All-new BMW 5 Series is ready for electric era
ONE of the most familiar badges in the business moved into a new era, with the reveal of the new eighth generation of the BMW 5 Series in issue 1,781. And the jump was a significant one, introducing a pure-electric version of the car for the first time, while dropping diesel engines from the UK line-up altogether – a switch that would have been unthinkable even five years ago.
Based on an evolved version of the outgoing car’s CLAR platform, the new model is nearly 10cm longer overall, with a wheelbase stretched by 20mm and perhaps the best version yet of BMW’s double-kidney grille. There’s a mix of curved surfacing and sharper angles along the flanks, but on the whole, the 5 Series is a more mature, sophisticated offering than many of BMW’s recent SUVs.
It’s clearly recognisable as a 5 Series, too, given that the biggest changes come under the bonnet, and there’s just a single conventional combustion engine-powered version available at launch (badged 520i sDrive, it’s a rear-drive edition with 205bhp and 330Nm of torque). But even this model has 48-volt mild-hybrid assistance integrated into its eight-speed automatic gearbox.
