The New BMW 5-Series Touring Is Bigger Than Ever

It’s been a long time coming. One of the longest teaser campaigns for a car in recent memory has finally come to an end, with the arrival of the BMW 5-series Touring. There are no surprises considering we’re familiar with the saloon already but, most importantly, this one is the most spacious to wear the nameplate yet.

With 570 litres of space available with all seats in place, the bump over the previous generation is small - a 10-litre increase - but it’s worth noting that figure will remain identical no matter which powertrain choice you go for. Drop the back seats down, and that climbs up to 1,700 litres.

At launch, the 5-series will be offered exclusively as an i5, both in dual-motor, M60 form and single-motor, eDrive40, much like the saloon on which it’s based.

Go for the former, and that’ll offer up 593bhp and 605lb ft of torque, allowing for a 3.9 second 0-62mph sprint putting it just a tenth shy of the saloon. Official WLTP figures give a range of up to 314 miles, putting it six miles below the sleeker stablemate.

The eDrive40 is slower, naturally, but no slouch. With 335bhp and 317lb ft on tap, it’ll cover 0-62mph in 6.1 seconds while offering up to 348 miles of range as a trade-off.

Plug-in hybrid versions will join the line-up later on in the year, starting with the 295bhp 530e. This will offer up to 60 miles of electric-only driving, pairing a single motor up to a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot. For the time being, at least, there’ll be no pure petrol version available in the UK, and certainly no diesel.

Most excitingly, we know a BMW M5 Touring is arriving for the first time since the E61 and its V10. We’re expecting this to use a V8 plug-in hybrid system derived from the XM SUV, potentially offering 737bhp and 738lb ft of torque if the ‘Label’ state of tune is carried over.

As with the saloon, the 5-series Touring uses BMW’s iDrive 8 displayed across a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch curved infotainment screen. Styling remains the same, albeit with the exception of a higher roofline of course, including the option of a light-up grille.

Order books have opened straight away for the BMW 5-series Touring. An i5 eDrive40 starts at £69,040, with the M60 available from £99,040. We’ll have to wait a little longer for more details on the 530e plug-in hybrid.