Prepare To Have Your Prejudices Challenged: BMW’s New M5 Is a Plug-in Hybrid
More power and performance than ever before, and there’s still a V-8 engine under the hood.
Gasp and clutch your pearls: BMW’s new M5 is a plug-in hybrid. Now relax: That PHEV powertrain is anchored by an M-massaged version of BMW’s snarling 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8. This latest iteration of Munich’s supercar-slaying sedan, packing 717 horsepower and up to 737 lb-ft of torque, will storm from 0–60 mph in less than 3.5 seconds and, with the optional BMW Driver’s Pack, hit 189 mph.
0:00 / 0:00
All is right with the world, then.
Yes, It’s Electrified
Keeping the V-8 under the new M5’s hood was at the core of planning for the seventh-generation model from the beginning of its development, says Dirk Hacker, M’s head of engineering. The M5 team knew it must embrace electrification to get the car to meet tough new CO2 regulations, and it believed a plug-in hybrid powertrain was the logical next step. That’s not just because it would allow the new BMW M5 to drive on pure electric power when needed, but also because it could punch more power and torque into the driveline.
However, Hacker is clear there was never any question of downsizing the powertrain’s internal combustion engine element, as has been the case with high-performance plug-in hybrids from other automakers. “The V-8 is a big part of the story of the M5, and we wanted to get this emotional experience into the powertrain,” he says.
Hacker’s boss, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel, puts it rather more bluntly. “The V-8 was so popular and so good for such a long time, it would have been stupid to drop it,” he allows. The knowing smile playing around his lips as he speaks suggests he may feel “sorry” for his rivals at Mercedes-AMG, who have, to the dismay of fans, ditched their wildly popular V-8 in favor of a plug-in hybrid powertrain with a four-cylinder engine in the C63 S E Performance.
Next to the fiendishly complex PHEV powertrain Mercedes-AMG has developed for the C63, which has an e-motor with a two-speed transmission mounted at the rear axle that can also send drive to the front wheels, the new BMW M5’s setup is relatively straightforward. An evolution of the first-ever PHEV powertrain developed by M for the XM SUV, it features an e-motor that develops 194 hp and 206 lb-ft mounted between the engine and the eight-speed M-Steptronic automatic transmission. The one trick is a pre-gearing system that increases the e-motor’s effective torque at the transmission input to 332 lb-ft.
The e-motor is powered by an 18.6-kWh (usable) battery that enables the new M5 to drive up to 43 miles—as measured on the European WLTP cycle—on pure electric power at speeds of up to 87 mph when the new M Hybrid drive mode system is toggled to “Electric.” The AC charge rate is 7.4 kW, though this will be boosted to 11 kW before the end of the year.
Still a Monster V-8
“Hybrid” is the default drive mode, and it mixes and matches the power and torque outputs of both the e-motor and the internal combustion engine to favor efficiency or performance, depending on which of the M drive modes you select. The 4.4-liter V-8 features an M TwinPower turbo setup, a cross-bank exhaust manifold, and track-oriented cooling and oil-supply systems. Revving to 7,200 rpm, it produces 576 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque, the spent gases exiting via a bazooka-caliber quad-exhaust system with electrically controlled continuously variable flaps.
The powertrain drives all four wheels via the performance-oriented M xDrive system, which includes the company’s Active M Differential at the rear. As with other all-wheel-drive M cars, 4WD is the standard mode, with 4WD Sport sending more torque to the rear axle and 2WD sending everything to the rear with the stability control switched off for maximum thrills.
The seventh-generation M5 is the first with rear-wheel steering, the rear wheels pivoting opposite the fronts at speeds below 35 mph to improve agility, and in the same direction at higher speeds to enhance stability. This is also the first BMW M5 with a wider track front and rear than the regular 5 Series sedan, the bodywork pumped out almost 3 inches at the front and almost 2 inches at the rear.
