Meet the new face of BMW’s best-selling SUV.
Virtually every automaker has that one model (and particularly that one SUV) that kicked off a whole new era leading up to the world in which we live today. For BMW, that was the X5, which launched just before the turn of the millennium in September 1999. Here we are nearly three decades later, and it’s time for the fifth-generation model to make its debut at what the automaker calls its “Home of X” — the very same Spartanburg, South Carolina factory where it built that first X5 all those years back.
Today, the 2027 BMW X5 is a wildly different animal to those early days, bringing the brand’s Neue Klasse styling, latest technology and an electrified focus front and center. With the styling, this fifth-generation model brings in a taller front end than before, as well as a new kidney grille aesthetic akin to the new iX3. The larger X5 also gets illuminated grille surrounds like the iX3, but unlike that SUV, BMW’s signature here is the pair of double-X lights that combine low-beam headlights, daytime running lights and turn signals into a single assembly (and if you don’t like the “icons” as BMW calls them, you can switch them off for simpler diagonal icons instead).
In profile, the 2027 BMW X5 gets wider, punched-out fenders to the older models, but without the flared trim around the wheel arches. It also loses its traditional door handles, for better or worse, with each door instead getting small “winglet” touch pads you can press to pop open the doors and get in at your leisure. One of this new SUV’s party tricks is that you can opt for electrically opening doors, so you can just lightly press the buttons and the doors will swing open, instead of you having to actually pull on the winglet itself. You can press the pad again to close the doors — the soft-closing feature is standard on the new X5 — and hold the pad area for just under a second to lock the doors again.
Out back, the exterior styling again bears resemblance to the iX3 BMW unveiled last fall. This time around, the rear fascia gets more of a kicked-out look, where the bottom of the tailgate and the bumper come together pretty much seamlessly, rather than the old (and more conventional) setup of a separate bumper with the tailgate that pulls back in at the lower end. The separate and relatively simple rear light cluster has also been ditched for a thin and far more intricate light setup, where both ends meet at the center to draw your eye to the BMW badge.
If you think the 2027 BMW X5 is wild on the outside, we’re just getting started.
Just like the exterior, looking inside the new X5 also brings about some of the biggest changes you’ll experience over the SUV’s 27-year run. Starting off, the traditional gauge cluster has been replaced by BMW’s panoramic display: a thin, pillar-to-pillar LED screen that embeds driver information, media and other high-level widgets into separate zones. A large 17.9-inch display dominates the interior as your primary infotainment setup, while you can also now get a 14.2-inch screen strictly for the passenger, because that’s more or less essential to effectively compete with your modern-day luxury SUV.
The infotainment setup runs Android-based BMW Operating System X, integrating a host of different apps and all that information in the panoramic display and dash-mounted screens together into touch-controlled, haptic and voice interactions. On the voice front, BMW’s Intelligent Personal Assistant allows you so shout whatever commands you like at it with “Hey BMW” or a button on the steering wheel, and you can also link your Amazon account to use the Alexa+ AI large language model to have a more tailored conversation to your old-school voice instructions.
As standard, the 2027 BMW X5 also gets a battery of comfort features like heated seats, with the Luxury Seating Package and Climate Package adding in finer adjustments, ventilation and massage functionality. The seats also get more cushioning in the seat and backrest areas and, with our limited time checking out the electric iX5 at BMW’s debut event, are remarkably more comfortable than the old model.
The X5 also gets the new-style Neue Klasse steering wheel — flattened shape, vertical spokes and all. BMW says it eliminated the conventional horizontal spokes to create a more “natural” grip, while the buttons each side are integrated into the Panoramic iDrive system. By doing so, the driver assistance controls are contextual, so they only illuminate when you can actually use them, and provide haptic feedback when you do press them (since they obviously aren’t standard buttons).
The new X5 rides on a 2.4-inch longer wheelbase than the old model, which also improves prospects for both rear passenger legroom and cargo room. BMW is rolling out more technical specs for the X5 as the debut event kicks into gear Tuesday morning, so we’ll provide more updates with our upcoming coverage on the new model to tell you how all the dimensions shake out against the fourth-gen X5.
The X5 offers up an EV, but you can still get a turbocharged straight-six as well.
In this new generation, the 2027 BMW X5 offers up a smorgasbord of powertrain options compared to previous years. At the base end, the X5 40 does bring an updated version of BMW’s 3.0-liter B58 straight-six turbo, in rear-wheel drive or xDrive (all-wheel drive) configurations.
