BMW has stopped pretending the Neue Klasse electric push is a side project. After the iX3 came the real test of nerve: turning the brand’s biggest, heaviest, most image-defining SUV electric without turning it into a compromise. So BMW did something almost disarmingly honest — it let journalists drive the combustion X5 and the electric iX5 back to back, on the same day, inviting direct comparison. According to Motor1’s first drive, the verdict stings a little for the gas camp: the iX5 is simply the more complete car.

The numbers explain the confidence. A 144.0-kWh battery feeds a dual electrically excited synchronous motor setup for 570 horsepower and 593 lb-ft of torque, all-wheel drive, and a 0-60 mph run of 4.4 seconds — BMW’s claim for the quickest non-M X5 ever built. Top speed sits at 130 mph. Range is pegged at “more than 450 miles” on BMW’s own estimate, with no EPA figure yet, and DC fast charging up to 460 kW can take the car from 10 to 80 percent in roughly 20 to 24 minutes. All of that costs $81,250 for the sole iX5 60 trim at launch — about $10,000 over the gas X5 before options, and the test car’s extras likely pushed it well past that.

What’s more telling is how it drives. The reviewer doesn’t reach for sporty language at all — he calls the iX5’s character “dignified,” closer to a luxury boat gliding along than an SUV auditioning for an M badge. The car feels roughly 1,000 pounds lighter than its near-three-ton curb weight suggests, grip in tight corners impresses, and power arrives smoothly rather than violently — even in Sport mode, it never pretends to be something it isn’t. The brake pedal, on the other hand, demands real effort, and once that mass makes itself known, stopping from 50 mph to a red light can feel abrupt.

Visually, the X5 gets the same Neue Klasse treatment already seen on the iX3, the 3 Series and the updated 7 Series — and it’s the one area where the reviewer pushes back. The X-shaped headlights and wing-style door handles read as styling for its own sake; the automatic doors on his test car often needed several tugs to cooperate. More painful is the loss of the X5’s signature split tailgate, which BMW attributes to customer feedback but the review suspects owes more to the accountants than to any survey.

The cabin is where BMW clearly spent its effort. Material quality, the Alcantara detailing and the heated, ventilated, massaging seats all draw praise, even if the single-spoke steering wheel with haptic controls is too small and overloaded with functions for a car this size. A 17.9-inch center screen runs nearly everything — there are no physical climate or drive-mode controls left — and the new AI assistant is still learning its job: during testing, it routed the car straight onto private driveways. The Panoramic iDrive display, by contrast, is a genuinely clever touch that doesn’t eat into the main screen’s real estate.

Motor1’s conclusion lands flatly: “The iX5 is the better X5. Period.” Ride quality, range and interior materials are the wins; price, divisive styling and screen overload are the costs. For a brand that spent decades treating the combustion engine as part of its identity, admitting the electric version is simply the better car says more than any spec sheet could.

Source: Motor1 (https://motor1.com/reviews/812968/2027-bmw-ix5-first-drive-review/)