Will the superwagon only be for everybody else, or will U.S. wagon fans get in on the action?
It's a shame, really. Station wagons haven't really had a fair shot in the U.S. since the invention of the SUV. That means we've missed out on some truly remarkable cars that match utility with carlike capabilities that've been sold elsewhere in the world. One more that we may miss is the 2025 BMW M5 Touring, and it might be a hard pill to swallow, or it might not!
The tease that BMW provides us is that it's not going to be far off from the 2024 M5 Sedan which shares the plug-in hybrid powertrain from the XM SUV—a 483 hp twin-turbo V-8 with a 194 hp electric motor. The XM also uses a 29.5 kWh battery pack, but we'll see what makes it over to the M5 sedan.
The Touring wagon, on the other hand, might be able to lend some of its cargo room in exchange for a 48-volt setup. If it can, it may also get slightly better all-electric range than the XM, which already gets 30 miles before it needs to fire up that twin-turbo beast.
BMW doesn't mention if it will be RWD only or if a version of the XMs AWD system will be implemented, but teases that the "integrated application of all drive and suspension systems" will be tested.
It's still going to be some time before we know for certain when or if the 2025 BMW M5 Touring will come to the U.S., which Car and Driver says it "could" come with more than 700 horsepower. For now, we'll have to satiate our appetite for this uberwagon with these images and anything our spy photographers can capture.
BMW has said its prototypes will be testing around the country roads and motorways around Munich, its headquarters in Garching, and around Nurburgring Nordschleife, where M expects to really ring out its performance.
The first BMW M5 Touring was the E34 series that came with a 3.8 liter I-6 that produced 340 hp.
To a large extent, the E34 M5 Touring was a hand finished machine.
The engine choice was the same engine developed for the BMW M1, the S38B38 I-6. The original M1 engine was a 3.5 liter displacement, but the larger, heavier M5 Touring required more power and the bore and stroke of the engine was increased to its 3.8 liter displacement. It and the E34 M5 Sedan were the final two vehicles that used the S38.
The next M5 Touring was the E61 series as, unfortunately, BMW did not create an M-version of the E39 wagon. It was an absolute track-capable five door that never saw the light of day in the U.S.
However, history would repeat itself as BMW would not create an M-version of the F11 series and would only resurrect the M5 Touring in this newest generation we're seeing today.
But what an engine to have closed the series on at that point. The E61 M5 Touring used BMWs legendary 5.0 liter V-10, the S85B50. It produced a maximum output of 507 hp to give the E61 M5 Touring a staggering 8.38 lbs/hp power to weight ratio. It makes us excited to see what the next M5 Touring will be like and pray that we finally get this uberwagon.