A new turbocharger brings the output up to a stout 394 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque, while you also get a 48-volt mild hybrid system (so it is still technically electrified) to add in 17 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of electric boost in short stints, like accelerating from a stop. 0-60 comes up in 5.1 seconds from a dead stop, and as ever, your top speed is limited to 155 mph with the gas model.
Stepping up from the X5 40, the X5 50e xDrive plug-in hybrid is still an option. It uses a differently tuned version of that B58 straight-six, coupled to a 194-horsepower electric motor and 26.5-kWh battery pack. The result is a combined power rating of 483 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque, and a 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds. Unlike the gas-only version, however, you can drive up to 44 miles on electricity alone, which is a 15% improvement on the old X5 PHEV.
Both ICE and PHEV versions of the new X5 continue to use an 8-speed automatic transmission.
Then there’s the all-new electric model: the iX5
The all-electric iX5 60 xDrive brings BMW’s best-selling X model into a new era, offering up a battery-powered alternative and, at least indirectly, a successor to the recently discontinued iX. On paper, the specs are well beyond what the old iX could manage, with a driving range up to 435 miles thanks to a new 144-kWh battery pack.
Not only is the pack itself larger, but it also uses new cylindrical cells like the iX3. In this application, the battery cells are physically larger than the iX5’s smaller sibling, while the new Gen6, 800-volt electrical architecture helps to make the most of the available energy, increasing both range and charging speeds. While this car does pack a significantly larger battery to BMW’s past EVs, it also has up to 460 kW of fast-charging capability (provided you can find a charger capable of cranking out that much juice), so you can still charge from 10-80% in about 22 minutes. BMW says you can replenish up to 170 miles in just 10 minutes under ideal conditions, or you can cahrge up to 15.4 kW on a level 2 AC charger.
Naturally, as we’re seeing across the board with most 2027 model EVs, the iX5 carries a native NACS charging port. The control unit within the battery pack also incorporates a switching matrix, so you are still able to plug in at 400V DC fast-charging stations, even if they’ll be notably slower than 800V stations, if there aren’t any of those available.
As far as performance, the 2027 BMW iX5 60 xDrive is the punchiest of the bunch. On the rear axle, you get an electrically excited synchronous motor (EESM) putting out 325 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. Then, at the front, you get an asynchronous motor with 245 horsepower and 225 lb-ft of torque. The combined output for this iX5 is 570 horsepower and 593 lb-ft of torque, which is good for a 0-60 sprint in 4.4 seconds. However, unlike those models packing the straight-six, your top speed is limited to just 130 mph.
The new BMW X5 lineup is also adding a new hydrogen model — BMW’s first production-spec variant. We don’t have too much more to share on that at this point, but the upcoming iX5 Hydrogen will use BMW’s new flat storage system with carbon-fiber-reinforced tanks integrated into the floor (rather than the old-style cylindrical tanks that rob interior space), as well as a third-gen fuel cell jointly developed with Toyota.
When will the 2027 BMW X5 be available and how much will it cost?
While the iX5 Hydrogen is still several months down the road, the rest of the 2027 X5 lineup will be here fairly soon. BMW says the fifth-generation model’s rollout kicks off in October, with the X5 40 xDrive model coming first (basically, the one most people are actually going to buy). The X5 40 xDrive will start at $73,550, including BMW’s $1,450 destination fee.The rear-wheel drive X5 40, X5 50e xDrive plug-in hybrid and iX5 60 xDrive EV will all follow this fall’s initial launch, with those three models landing in the first quarter of 2027. Pricing for the rear-drive X5 40 starts at $71,250. The PHEV comes in at $78,995, while the electric iX5 rounds out the near-term range at $81,250. So, if you do want the electric model, there’s actually not an outrageous price delta from the base-spec gas model — about $7,700 (or ~10%) over the X5 40 xDrive.
But, but…I want a V8!
Some of you guys probably noticed one powertrain I haven’t mentioned, and that’s BMW’s 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8. Don’t worry, there is still an M Performance model coming later on in 2027, so we’ll have more information on that about a year from now. We have no idea how much it will cost at this point, but the outgoing X5 M comes in at about $130,000 to start. This new one definitely won’t be any cheaper.
Check out more on the new X5’s styling and tech below (we looked at the iX5 here), and stay tuned for our extra X5 coverage coming to TFLcar soon.