Under the skin are more rigid engine and rear axle support mounts, strut braces connecting the rear axle suspension mounting points, and struts and other bracing elements in the front-end structure. Standard brakes are steel, clamped by six-piston calipers up front and two-piston units at the rear. M Carbon carbon-ceramic brakes are available as an option, and as with other M cars, drivers can switch between Comfort and Sport brake modes.
The Drive Is What Matters
How does it all work? We got to sample a camouflaged new M5 prototype at the fast and sinuous 2.6-mile Salzburgring in Austria, and though our time behind the wheel was brief, this much was certain: The new M5 is hella fast, the PHEV powertrain delivering weapons-grade thrust right through the rev range, especially in the sportiest drive modes. And it feels utterly imperturbable, the chassis planted and composed whether you’re hard on the throttle through a high-speed sweeper or flick-flacking off the curbs through a tight switchback.
Most impressive, while this is the biggest and heaviest M5 in history, it disguises its size and weight brilliantly. Despite a claimed mass of about 5,200 pounds—which means it weighs about 1,000 pounds more than the outgoing M5 and about the same as the PHEV Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid—it feels agile and responsive, thanks in part to the new rear-wheel steering system, even though the rear wheels only steer a maximum of 1.5 degrees in either direction.
“We wanted to have a very neutral, linear feel and predictable behavior,” Hacker says of the M5’s rear steer system. “The best rear-wheel steering is if you don’t feel it. I know a lot of cars have eight degrees or 10 degrees, but they drive like forklift trucks,” he says with a laugh. “When we said we were going for a plug-in hybrid, we knew the car would get heavier, but the weight is between the wheels, at the lowest point in the car. The challenge was then how to get agility and grip.”
Extra Details
Speaking of which, the new BMW M5 rolls on 20-inch front wheels and 21-inch rears, shod with bespoke Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 tires, 285/40 at the front and 295/35 at the rear, with sidewalls (4.5- and 4.1-inches front and rear, respectively) that are surprisingly generous for a heavy, high-performance sedan. For good reason, says van Meel, who points out the tire is considered an integral part of the suspension, a point proved by how smoothly the M5 rides the curbs at the Salzburgring.
If the smaller M cars—the M2, M3, and M4—are edgy road cars that are fun at a track day, the bigger, heavier, more refined M5 feels more like a continent-crushing gran turismo, a car that’s terrifically fast on the autobahn or a deserted back road when you want it to be, but also comfortable and calming when you need it to be. It’s an iron fist in a Hugo Boss suit.
You can’t really see it under the camo, but those pumped fenders hunkered down over the big wheels and tires, the more aggressive facias front and rear, and the prominent side-skirt extensions mean this new M5 is perhaps the most overtly muscular yet in comparison to a regular 5 Series. Yet, it’s still a relatively subtle machine, especially if painted in a subdued color.
It’s much more obviously an M car on the inside, with an M-specific control panel on the center console, a newly designed flat-bottom M leather steering wheel with illuminated M buttons, M multifunction seats, and M-specific content on the digital curved display that stretches across the dash, and on the standard head-up display.
The new M5 also comes standard with BMW’s Live Cockpit Professional package, which includes the BMW Maps navigation system and the Augmented View function on the control display. Other standard goodies include Merino leather trim, four-zone air conditioning, heated front seats, ambient lighting, a Bowers & Wilkins surround-sound audio system, and a panoramic glass roof.
Options include a lightweight carbon-fiber roof, forged aluminum alloy wheels, a carbon exterior package that includes a slightly larger rear Gurney flap across the trunklid, Alcantara headlining, active seat ventilation, a heated steering wheel, and … a tow hitch.
Undisguised BMW M5s are being revealed now and will debut in person next month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with production at the company’s Dingolfing plant beginning the same month. BMW hasn’t yet announced pricing, but the U.S., which is by some margin the M5’s largest single market, should see cars available in BMW dealerships before the end of the year.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
