BMW i5 Review (2023-present)

What is the BMW i5?

The BMW i5 is essentially an all-electric version of the eighth-generation BMW 5 Series saloon (which is also offered with petrol mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrain options), with a ‘Touring’ estate version also available. It goes up against premium electric executive saloon rivals such as the Mercedes-Benz EQE, the Tesla Model S, the Porsche Taycan and the forthcoming Audi A6 E-Tron.

In order to compete, the i5 borrows quite a bit from its bigger brother, the all-electric i7 limousine. That means it’s packing plenty of technological innovations and novel use interface solutions, some of them more successful than others. Like every 5 Series there’s ever been, though, the i5 really needs to impress on the road if it's going to keep its army of loyal fans marching forward with it into the all-electric generation.

The i5's range according to official tests is 362 miles for the eDrive40 model, and 320 miles for the more powerful M60. Both use the same 81.2kWh battery, and the max rapid charging speed is 205kW.

How practical is it?

You’d expect any executive saloon to be roomy enough to transport work colleagues from meeting to meeting in comfort, and that’s precisely what the i5 does. Predictably, there’s loads of space in the front, while in the rear, you get generous legroom (not surprising when the car has a wheelbase of almost three metres) and more-than-adequate headroom, so even your tallest workmates should be able to travel in comfort. Provided there aren’t too many of them, that is. The rear bench is great for two people, but attempt to squeeze in a third, and nobody will be very comfortable because the cabin is too narrow to comfortably accommodate three sets of shoulders. The middle seat is hard and narrow, too, and the hump in the middle of the floor impinges on the foot space available.

The boot is very competitive for size, with 490 litres of space provided, which is only 30 litres down on what you get in the regular combustion-engined 5 Series. Being a saloon, however, the space is rather shallow and access to it isn't as good as with a hatchback. The rear seats fold 40/20/40 for when you need to carry bigger loads, but the aperture between the boot space and passenger compartment is rather narrow and oddly-shaped. And because the boot floor sits higher than the backs of the folded rear seats do, there’s an odd step in the extended load area, which can get in the way.

Like you’d expect in any BMW - especially one costing this much - the quality on show in the i5 is really impressive, with lustrous materials, a really pleasant mix of textures and finishes, and a superb standard of assembly.

What’s it like to drive?

There are two versions of the i5 available. The first of them, the eDrive40, has a single electric motor delivering its power to the rear wheels, so in the best traditions of BMW, it’s rear-wheel drive. This motor delivers 308bhp under normal circumstances, an output that’s hiked up to 335bhp when the car’s Sport Boost function or launch control are enabled. Doing so makes it capable of doing 0-62mph in 6.0 seconds, but regardless of mode, the car is alway ready, willing and able to pick up the pace at an impressive rate of knots. Any request for an increase in pace is responded to immediately and emphatically, and there will be very few people for whom the eDrive40 is not fast enough.

For those people who represent the exceptions to that rule, however, there is the BMW i5 M60 xDrive. As the name suggests, this adds a second electric motor to power the front wheels for all-wheel drive, and when everything is cranked up to the max, the total output of this dual-motor arrangement stands at 593bhp and a staggering 820Nm of torque. To be honest, the (albeit very impressive) 0-62mph figure of just 3.8 seconds is fairly meaningless compared with the sensation of speed that delivers: it’s absolutely ballistic. The first time you unfurl the full fury of all that power, you’d have to be some sort of modern-day saint to not let a swear word slip out.

And even with the car in one of its less aggressive settings, the pickup is still instant and capable of being devastatingly quick, although the acceleration is also easy to modulate, so driving the car slowly isn’t difficult.

Regardless of speed, refinement is sensational. That’s no great surprise given the i5 is a luxurious executive car with an electric drivetrain, but even given those parameters, it impresses at all speeds. Provided you turn off the snappily named ‘BMW IconicSounds Electric’, that is. Like in other BMW EVs, this is a suite of futuristic sounds - which BMW proudly declares were developed alongside film composer Hans Zimmer - that mirror your driving behaviour to make your journey either more theatrical or more relaxing. This will be a delight to some drivers, and an intolerable gimmick to others.

The eDrive40 comes as standard with a passive M Sport suspension, while an adaptive system can be added as an option. We’ve not tried the latter, but based on our experience of the former, we can see why it might be appealing. The standard setup is far from uncomfortable, but there is a distinct brittleness to the ride, particularly at low speeds, so it might not cosset you in quite the way you expect from a luxurious executive car. That said, the ride does level off as you go faster, and feels supremely planted on the motorway.

