The latest generation of the legendary BMW M5 is now a hybrid. That’s right, I said it, a hybrid. However, this should be a good thing, as it should be where both internal combustion engines and electric meet, hopefully providing a vehicle with the best of both worlds.
BMW have combined the TwinPower turbo V8 with a hybrid electric powertrain, that delivers 535kW of power (727Hp) and up to 1,000Nm of torque. This means that the M5 can get to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds. All of these figures are worthy of the M5 badge, but is it going to feel like an M5? I last drove the previous generation F90 M5 back in 2018 (BMW M5 – Car Review – An apex predator) and loved it. A lot has changed in the last six years, in fact it feels like another world if we think back to it.
The first thing I noticed was the price, it’s jumped a lot since the last model, which started at $199,990. The base price for the G90 M5 is now $244,900.
Will the G90 have what it takes to show that six years of evolution justifies the price difference and the hybrid direction, or should they have stuck with their tried and true formula?
What We Like and Dislike About The 2025 BMW M5 Sedan
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Exterior styling Performance Technology Carbon roof Spacious boot Headrest logos | Frozen paint Front seats Engine sound / fake sound Too many options Price Weight Carbon lip spoiler looks cheap |
What’s In The 2025 BMW M5 Range?
The new BMW M5 is available in New Zealand as a sedan and a touring variant. Both vehicles have the same setup, with the wagon having a bit more boot space.
The engine behind the new M5 is a 4.4-litre TwinPower turbo V8, which is assisted by a hybrid electric motor. It’s 0–100 times are rather impressive considering the additional weight of the hybrid system between the engine and transmission. The chassis incorporates adaptive M suspension and 4-wheel drive using M xDrive. The weight is something of a talking point, as it’s around 500kg heavier than the previous model, at a total kerb weight of 2,435kg. It’s comparable to other vehicles, such as the BMW X5M competition high-performance SUV, which weighs 2,310kg. But the M5 is still faster to 100 by 0.4 of a second.
BMW advertise that on the outside you have the four exhaust tailpipes with flap controllers to deliver the sound you expect from an M, while on the inside M sound adapts to the drive mode selected. I was curious to see how well this would work for the new M5.
2025 BMW M5 Colour Range
- Alpine White metallic – NCO
- M Brooklyn Grey metallic – NCO
- M Marina Bay Blue metallic – NCO
- M Carbon Black metallic – NCO
- Sophisto Grey Brilliant Effect metallic -NCO
- M Isle of Man Green metallic – NCO
- Fire Red metallic – NCO
- Black Sapphire metallic – NCO
- Storm Bay metallic – $4,100
- BMW Individual Frozen Deep Grey metallic – $7,100
Our Review Vehicle’s Optional Equipment
- BMW Individual Paintwork (Frozen Deep Grey metallic) – $7,100
- Trailer Tow Hitch – $2,600
Including the optional equipment, our review car’s retail price is $254,600. For a full list of specs and options available for the BMW M5, head on over to BMW New Zealand’s website.
How Does The 2025 BMW M5 Sedan Compare To Its Competition?
This one is tricky, as the M5 of old has always had two main rivals: the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG and the Audi RS6. Over the years they have gone through various generational changes, with each brand offering the same thing, sedans and or wagons.
Now, Mercedes only has the new hybrid AMG GT 63 SE 4-door coupe, which is a bit more expensive. Audi only offers the RS6 as a wagon, without any hybrid option. BMW are, however, offering the M5 in sedan and wagon once again and the BMW is the cheapest of the three.
Porsche has always been an outsider to this trio, but with the price bracket wide open, it’s anyone’s game. Anyway, my point is, now the M5 is a hybrid, it’s very hard to compare these models, as they are all a bit different in price, spec and overall package.
| Make/ Model | Engine | Power/ Torque kW/Nm | 0-100km/h, seconds | Fuel L/100km | Boot Space, litres | Price |
| Mercedes-Benz GT 63 S E | Twin Power Turbo V8 Plugin-Hybrid Electric | 620 / 1,420 | 2.8 | 7.7 | 365 | $369,100 |
| Porsche Panamera 4S E-Hybrid | Twin Turbo V6 Hybrid | 400 / 750 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 430 | $294,500 |
| Audi RS6 Avant Performance | Twin Power Turbo V8 | 463 / 850 | 3.4 | 11.5 | 565 | $249,990 |
| BMW M5 | Twin Power Turbo V8 Plugin-Hybrid Elecctric | 535 / 1,000 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 466 | $244,900 |
Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication, however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.
