Article Summary
- A production X5 M60 was caught on a street in North Carolina in Vancouver Green with the M Sport Pro package.
- The cabin shows an M Sport Pro steering wheel with 4-and-8 o'clock spokes and the optional passenger screen.
- BMW hasn't confirmed V8 output; the outgoing S68 makes 523 hp, and the M60e PHEV already claims 603 hp.
A 2027 BMW X5 M60, the V8-powered flagship of the new G65 generation, was spotted parked on a public street in North Carolina, not far from where BMW builds it. A few weeks ago, BMW itself let this car slip in a production line video, showing the M60 badge on a Dravit Grey unit rolling down the Spartanburg line before the company had officially confirmed the name existed. This time nobody at BMW pointed a camera at it. Somebody just happened to walk past.
Four Pipes Don’t Mean What They Used To
Quad exhaust tips used to be shorthand for “this is a real M car.” Not anymore. BMW has been handing them to M Performance models for a few years now, and the X5 M60 is just the latest to wear the look without the rest of an M car’s hardware. This particular car is finished in Vancouver Green, which is new to the X5 lineup, and it’s wearing the M Sport Pro package that debuted on the X5 M60e. That’s the M Performance-specific light graphics package, a blacked-out trim and yellow lights.
A Cabin Still Wired Up For Testing
You can tell this is still a development car the second you look inside. There’s testing equipment sitting where a finished dash would be clean, the sort of wiring BMW normally rips out before letting a car anywhere near a public street. That part isn’t finished. The steering wheel is. It’s the M Sport Pro wheel, and it’s a genuine departure. Spokes sit at 4 and 8 o’clock instead of the classic 3 and 9, there’s M color stitching worked through the rim, and BMW swapped the usual tricolor stripe at 12 o’clock for a plain black marker.
The passenger screen is here too, the same one that’s standard on the 7 Series and optional on the X5. BMW clearly isn’t holding back tech for the sedan alone anymore, which tracks with where the rest of the lineup has been heading.
An M Engine Under The Hood
Here’s what BMW hasn’t told anyone: how much power the V8 actually makes. The current X5 M60i’s twin-turbo 4.4-liter S68 is rated at 523 hp and 553 lb-ft, and BMW has confirmed that engine survives into the G65 generation rather than getting axed for something smaller. What’s odd is the order of arrival. The X5 M60e, a plug-in hybrid borrowing the M760e’s turbo inline-six and electric motor, lands first with 603 hp and 590 lb-ft, meaning the hybrid will outgun the V8 on paper for a stretch before the gas car even goes on sale later in 2027.
We’d guess BMW nudges the S68 up a bit for this generation, if only so the M60 doesn’t look outclassed by its own PHEV sibling on a spec sheet. But BMW also has to leave room below whatever the next X5 M ends up making, so don’t expect a huge jump. Until BMW actually publishes a figure, anything more specific than “a bit more than 523” is somebody’s guess, ours included.
