It’s Official: BMW’s 2025 M5 Sedan Will Also Be Joined by a Touring Version in the U.S. for the First Time Ever

A new M5 and M5 Touring variant are on their way and it should be more powerful than ever.

By Tyler Duffy and Will Sabel Courtney

Published April 5, 2024

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Updated April 5, 2024

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The BMW M5 has always had a clear mission: to look like a boring midsize banker’s sedan and offer a similar level of comfort, but be an absolute missile that can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in quicker than many sports cars and keep up with them in the turns. And it’s a mission at which it excels.

The current sixth-generation M5 bucked tradition, eliminating the manual transmission and abandoning its classic rear-wheel drive layout for all-wheel-drive. Enthusiasts eventually withdrew their knives, mainly because it didn’t suck. But BMW may be planning even bolder changes for the next model, which should be just around the corner.

Here’s what we know so far about the 2025 BMW M5.

The BMW M5 Touring — a.k.a. the station wagon – is coming to the American market

teaser if back end of new bmw m5 touring

BMW confirmed in June 2023 that it is developing an M5 Touring wagon variant for the new 2025 model. It will be just the third time BMW has introduced a wagon variant in the M5’s nearly 40-year history and the first since the V10 E61 M5 left production in 2010.

A camouflaged version of the M5 Touring was spied testing in California in December 2023. And BMW’s head of design Domagoj Dukec confirmed to The Car Guide that BMW will sell both sedan and wagon versions of the next-generation M5 in North America.

Now the company has published an official press release confirming the M5 touring version will come to the United States for the first time ever.

According to the release, the super wagon is now in it’s final stages of development and testing is fully underway.

The release also confirms that the M5 touring will feature “an M Hybrid drivetrain closely related to the one found in the BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP race car. “

What engine will the 2025 BMW M5 have?

In December, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel confirmed to CarExpert the “open secret” that the next BMW M5 will receive the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 plug-in hybrid system used in the new XM crossover.

The engine will likely have different tuning than it does in the XM, where it makes 644 hp in the base model and 738 in the XM Label ~~Red~~. We’ve seen different output numbers thrown around. Car and Driver says 735 horsepower; Autocar says around 790 horsepower.

The most likely figure as of now comes from BMW Blog, who says 718 horsepower — a figure corroborated by an allegedly reputable Bimmer Post forum member. That poster claims the 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 will produce a maximum of 577 horses, while the electric motor spits out up to 194 hp. (Since the two have different power curves, the total system output winds up being less than adding the two together,

The next M5 might wind up being much heavier than the old one

Plug-in hybrid power comes at a cost, though — and that’s weight. Electric motors, heavy wiring and powerful batteries add mass as well as ponies, and even though the M5 will use a smaller battery pack than the hefty XM — 18.6 kWh versus the SUV’s 25.7, according to the aforementioned Bimmer Poster — it’ll still almost certainly pack on pounds versus the previous model.

In fact, according to that Bimmer Post member, the 2025 M5 will weigh 5,368 pounds — roughly 1,000 pounds more than the outgoing sixth-generation model. If these power and weight figures are correct, that would mean the seventh-generation M5 would actually have a worse power-to-weight ratio than the current M5 Competition, so we suspect BMW will either find a way to squeeze some more power from the combined powertrain … or else try to promote other flashy features of the car to sweep that under the rug.

What will the new BMW M5 look like?

bmw m5 station wagon wrapped up like a christmas present

BMW has already unveiled the new 5 Series and 5 Series Touring. The brand does not typically overdo it with the M5 exterior, so the new 5 Series should offer a pretty good preview. Factor in that the M5 will probably get a lip spoiler and a more aggressive front and rear fascia, and consider that the M division has already helped style a new 5er in the form of the i5 M50, and you should be able to start to form a picture of what the car should look like.

santa claus leaning against a bmw m5 station wagon wrapped like a christmas present

Or, of course, you could just take a look at these images of a new 2025 M5 Touring wrapped up like a Christmas present that BMW dropped on Instagram back in December 2023. They leave pretty much nothing to the imagination.

Will there be an electric BMW M5?

Not initially. CAR magazine in the UK initially reported that BMW was working on a tri-motor electric M5 that would put out 1,000 horsepower to slot above the PHEV M5. Though the magazine has since backed off that reporting, only noting that such an M5 would be possible if BMW saw the need.

BMW also already has the dual-motor i5 M60 that packs nearly 600 horsepower for anyone wanting a potent electric sedan.

When will the new BMW M5 arrive?

BMW

BMW has confirmed the seventh-generation M5 will be released in 2024. According to BMW Blog the new M5 sedan will enter production in July 2024 followed by the M5 Touring wagon in November 2024. That timeline should make it a 2025 model year vehicle in America.

How much will the 2025 BMW M5 cost?

side view of bmw m5 station wagon wrapped like a christmas present

BMW has not made any announcements about pricing yet. But we can expect it to be expensive and move upmarket a bit; the current M5 starts at $109,900. The XM Label version set to share its powertrain starts at $185,000. So the price tag could move considerably upward compared with the current model.

BMW M5

The M5 is BMW’s high-performance mid-size sedan, known for providing staggering power and performance in a classic sedan shell. The current generation is the first to have all-wheel-drive and the first to not offer a manual transmission.