New 2025 BMW 5 Series vs. Old: All Changes Side-by-Side

The BMW 5 Series sedan is all-new for the 2025 model year, with a wild redesign, upgraded engines, more hybrid power options, and a new plug-in hybrid M5 top trim that’s the most powerful version of the ever car ever put on sale, even beating the Competition version from the previous generation. Here’s everything new and old you need to know about the generation gap and new gains on the 2025 BMW 5 Series.

Old (Seventh-Gen) BMW 5 Series: Side View

The seventh-generation BMW 5 Series design reflects a lot of the traditional customs of general BMW sedan design, including the classic Hofmeister kink in the window greenhouse profile shape, the strong shoulder line running down the doors from the front wheel all the way to the taillight, and back to that greenhouse, a relatively tall and airy window design for a comfortable interior effect. It’s a classically shaped 5 Series with hints of modern flare, but typical to the sturdy and muscular motifs of the sedans (and wagons) of the past. It’s very respectful of its legacy and very respectable as a result.

2025 BMW 5 Series: Profile Design

The profile of the updated 2025 BMW 5 Series sedan reflects its extended wheelbase, which has grown 0.8 inches to 117.9 inches for more interior comfort and cargo space (and the longest wheelbase in its segment at launch in 2023), and the overall length of the car has stretched 3.4 inches to a total of 199.2 inches. All trims now come with at least 19-inch sized wheels and can be optioned up to 22-inchers across the various trims available. BMW claims each trim is set up to balance a near-perfect 50-50 weight distribution across the front and rear axles. Of course, the greenhouse also features a modern interpretation of the classic “Hofmeister kink” in the rear-side window frame.

Old BMW 5 Series: Front View

The nose of the seventh-gen 5 Series sedan did stretch the kidney grilles to their largest impression on a 5 than ever before, but it was still in proportion to the subtly larger overall design and kept things simple and, again, respectable without trying too hard, unlike the 4 Series grille design. The bold brow within the headlight design returns from the controversial fifth-generation car, but here it adds a strong character and boldness to the otherwise rather simple and classic BMW fascia.

2025 BMW 5 Series: Front Design

BMW designers claim the new nose of the 2025 BMW 5 Series sedan is meant to emulate the “shark” shaped impression of previous classic BMW designs and is now available with a light-up silhouette on some trims. The classic BMW four-element headlight motif carries over to this new eighth generation car as well. The all-electric BMW i5 models are not available with a frunk; the space is occupied by componentry.

Old BMW 5 Series: Rear View

The rear end of the seventh-gen 5 Series is perhaps the most different to what’s come before on this design, inverting the classic L-shaped taillights upside down with the short tails now angled up, giving a stronger edge to the rear of the trunk. Otherwise, it’s a classic boxy sedan shape slightly smoothed over with a modern touch, but still completely expected for a 5 Series and not trying anything dramatic or too bold and being respectable for it. We did compliment it on our Buyer’s Guide for having a large trunk space, and it shows a bit on the exterior design.

2025 BMW 5 Series: Rear Redesign

The rear of the redesigned 2025 5 Series is certainly edgier with more sharply creased and highlighted layers of lines. The typical “L-shaped” taillight motif returns, mostly in the actual elements themselves and not in the shape of the housings anymore, which some have critiqued to be a little basic and generic-looking. Notably missing from the all-electric 5 Series i5 trims for the first time is a lack of exhaust pipes.

We think it’s a very handsome-styled design overall and very modern compared to the otherwise typically reserved 5 Series designs that have come before.

Old BMW 5 Series: Interior

The interior of the seventh-gen sedan is classic BMW, through and through. The driver display did go digital for the first time on this model, which was a nice upgrade, and there was an optional head-up display. For the center console, you get a trapezoidal button layout with small displays for climate information, coupled with a large slap-on tablet touchscreen above the buttons. Gears are selected with a big clunky shifter, next to that is a rotary dial for controlling the screen settings, and around that in the center are drive mode control buttons, etc. It’s very familiar if you’ve ever been in a modern BMW in the last decade, for better or worse. Some like familiarity and others expect something fresh and innovative. This is definitely in the former category.

