We tend to think of the classic-age ocean liners – the likes of the Olympic, the Queen Mary, the Normandie, the United States and so on – as being massive, lumbering hotels at sea. Something the size of a building just shouldn’t be fast.
And yet, not only were these one-time titans of the sea faster by far than you’d think (like, speedboat-fast), but there was actually a genuine competition, known as the Blue Riband, to see which could cross the Atlantic the fastest. Even in wartime, these ships, when turned over to military service, didn’t need an escort to cross the oceans – they could simply outrun any enemy.
Which puts the new BMW M5′s weight problem into some kind of perspective. Yes, it’s heavy, so heavy that at 2,510kg at the kerb, it’s 700kg weightier than the previous M5 CS. But then, like those liners, it has the kind of power that it needs to make the weight almost irrelevant.
The M5, as a species, has generally evolved gently over the years since the original E28 model – with its fabulous 3.5-litre straight-six engine pinched from the seventies M1 supercar – was launched in 1984. Aside from the brief aberration of the 2003 V10-engined version, the M5 has just quietly got on with gently morphing from straight-six to V8 power, and remaining a relatively subtle, under-the-radar way of propelling you quickly and comfortably about the place.
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However, for this new M5 (the G90 model if you’re collecting BMW product codes), Munich knew that a big change was needed, and so while this M5 retains its mighty V8 engine, it is also now a plug-in hybrid.
This is perhaps not the shock that it might once have been. After all, the (hideous) XM SUV laid the groundwork for the combo of V8 and plug-in hybrid power, while BMW has begun campaigning V8 hybrid-powered racing cars at Le Mans.
Electric power is a necessity these days, especially if BMW’s M Division wants to get new models past the beady eyes of legislators. Already, the best-selling M-badged car is electric: the 600hp i5 M60, a delectable electric car if ever there was one. More are coming, including a can’t-wait all-electric next-generation M3 with four electric motors, one for each wheel, although BMW concedes that a six-cylinder petrol M3 will remain in production to appease the battery-doubters.
The new M5 sits in the midst of this sea-change, keeping its V8 petrol engine but adding a 145kW electric motor and an 18.6kWh battery. Charge that battery up (only at 7kW from AC power, sadly) and the M5 has an all-electric range of up to 69km in a best-case scenario, and it doesn’t even feel especially slow when it’s driving on the battery alone.
However, what happens when the petrol and electric halves combine is truly astonishing. The new M5 has a combined power output of 727hp, along with a frankly silly 1,000Nm of torque. That’s just crazy – it’s really not that long ago when 700-odd-horses was the output of a frontline racing car, not a family-friendly executive saloon (with an even more practical Touring estate version to follow).
So, two things are at the forefront of your mind as you approach the M5′s satin-painted flanks (our test car was painted a fetching shade of purple, called Daytona Violet officially). One, that the power will utterly dominate proceedings and, two, if the power doesn’t the weight well.
Actually, neither is the case. Fire up the M5 and as long as there’s charge in the battery, it will start in silent electric mode, the better to allow you to hear the swish of those massive 285 (front) and 295 (rear) section tyres, fitted to asymmetric alloy wheels of 20-inch diameter up front and 21-inches at the back.
The cabin looks mostly like that of any current 5 Series or i5, save for the bright red bits that come with M status, and a set of seats which are possibly the best of any car I’ve ever sat in. The big screen is fiddly and awkward to use, but that’s par for the course these days. Of much more use are the little red M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel which allow you to save pre-sets for the hideously complicated driving modes. So, with M1 saved as a low-key hybrid mode, and M2 saved as a maximum-attack, everything-turned-up-to-11 mode, we headed out.
Obviously, the power is ridiculous at first, even if the weight means that this M5 is slower to get to 100km/h than the last one. That metric really just proves the fallacy of 0-100km/h times, as once it’s up and rolling, the new car leaves the old one for dead in terms of in-gear acceleration. The 80-120km/h is 2.2 seconds if you hold on to fourth gear in the slightly lazy eight-speed automatic gearbox.
With a thunderous (slightly artificially amplified) bellow from the V8, the M5 gets up to silly-high Autobahn speeds with regal ease and serenity. Its stability is helped by rear-wheel steering – another M5 first – and presumably by the sheer battleship weight figure. High-speed touring, where legal, has never seemed so easy.
Corners and tight and twisty roads are where big, hefty things like this M5 tend to come unstuck. And yet, somehow, someone at the M-Division must have been studying at Hogwarts, as the M5 just dances through bends as if someone chanted “Wingardium leviosa” at the wheels. Okay, not entirely – heavy braking and sudden, tight changes of direction will show you precisely in which direction the inertia of that weight is pulling you, but as long as you’re not driving like a maniac, the M5 does a truly remarkable job of disguising its heft. It’s not as gloriously agile as the old M5 CS, but it’s nowhere near as blunt an instrument as many of us feared it would be.
What it is, is addictive. No matter how much we drove the M5 during our two days with it in and around Munich, we just wanted more. At low speeds, as a hybrid or electric car, it’s the comfiest cruiser you ever did meet. Turn on Sport Plus mode and downshift, and it becomes a cultured but menacing muscle car in the classic sense. It’s as if The Rock were to be cast as the new James Bond: sledgehammer hit, sparkling wit.
I’ve saved the best bit till last, though. Because the M5 is a plug-in hybrid, and because it has low official CO2 figures of just 39g/km (although BMW admits that the M5 will consume fuel at the rate of 10.5l/100km if you drive around on a depleted battery), the vagaries of the Irish car taxation system (which has long been easily blindsided by new tech) mean that the M5 is fully €60,000 cheaper than it used to be. In fact, at €137,055, it’s some €15,000 cheaper than the smaller, slower, petrol-only M3. Which also isn’t as pretty.
That makes this M5 not only freakishly fast and profoundly poised, nor only lavish and luxurious, and high-tech too. It makes the M5 a bargain: an honest-to-goodness six-figure, four-seat, 727hp, 2.5-tonne bargain. Blue Riband, indeed.
Lowdown: BMW M5 Saloon
Power: 4.4-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol engine with145kW e-motor and an 18.6kWh lithium-ion battery producing 727hp and 1,000Nm of torque and powering all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.
CO2 emissions (annual motor tax): 39g/km (€140).
Fuel consumption: 1.7l/100km (WLTP)
0-100km/h: 3.5 secs.
Price: €137,055 as tested, M5 starts from €137,055.
Our rating: 5/5.
Verdict: Weighty? Yes. Profligate? A bit. Expensive? Not with a €60,000 discount. Glorious? Absolutely.
