The new BMW X5 will be unveiled in late June, and we hear it won’t be a quiet affair. A reveal date alone wouldn’t normally be enough to build an event around, but the X5 isn’t just another model update this time. The X5 is BMW’s best-selling nameplate globally, with more than 3.1 million units sold across four generations, and the fifth one happens to be the most significant rework the car has gotten since it launched in Spartanburg 27 years ago. So expect an impressive reveal that will highlight why the X5 is such an important vehicle for the brand.
The new X5 family will include the first iX5 electric SUV on the Neue Klasse-derived platform, along with a four other powertrains that will cater to a wide demographic, globally. BMW will give customers a choice between combustion-powered X5s (petrol and diesel), plug-in hybrids (several), fully electric and hydrogen-powered in 2028.
Production Late Summer, Early Fall 2026
Production doesn’t wait long after the reveal. BMW will start building the new X5s this late summer, early fall. The plant is expected to roll out the first G65 X5s with a combination of petrol engines, like the X5 40 and 40d xDrive, alongside a X5 50e xDrive plug-in hybrid, M60e xDrive and the fully electric iX5 60 xDrive. Other variants will follow in 2027.
That’s five powertrain families spread across one chassis, which is more than any BMW has launched with before. The combustion, diesel, plug-in hybrid, electric, and hydrogen versions all share the same body and suspension hardpoints, despite a weight spread of roughly 600 kg between the lightest and heaviest variants.
How well that engineering compromise actually holds up is something we’ll know more about once the car is out of camouflage and into customer hands.
We’ve actually had a head start on that question. Ahead of the reveal, we got time behind the wheel of camouflaged G65 prototypes at BMW’s Performance Center next to Plant Spartanburg, running the X5 40 xDrive, the X5 50e xDrive, and the iX5 60 xDrive back to back on the same roads.
The short version: the weight gap between the lightest and heaviest versions is not as noticeable as we expected, and the plug-in hybrid hides its gas-to-electric handoff well enough that BMW’s own engineers say the dashboard display is the only way to know it happened. We’ve got the full prototype drive written up, along with video from behind the wheel, so have a read and a watch before the camouflage comes off for good in a couple of weeks.
For now, all eyes are on late June.
