellished with fewer crystalline elements.

Front and centre of the driver’s seat is BMW’s curved display that combines a 12.3-inch instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch infotainment screen in a single panel. But beneath that broad screen lies BMW’s Interaction bar, which behaves not unlike the one in the 7 series with varying colours and drive mode-specific patterns and lighting effects.

While it serves no other function apart from displaying driver warning functions and illuminating the front passenger space, it certainly does the “Shock and Awe” aspect of things superbly well. And the effect is even more pronounced after dusk.

Elsewhere, the main driving and infotainment functions are located on the centre console, with BMW opting for a toggle switch gear lever and a haptic touch panel for the infotainment controls. It’s all familiar BMW territory and a lovely place to sit. My only gripe was with the vexing HVAC system, which has slim hidden vents and climate functions buried in one of the many infotainment screen menus within the BMW OS 8.5 system.

The aft of the cabin is considerably less plush than the front, with hard plastic seat backs (with no storage slots) and centrally mounted air conditioning vents. But the rear bench is spacious and accommodating with plenty of headroom and knee room, even for the middle occupant.

You still do get a transmission tunnel (courtesy of the ICE platform underpinnings), but the footwells are more than adequate for accommodating three pairs of feet. And with 490 litres of storage in the boot, you’ve still got plenty of carrying capacity for a family of five.

BMW i5 eDrive40 – The Drive

In our line of work, it’s often best to keep things simple. In a perfect world, we’d like to call it like it is and wrap up a review in a simple paragraph. But people demand more insight and more information. In this particular instance, doing anything less would be a huge injustice for the BMW i5.

Of all the electric sedans I’ve driven, the BMW i4 eDrive40 remains one of my favourites with its impressive dynamic attributes and amenable suspension setup. The i5 eDrive40 is similarly impressive, but it doubles down on the comfort and luxury attributes of an executive sedan. On the road, the i5 rides supremely well over all manner of asphalt conditions, managing its nearly 2.4-ton kerb weight with ease. It’s a well-used saying, but the car feels smaller than it is.

Like the i4 in its eDrive40 trim, the i5 produces 340 horsepower and 430Nm of torque from its rear-mounted motor. It sprints from 0-100km/h in 6 seconds and tops out at 193km/h. But unlike many EVs with barnstorming acceleration figures and stratospheric amounts of torque, the i5 is considerably more sedate and gentle under power. 

Switching it from Efficient, Comfort and Sport increases the sensitivity of the throttle under your right foot. If you really wanted to, you could chuck it in sport and get pulled back into your seat as the car surges forward, but it’s nowhere near the sort of savage gut-punch you get in other high-powered EVs. 

The i5 doles out its power gently and smoothly, demanding a little more finesse from your right foot to get the car moving as quickly as you’d want to. It might be sacrilegious to say this, but short of a full-bore BMW M or M Performance engine, a BMW eDrive powertrain is more responsive than the Bavarian marque’s ICE powertrains.

The steering rack is sharp and accurate, albeit a little lacking in steering weight or feedback from the road. It takes a considerable effort to get the steering to start weighing up nicely, often at speeds that are on the fringes of what’s legally allowed in Singapore. 

It isn’t quite as sharp as the i4, but it is no less engaging when you’re driving exuberantly. Even in the car’s other driving modes, you’d still be able to get the best of the 340hp/430Nm the i5 offers. The M Sport package fitted to this test car also came with a helpful boost paddle on the left of the steering column, which engages the car’s Sport Boost mode for 10 seconds. 

But most of my time behind the wheel was spent in its most efficient mode, and it was still powerful and responsive enough for performing overtakes, surging ahead of traffic or coasting through the winding farmland estates of Lim Chu Kang. 

In fact, it was more fun trying to eke out the best possible range figures from the car’s 81.2kWh battery pack while traversing the road at speed and carrying momentum to hustle the car through a set of corners. BMW quotes 19.3kWh/100km, I achieved 18.1kWh/100km in one day. I have no pictorial proof of that, so you’d just have to take my word for it.

BMW i5 eDrive40 – Price and conclusion

In the case of the BMW i7, an electric powertrain works well to make the car run smoother with no deficit in outright power. In the case of the i4 eDrive35, the EV powertrain pays dividends in running and operating costs in the long run.

In the broad scope of EV saloons, the i5 is a unique proposition in the segment. It’s not a ground-up EV but it works just as well as one. It ostensibly has the same traits as BMW’s Grand Klasse vehicle but boasts modest power figures that match those of its smaller brethren. It takes the middle path where comfort, luxury and price are concerned. 

And on the subject of the latter, an i5 eDrive40 starts at S$390,888, which is S$32,000 dearer than what you’d have to fork out for a 520i. It’s a big sum of money that differentiates a base 5 series from what is effectively a base electric 5 series. But you are getting more power and more savings in the long run – not to mention the added benefit of driving a more environmentally friendly car.

Crucially, the i5 is still a 5 Series, which means it receives the latest range of bells and whistles from the Bavarian marque, many of which have been trickled down from the 7 Series – just like its predecessors. In this case, it’s got the size and power to go along with it too.

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BMW i5 eDrive40

Drivetrain type	Full electric
Electric Motor / layout	Single / Rear Wheel-Drive
Motor power / torque	340hp / 430Nm
Battery type /net capacity	Lithium ion / 81.2kWh
Normal Charge Type / Time	11kW AC wallbox / 8.25 hours
Max Fast Charge Type / Time	205kW DC / 30 mins 10 to 80 percent
Electric Range	582km (claimed)
0-100km/h	6.0 seconds
Top Speed	193km/h
Efficiency	19.5kWh/100km
VES Band	A1 / -S$25,000
Agent	Eurokars Auto / Performance Motors Limited
Price	From S$401,888 with COE and VES
Availability	Now
Verdict:	A BMW 5 Series, propelled by electricity, feels like a shrunken i7 with impressive handling dynamics.

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