First Impressions Of The 2025 BMW M5 Sedan
Well, it’s a big car, bigger than most when you park them side by side in a BMW dealership. Apart from that, it’s very understated, which I like. The paint on our review car is BMW Individual Frozen Deep Grey metallic, a $7,100 option. It made the M5 look like something Batman would drive. A lot of people loved it, but to be honest, it was not my cup of tea at all, and from my experience, frozen paint is a bit of a nightmare to live with. As any chips or scratches can’t be touched up, any minor damage need repainting to repair.
Surprisingly, the standard wheels on the new M5 are staggered – 20” at the front and 21” at the back. Our review car had fully black wheels, which didn’t really set them off, but they looked nice.
Inside, you had the red and black Merino leather interior, which I did like. It made the car feel very sporty and special. I was keen to get in to see if this new M5 was all it’s cracked up to be.
What’s The Interior Like In The 2025 BMW M5 Sedan?
Inside the BMW M5, it is bright and sporty, with our test car spec’d with the red and black Merino leather interior. It is loud, and not everyone’s taste, but I like it. It makes the M5 feel special and fast, which is what it’s meant to feel like.
I remembered from the last M5 I reviewed that the seats were great, so comfy. However, something had changed with the front seats, as I really struggled to find my spot in them. Over the week I had the car, I never found a comfy position, and I had multiple comments from passengers. I felt the main issue was that the old M5 could adjust the top half of the seat so it didn’t push your shoulder forward. The new M5 didn’t allow this, and unless you had the seat vertical, you always felt like your shoulders were being pushed forward. Maybe this was my height, but several people made similar comments. Apart from that, which is rather important, the seats look great, both are heated and cooled, and they have a cool M5 logo just under the headrest, which lights up at night.
These issues didn’t extend to the rear seats, which were more comfy – something many passengers also commented about, which was rather strange. They felt like there was more padding and more support for your back in the rear over the front two. The rear seats also had access to controls behind the centre console for the multi-zone air conditioning and the rear heated seats.
The dash is clean and similar in design to the recently reviewed BMW X3 M50 xDrive. They have done away with visible air vents and replaced them with sleekly designed gaps in the dash, which have a directional controller just under them to point the air. I love this, as it really made the interior feel clean and modern. Across the dash and down both front doors ran an LED trim panel, which could be adjusted to the driver’s colour preference or with animated lights running down it when you get into the car. This LED panel also has a lot of touch buttons on it for seat memory positions, door locks and air vent controls.
The main dash feature is the large widescreen display that runs from the driver’s side all the way to the middle. The central infotainment system is great, at first glance. In typical fashion, BMW allow you access to all the options and features, some of which you will never need or want to know about. But they are there, and they clutter up the main apps page a lot. Apart from that, the only other issue is the speed it works, page changes can be a bit slow.
In this infotainment system, you have access to the full range of the M settings for the car. This will take a while for you to navigate as it’s not just one menu. It will need a bit of time which I had to set aside to figure out all the current settings and remap the M1 and M2 buttons to experience what this M5 is all about, and everything it has to offer.
Right below the dash, there is a tray area, which can hold two large phones side by side. This was great as you don’t see that much in cars these days. The only downside here was that the right side of this area was the only part that had Qi wireless charging, and I couldn’t work out why you wouldn’t make it wireless for both sides, as it would be useful.
The boot is a great space, rather deep – great for big suitcases or travel bags. It’s 466 litres, and you can also fold down the rear seats for more space. There is no spare wheel in the M5, just a gel kit, for any unexpected punctures.