The payoff for the firm suspension is strong body control when changing direction, while grip levels are strong and responses are quick. Some might wish the steering had a bit more weight and feedback, especially in a BMW, but it’s nothing that undermines your confidence in the car’s abilities.

The M60 gets the adaptive suspension setup as standard, or as an (expensive) option, you can choose to upgrade this to a system that includes Active Roll Stabilisation, which uses 48-volt electric motors to compensate for lateral forces to keep the body more level when cornering. The car we tried was fitted with the optional system, and it’s seriously effective, making the car feel lighter and more agile than something of this size and weight has any right to. Importantly, the ride is much smoother, too: the sportier settings introduce that firmness if and when you want it, but the more comfort-focused settings take the edge off really effectively when you don’t.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

The i5 gets some tech that’s trickled down from the flagship i7/7 Series limousine, and that includes BMW’s Interaction Bar. It may sound like a venue for speed-dating, but it’s actually a horizontal trim strip that runs the full width of the dashboard and part of the way into the door trims, and it provides ambient lighting that reflects the activity of the car or the driving mode you’ve selected, and it also houses a number of touch-sensitive controls to operate various functions, many of which are peripheral functions of the ventilation system. It’s an interestingly unique feature - if rather gimmicky - but for us, it’s no substitute for having proper physical buttons and switches.

Alas, you get very few of those elsewhere, too, because - as is the fashion these days - control of most functions happens through the infotainment screen. This is a 14.9-inch item that sits alongside a 12.3-inch driver’s display in a single frameless curved unit, and to be fair, it looks pretty swish. The system runs BMW’s latest Operating System 8.5 software.

Like most systems, it has touchscreen functionality, but mercifully, it can also be navigated by turning and pressing the rotary controller on the centre console, which is much less distracting. The shortcut buttons alongside the dial help, too, and there are also shortcuts to the most regularly used functions running across the bottom of the screen, so user-friendliness could be a lot worse. Still, the system takes plenty of getting used to just due to the fact that it’s so complex.

This same iDrive infotainment arrangement comes as standard with all i5 models, and it includes DAB radio, Bluetooth hands-free phone operation, native navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless phone charging and a Harman Kardon sound system.

It might be a sporty upgrade in other BMW model ranges, but M Sport trim is the entry-level trim in the i5 range, and this comes with 19-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, ‘Veganza’ vegan-leather upholstery, heated sports front seats, parking assistance, a reversing camera and adaptive LED headlights. Next in the list of specs is M Sport Pro trim, which adds 20-inch alloy wheels and some extra exterior styling elements including an illuminated grille, while the M60 specification adds even more styling upgrades, plus the upgraded suspension and plentiful extra power that we mentioned earlier.

BMW i5 running costs

Big cars aren’t cheap. Electric vehicles aren’t cheap. BMWs aren’t cheap. So it’ll come as no surprise whatsoever that a big electric BMW most certainly isn’t cheap. The base-level BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport variant checks in at around £75,000, while choosing M Sport Pro trim adds another £3,000 to the price (which seems like a lot for some bigger wheels and a few styling goodies). Plump for the M60 and you’ll be paying close to £100,000, and you won’t have to add too many optional extras to take the price over that threshold and far beyond.

Insurance groups are yet to be formally announced, but a car this powerful and this expensive is going to be sitting towards the top of the 50-group scale, and the M60 will be right at the top. At least you won’t have to pay to put petrol in the i5, though, and filling it with electricity should prove much cheaper than running a combustion-engined 5 Series if you have the ability to charge at home. If you haven’t already, you can read about the i5’s range and charging times in the ‘Three Things to Know’ section of this review.

The i5’s electric car status also means you won’t pay a penny in VED (road tax), congestion charges or ULEZ charges. By far the biggest savings, though, can be had by company car drivers, who will pay Benefit-in-Kind company car tax on just 2% of the i5’s value. Compared to a combustion-engined car, even a relatively cheap one, this will save you a not-so-small fortune in monthly bills.

BMW i5 reliability

Predicting the reliability of a new car is pretty much impossible, but looking at BMW’s historical performance can provide some clues. Take a look at the 2023 What Car? Reliability Survey, and the previous version of the 5 Series did pretty well in the Executive Car class. Petrol and diesel models were considered separately, with the petrol 5 Series coming second in the 24-model category, while diesel versions came 11th. In the manufacturer standings, BMW came 12th out of the 32 carmakers considered in the study, which was way ahead of premium German rivals such as Mercedes and Audi.

Like all BMWs, the i5 is protected by a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty. The battery meanwhile is under warranty for eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.