2025 BMW 5 Series: Updated Interior

The totally revised 5 Series interior gets some very modern and expected luxury upgrades for the 2025 model year that includes a full glass roof panel option to flood the interior with light that’s offered by most competitors and the ability to now play downloaded games in the center console screen system when the car is parked. That screen’s system now runs BMW’s OS version 8.5 on an all-new single curved dashboard unit that combines a 14.9-inch center infotainment display with the driver’s 12.3-inch digital display; there’s an additional driver head-up display available as well.

That updated BMW OS gets gesture control capability as well as updated voice control, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard. There’s a new interaction bar on some interior trims that can be tuned with different lighting and features some functions like air conditioning.

Old BMW 5 Series: Power and Engines

The old 530i models offered a familiar 248 hp/257 lb-ft turbo 2.0-liter I-4 engine, and the 530e hybrid models added an e-motor to that setup to make 288 hp and 258 lb-ft, with xDrive all-wheel drive variants of both also available. The 540i and xDrive models came with a 3.0-liter turbo I-6 engine good for 335 hp and 331 lb-ft, and the 550i model came exclusively with xDrive and got a 523 hp/553 lb-ft version of the M5’s 4.4-liter V-8 engine.

2025 BMW 5 Series: Updated Gas and Hybrid Powertrains

The upgraded 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder gas engine sees gains of 7 hp and 38 lb-ft of torque to a new total of 255 hp and 295 lb-ft on the rear-drive 530i and all-wheel drive 530i xDrive models (which are also now 48-volt mild hybrids). The higher-performance 540i is exclusively available with xDrive and gets a 3.0-liter inline-six engine good for 375 hp and 384 lb-ft with an additional limited boost feature offering up to 398 lb-ft for a few seconds. All gas models are linked to an 8-speed automatic gearbox.

The First-Ever All-Electric 2025 BMW i5

The fully electric 2025 BMW i5 is available in three further performance trims including the rear-drive eDrive40, an all-wheel drive xDrive40, and the performance-tuned all-wheel drive M60 xDrive. The eDrive50 trim offers 335 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque from a single rear-mounted e-motor linked to an 84.3-kWh battery pack. The xDrive40 trim upgrades to an additional front-mounted e-motor and combined power output of 389 hp and 435 lb-ft linked to the same size battery pack. The M60 xDrive trim gets upgraded dual e-motors and is good for 593 hp and 586 lb-ft of torque with the same size battery pack.

BMW claims the eDrive40 gets between 270 and 295 miles of range on a charge, the xDrive40 gets between 248 and 266 miles, and the M60 xDrive is good for between 240 and 256 miles of range on a charge.

Old BMW M5

The old G10 BMW M5 model is notable for being available in multiple versions; there was the standard 600 horsepower setup with a 4.4-liter V-8 engine, or you could upgrade for a few dozen grand more to the Competition model that boosted things up to 617 hp and gained more aero and some weight savings. In 2021, a new track mode and driving mode selections were added to simplify control over vehicle dynamics.

2025 BMW M5 Plug-In Hybrid Sport Sedan

The 2025 BMW M5 keeps a similar 4.4-liter twin-turbo V-8 gas engine setup but adds hybrid goodness to develop the powertrain into the most powerful M5 on sale, ever. The engine itself is good for 577 hp and 553 lb-ft; an additional permanently excited synchronous electric motor mounted within the car’s eight-speed automatic transmission and linked to a small battery pack adds an additional 192 hp and 207 lb-ft; the total output of grunt hits 717 hp and 738 lb-ft through the xDrive all-wheel drive system with an active M differential. Top speed is 190 mph.

There are a few additional tricks with the M5, including a rear-biased power mode that’s ideal for more slides and the same in-car gaming availability as other 5 Series models, but the downsides are a worse power-to-weight ratio and higher overall mass than the outgoing M5 this replaces, which could mean it doesn’t drive as nice. Oh, and the starting price has also now jumped to an MSRP of $120,675, which is a decent chunk more than before. Is it worth it for the heaviest, but also the most powerful and quickest-accelerating M5 ever designed? We can’t wait to test it soon and tell you all about it.