What’s The 2025 BMW M5 Sedan Like To Drive?
This is a very interesting car to drive, it’s almost two cars in one, a very laid-back sedan and a high-performance monster. But is this what the M5 should be? I do believe that hybrids are the way of the future, so much more than pure electric. So before I get too deep into it, I just want to set the tone of my opinions. I have owned various high-performance cars over the years, two Audi RS6s a BMW 540M Wagon, and an Audi R8. And my point here is that I know what is expected from these cars and what they are like to live with over many years.
Let’s start with the M5 in its Normal driving mode, which in most cases starts in hybrid or full electric mode. In the M5, the electric motor is between the engine and the transmission, which enables the engine to switch off when it’s not required. When driving in pure EV mode, the M5 does everything it’s meant to do in regard to an everyday drive. And it does it without any drama or fuss, there is no noise, no feeling in the car, just no excitement. You could almost mistake the engine being on, as BMW’s M sound feeds engine noises into the cabin for an immersive experience. It sounds okay. When driving normally around, it does alright and would not bother me at all. But it does add to the fake environment and uninspired feeling when driving around. It could be any car at all. And this to me is a problem, because it’s not just any car at all. This is an M5.
The hybrid battery holds around 70km range, which is more than enough for a lot of day-to-day driving. If you are diligent, have your at-home charger and charge the car every night, you will undoubtedly find that the M5 is one of the most efficient vehicles you have ever owned. For the first few days I had the car, I stayed in this mode to see how efficient it was, and I managed to achieve between 2.5 and 3.5 litres per 100km. Which for an M5 is mad, the V8 on idle would be using that much fuel. However, to achieve this, you can’t have any of the fun stuff, you can’t use the V8 a lot, and you have to be using the electric side of the vehicle for the majority of the time. You also have to drive in a relatively efficient manner. This, to me, begs the question of why you would want to drive like this, after buying an M5?
The BMW M5 has been infamous for having an endless raft of settings available to the driver, and the G90 M5 is no different; there are so many options in the drive modes, driver assistant and performance modes. Whoever had driven it before me had really messed up all the settings, so I ran through and reset them to the best I could. There are two key performance modes, M1 and M2, both of which have buttons on the steering wheel that you can press that will activate or switch over a string of settings to your preferred driving mode. For the purposes of the review, M1 was going to be set up as the Sport mode, and M2 would be set up as the Sport Plus mode.
In M1, the drivetrain was set to sport, M hybrid set to Dynamic, transmission set to D (auto), Drivelogic set to Sport, energy recovery set to max, Chassis set to Sport, Steering set to Sport, brakes set to Sport, DSC set to on, M xDrive set to 4WD and M Sound set to On. Like I said, there are a lot of options, thankfully the M buttons make this quicker and easier to switch over in one go. Once in M1 mode, it was like it I sat in a different car, as the entire car came to life. There was feeling from the steering wheel, the brakes, feedback in the turns, the engine had a great rumble to it and a sharp response to the throttle too. It’s at this point, I said, “Oh yes, this is more like it” as I was expecting a lot from the M5, and it was starting to deliver.
Any normal red-blooded male would then think, if M1 feels this good, M2 will be better. And it was. M2 set the above list to Sport Plus, and the vehicle changed again, moving from the sporty sedan to an unleashed muscle car. Everything got dialled up to 11, the steering, the brakes, the engine went up, like your senses were enhanced. And the noise, oh the noise, became so good. This was what I had been searching for, the silly grin moment, something that had not happened yet. But M2 made the silly grin, and boy was this vehicle alive when you really started to drive it.
The speed is astonishing, you are forced back into your seat, not just your head, but your chest is pushed back as the acceleration is so quick. And the noise from the exhaust is tremendous, so much rumble, and roar, as it screams that this is a serious car, and it’s not to be trifled with. The traction on the straight with so much power is impressive, and this is carried through into the windy roads too. The brakes are so quick and sharp, all you need is a feather touch to get the control or shift in direction, it just feels so good. Thank you, BMW, this is what the M5 is meant to be like, exciting, scary and fun all at the same time.
