Article Summary
- BMW M developed the car with real police-vehicle requirements in mind, meaning it could theoretically be adapted for actual service.
- Unlike the fake police cars displayed at the Essen Motor Show, this one was developed by BMW M with actual police-vehicle requirements in mind.
- BMW says the M5 Touring could potentially be built for police use if an authority were to place an order.
BMW has built a police car that makes far more sense than it probably should. Meet the M5 Touring police patrol car, a 717-horsepower super wagon the M division built as a show car for Germany’s authorities. Unlike the fake police cars we’ve seen at the Essen Motor Show over the years, this one comes straight from the people who build BMW’s Authority Vehicles. If you haven’t heard of this department, it builds specially engineered, factory-modified cars for police, fire, medical, and government protection services.
The idea came from BMW M’s development team in Garching, where the company also works on vehicles for government agencies and emergency services. According to Sascha Eifel, Head of Development Authority and Special Vehicle / Functional Safety at BMW M, the team wanted to combine those two worlds into one show car: a genuine high-performance M car wearing the kind of livery you’d normally associate with a 5 Series patrol vehicle.
The result is about as wonderfully excessive as you’d expect. The G99 M5 Touring gets the full German police treatment, including blue and neon-yellow graphics, retro-reflective white sections, and a roof-mounted emergency light. BMW had to modify the usual 5 Series police wrap to accommodate the M5’s much wider wheel arches and bumpers. The light bar is also flatter and more aerodynamic than the standard unit used on regular patrol cars.
A Police Officer’s Dream Vehicle
Underneath all that police equipment is the same plug-in hybrid powertrain found in the regular M5 Touring. The twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 works with an electric motor to produce 717 horsepower, giving the long-roof M car more than enough muscle for motorway patrol duty. BMW M even points out that the hybrid setup could be useful in urban areas, although authorities still overwhelmingly favor conventional combustion-powered vehicles for now.
Naturally, this isn’t a fully equipped police car just yet. BMW admits there are a few creative liberties. The red Merino leather seats wouldn’t exactly survive the usual fleet-specification process, while the rear doors feature BMW logos where a Bavarian state emblem would normally go. There’s also no weapons onboard, despite the M5 looking ready to chase down just about anything on the Autobahn.
BMW Could Build It If There’s Enough Demand
BMW says the car could theoretically go into production if authorities showed enough interest. In other words, this isn’t necessarily just a fantasy. If a police department placed an order, BMW M says it would look into building the car.
That’s considerably more serious than the faux police BMWs that have become something of an Essen Motor Show tradition. We’ve covered several of them over the years, created for Germany’s “Tune It! Safe!” initiative. These cars wear police-style wraps, warning lights, and a whole host of aftermarket modifications, but none of them are actual patrol cars. Well, neither is this G99 (for now).
BMW says it developed the project around the requirements for a real police vehicle, including ensuring the wrap doesn’t interfere with the sensors and driver-assistance systems. Now the German automaker just needs to find a police department brave enough to actually order one.
