2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring Review: A great car with relevance deprivation disorder
You want everyman relevance? Well, you’ve come to the wrong place!
The 2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring is a $220,000 (before on-road costs and options and, yes, there are options) electric station wagon.
It would be hard to get more niche.
But it would also be hard to find a better, more complete and enjoyable vehicle to drive be it EV, PHEV, HEV or ICE.
Except for one glaring issue.
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2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring price and equipment
The i5 is the battery electric version of the orthodox BMW 5 Series luxury car that’s been around in Australia since the 1970s and is now into generation eight.
Apart from the ludicrous M5 PHEV, the i5 M60 xDrive Touring is the only way to get into a station wagon in the 5 Series line-up. It’s also the most expensive i5, topping two sedan variants.
Given the dominance of SUVs such as BMW’s own X5 over their equivalent passenger cars, it’s a miracle BMW offers one 5 Series station wagon let alone two.
The standard price of our test car is $219,900 plus on-road costs and that puts it in nosebleed territory against EV rivals such as the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo and its non-identical twin the Audi e-Tron GT.
If Audi brings the A6 e-tron Avant to Australia that would be another rival, but that’s not guaranteed, as we’ve reported here.
So what do you get for your very large lump of money? The powertrain comprises an e-motor on each axle separated by an 81.2kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The combined output is 442kW/820Nm, the 0-100km/h boast is 3.9 seconds, the claimed (ADR) range is 503km and the average consumption 18.1kWh/100km (also ADR).
Some of these figures stand up better than others.
Overlaying all this is an amazing amount of chassis tech: All-wheel drive (xDrive), adaptive suspension, active roll stabilisation, rear axle steering and rear air springs. It’s all helpful considering the amount of thrust and weight – nearly 2.5 tonnes! – that’s being corralled here.
Then there’s the extensive amount of luxury and infotainment gear dished up in the cabin: Merino leather upholstery, ‘CraftedCrystal’ handmade glass dials and knobs, quad-zone climate control, a 14.9-inch infotainment touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital instrument panel stitched together behind a single panel, a head up display, satellite-navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto wireless connection and Bowers and Wilkins 17-speaker surround sound audio.
The i5 comes with the same five star ANCAP rating based on 2023 protocols as the rest of the 5 Series range. Driver assist autonomous emergency braking can detect pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Other systems include adaptive cruise control and lane keeping support.
The i5 is protected by a five-year/unlimited km warranty and an eight-year/160,000km battery warranty.
2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring: What we think
No doubt BMW has been the standout among the three major German luxury brands at embracing BEVs in Australia.
Locally, it’s exploited the FBT exemption brilliantly and its fundamental global decision to base ICE and EV models on derivatives of the same platform has seen it speedily deliver multiple models to market.
What the 2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring does is meld new-age BEV tech with the brand’s traditional driving virtues.
Sure, it’s a sleight of hand. There’s little here that equates with a late 1970s 528i, but there’s also a familiarity in the way it drives that’s compelling.
It’s not a BEV with a BMW badge, it’s a BMW with an EV powertrain.
It’s supremely powerful. You’ll chomp on your tongue if you flatten the throttle without preparing yourself. There is no shortage of overtaking or hill climbing response anywhere any time.
It’s so quiet doing it you can be deceived into thinking you’re travelling slower than you actually are. Highway Patrol fodder, basically.
There’s launch control and even a boost paddle to dump more torque into the system for 10 seconds. It’s about as necessary as pedicures for cats.
Even more impressive than the i5’s sheer oomph is the way it rides and handles. Yes, there are a million gizmos working furiously to make it all feel seamless, but they do the job.
The i5 whisks down the road smothering bumps even when tied down in sports mode, sitting flat in corners at silly speeds and generally just hoovering up the road. Yes, it’s all-wheel drive, but it feels more traditionally BMW rear-wheel drive in the way it’s set up.
Inside the cabin it does it spaciously (570/1700 litre boot), comfortably and with its many convenience features at hand. Outside, well, it’s just a really good looking thing, as high-performance station wagons with big wheels and low slung sports suspension often are.
But here’s the ‘but’ and it’s a big one – well, not big enough actually. The battery is too small. You are really going to struggle to get to 400km between recharges and that’s because in the real world the average consumption is going to be in the 22-25kWh/100km region depending how often you want to bite on your tongue.
To truly deliver on its distance-crushing capabilities it really needs to go beyond 100kWh. Yeah, I know, weight, cost etc. But the reality is a car so well-endowed in so many ways comes up short on battery. It shouldn’t be so.
At least the DC fast charging rate is a speedy 205kWh maximum.
Other criticisms? The digitised powertrain soundtrack is pretty naff and every now and again the driveline would shudder when significant throttle was called for from a low percentage. Maybe some issue with co-ordination of the single speed reduction gear? Unedifying and unpredictable.
The infotainment system can be mind-bogglingly complex to figure out. Too much stuff – like brake regen levels – have to be done through the screen.
Of course, there’s no spare tyre. Which is a major irritant and means that at some stage this car will almost certainly end up on a tow truck for no other reason than a flat can’t be fixed.
And not being an SUV means you sit down lower with plenty of vehicles towering over you in the traffc.
2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring: Verdict
On the surface there’s little to recommend the 2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring. It’s expensive and it’s a station wagon. That it’s electric is a big tick here but not necessarily in the wider world.
So maybe it is fundamentally irrelevant. But gee it’s a compelling combination. Handsome to look at, welcoming to sit in and alternately ferocious or friendly to drive depending on your mood.
Just wish the battery backed up the rest of the package.
For the many of us who look at this vehicle and dismiss it because of its expense, let’s hope this is just a taste of what BMW has coming down the track at more affordable prices.
BMW’s new-generation of Neue Klasse tech is not far away and that should be a big step on from what’s presented here. It’s exciting stuff.
SCORE: 4/5
2025 BMW i5 M60 xDrive Touring price and specifications
Price: $219,900 (plus on-road costs)
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, large station wagon
Range: 503km (ADR)
Battery capacity: 81.2kWh lithium-ion
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Energy consumption: 18.1kWh/100km (ADR)
Motors: 1 front, 1 rear, 442kW/820Nm.
AC charging: 22kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 205kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 3.9 seconds