After experiencing both M1 and M2, I looked at the fuel consumption and there had been a drastic change. It was no longer around 3.5, but had pushed itself all the way up to 9.0 litres per 100km. Now that figure alone is still good, for a car like this. Why it’s not great is that this change happened in the space of a half hour. And my range had dropped dramatically. Since I had owned these sorts of cars in the past, I did expect this, because that much fun comes at a cost, and that cost is fuel, lots of it. But it did seem to use a bit more in a short time, which is probably down to the extra weight it’s carrying due to the hybrid batteries. So over time, if you used this a lot, that figure would float around 12-14, which is a long way off the advertised 1.7 from BMW. The average over my time in the M5 was in fact 5.0 litres per 100km.
And here is the problem I have with the new BMW M5, you probably won’t drive around everywhere in M2 mode, and maybe not even M1 mode, so you’re left with the normal driving mode, which is just too disconnected from the beast within.
Visibility all around is good, the driver’s-side B pillar might be the only area that gave me some issues, due to my height, but the mirror filled in the gaps. The BMW parking system is among the best on the market, with a system that predicts the cameras you will need to see you park. When you’re getting close to a car or bollard, it changes the angle of the camera so you can see it better, all on its own.
The cruise control is super easy to use; it’s the same system I tested in the BMW i7, which is somewhat like having a second driver with another pair of eyes on the road. A lot of new cars have all the lane assist, radar cruise features, but the M5 has these on all the time. What is impressive is that it doesn’t feel intrusive at all. For example, if I was driving along and the car in front slowed down, without any feature being activated, the car would slow down on its own. But it does it like I would do it, not like an emergency safety system. It won’t let you change lanes if there is a car in the next lane, again, not in a forceful way, but in an “I got you covered” kinda way. I thought this was amazing, and feel that this sort of system will be a lifesaver to so many in the future. Because no matter how good you think you are or how well you think you drive, it only takes a second for something to go wrong. If there is another set of eyes ensuring you are safe on the roads, without being overbearing, that’s a pretty impressive bit of technology.
I guess what you really want to know is if the new M5 is better than the old M5. In short, yes, as it’s way more efficient and safer to drive. But the long answer is no, it’s not. Let me explain. The new M5 is essentially two different cars, rolled into one: an M5 and a spicy Camry. When you have the vehicle in M2 (Sport Plus everything), it’s savage, and M1 mode (Sport everything) it’s still got loads of pep and sounds and feels great. However, when you turn them off, and go back to normal driving mode, BMW have swung way too far over to the right, almost into woke territory.
It goes so far the other way that the car feels like nothing, no steering, no sound and average power, that spicy Camry. Personally, I feel the difference between the standard M1 and M2 modes is too wide, and M1 should be closer to normal driving mode, and have another level in between to replace M1. At the end of the day, if you buy an M5 to potter around in normal driving mode, you’re not really after the ultimate driving machine; you’re just after the badge.
2025 BMW M5 Sedan – Specifications
| Vehicle Type | Hybrid Sedan |
| Starting Price | $244,900 |
| Price as Tested | $254,600 |
| Engine | 4.3-litre TwinPower Turbo V8 Hybrid Electric |
| Power, Torque kW/Nm | 535 / 1,000 |
| Transmission | 8-speed ZF automatic transmission with steptronic |
| Spare Wheel | N/A |
| Kerb Weight, Kg | 2,435 |
| Length x Width x Height mm | 5096 x 1970 x 1510 |
| Boot Space / Cargo Capacity, Litres (seats up/seats down) | 466 |
| Fuel tank capacity, litres | 60 |
| Fuel Economy, L/100km | Advertised Spec – Combined – 1.7 Real-World Test – Combined – 5.0 Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+ |
| Towing Capacity Kg, unbraked/braked | 750 / 2,000 |
| Turning circle metres | 12.6 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+ |
| Warranty | 5 years or 100,000 kilometers |
| Safety information | ANCAP Rating – 5 stars – Link Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – M5 G90 |
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