BMW M5 2025 review: first Australian drive with Bathurst track test

A BMW winning the Bathurst 12-hour just 24 hours before launching the brand’s latest M car at the same venue is pure serendipity. It’s also a neat coincidence that two M4 GT3s secured a 1-2 finish through fuel saving when the latest-generation M5 arrives with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain.

An M5 featuring electrification could be considered a completely natural development for a super-sedan that has been a paragon of technological progression ever since BMW stuffed a race-derived six-cylinder in a 5 Series in 1984.

A V8 with manual gearbox headlined 1999’s E39 M5, six years later the E60 adopted a Formula 1-inspired 9000rpm V10, the F10 version went turbocharged in 2011, and the last (F90) introduced all-wheel drive.

A PHEV M5, priced from $259,900, is arguably the most radical change yet.

The F90’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 carries over, though its designation switches from ‘S63’ to ‘S68’ with the addition of an electric motor. It’s a combination that produces 535kW and four-figure torque – 1000Nm.

While fuel keeps the V8 ticking over, the electric motor is fed by a rechargeable 18.6kWh (22.1kWh gross) lithium-ion battery.

If you’re an avid follower of the BMW M division, you may well already know that this tech comes at a massive cost to weight.

The seventh-gen M5 hits the scales at 2436kg – nearly 600kg heavier than its predecessor. Or nearly as heavy as a Ford Ranger Raptor.

If an average adult human’s BMI shot up by a third, they’d be carted off immediately to a health farm. More likely hospital.

So, despite the significant increase in power and torque, the M5’s power-to-weight ratio has worsened and the G90 is a tenth slower than the F90 from zero to 100km/h. Make that two-tenths if you compare the former M5 Competition.

This relates to the sedan that launches here first, with a Touring wagon – only the third in M5 history and the first since 2007’s E61 – joining a little later this year.

Still, with 0-100km/h is dispensed in a claimed 3.5 seconds, the latest M5 remains defiantly rapid.

The 200km/h mark is reached in a quoted 10.9 seconds, while this M5 will monster overtaking manoeuvres with 80-120km/h done in 2.9sec in fifth gear, or just 2.2sec in fourth.

Most intriguing for an M car is the ability to drive on electric power alone – up to a WLTP range of 68km, with a top speed of 140km/h.

In the context of an M car, official consumption of 3.0L/100km is remarkable, though it should be noted that PHEVs are renowned for being thirstier than any ADR figure – which is why Europe is revising its ratings protocols for plug-ins.

The Mountain must wait for our first taste of the 2025 M5, with the morning allocated to a long country-road touring loop that, as much as we enjoy a track blast, is far more relevant to the super-sedan’s typical buyer.

Our test car’s bright-red and black upholstery wasn’t the sight for sore early-morning eyes, and an interesting option for one of the most mature cars on the M division rack.

There’s more red on the dash and the steering wheel – for a centre stripe, plus (again) two M mode shortcut buttons.

These M1 and M2 modes are extensively configurable via the central touchscreen, while an array of drive modes comprise eControl, Electric, Hybrid, Dynamic, and Dynamic Plus.

The centre console presents additional shortcuts for Set-up, M Mode and M Hybrid modes.

Clearly getting to grips with this new M5 is not going to be the work of a moment.

Electric mode isn’t initially available for us on start-up, the 4.4-litre V8 first firing into life – for emissions purposes, we’re told by BMW – before illuminating for selection just moments later, silencing the V8 again once pressed.

With the M5 set in Comfort mode, it devours countryside kilometres with nonchalant ease, its compliant ride isolating occupants and its potent petrol-electric powertrain dismissing any need for second thoughts about overtaking opportunities.

Comfort isn’t entirely a one-mode-fits-all-roads setting; the more relaxed nature of the suspension when encountering sudden dips prompts a switch of the adjustable damping into a sportier mode.

Sections of winding, climbing and descending bitumen – tackled in more aggressive (configurable) M1/M2 modes – also answered a vital question: this is no reluctant 2.4-tonne beast as you turn into corners, as the M5 offers greater agility than perhaps expected.

The steering isn’t the most communicative of driving tools, though it nails precision and resistance.

Integral Active Steering aids slower corners, turning the rear wheels by several degrees in an opposite direction to the fronts, while improving high-speed stability by turning the wheels in parallel.

M xDrive all-wheel drive and the rear Active M Differential add to the substantial tech keeping the M5 travelling fast around corners. As with the previous M5, drivers can select 2WD mode (if they’re prepared to make an early outlay on a fresh set of rear tyres).

A Driver Pro package optional in Europe is standard in Australia, pushing the M5’s top speed from a limited 250km/h to 305km/h.

Handy for Australia’s most famous racetrack.

Although there’s no speed limit today, as with the Bathurst 12-hour just 24 hours prior, drivers are politely requested to avoid chasing 300km/h.

We may have touched about 270km/h down Conrod, but I stopped looking past 260km/h on the speedo as the M5 charged over the blind crest, the sedan fidgeting, going light – along with my stomach – before easing into the brake pedal for the fast right-hand kink.

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While these are the least challenging sections for the ballistic-missile M5, it also impresses across the top half of the mountain after turning convincingly into the fast Griffin Park right-hander.

Nowhere is the M5’s immense torque – instant, as well, thanks to that electric motor – and stunning traction better demonstrated than in the tight uphill left-hander of The Cutting, the BMW’s various tech essentially creating a leadfoot cheat code that forgoes judicious throttle use.

It’s flat through Quarry Corner before sweeping across the arc of Frog Hollow, Sulman Park and McPhillamy Park with occasional dabs of the brake pedal, before accelerating through Skyline, down towards and through The Esses with a heavy trailing brake, another burst of acceleration once clear of The Dipper before braking again for Forrest’s Elbow.

There’s no spine-tingling soundtrack to accompany the rest of the entertainment, with the V8 relatively muted regardless of driving mode.

If the M5’s weight is convincingly masked when accelerating in a straight line, it’s less the case when braking hard from high speed, when the BMW feels all its 2.4 tonnes.

Our track test car wore standard brakes, though carbon-ceramic brakes are available as an $18,500 option for those seeking more serious stopping power.

If you need extra practicality – because the sedan’s boot is somewhat squeezy – then another $4000 is all that’s required for the M5 Touring wagon that’s barely any slower but will swallow more gear, more easily.

First verdict

Electrification has added a new dimension to the BMW M5, especially the ability to commute on electric power alone, but it’s also added considerable weight that can’t be completely ignored from a dynamics perspective.

Will this be an M5 generation revered in years to come? Possibly not, yet the G90’s impressively broad capabilities – the ability to play ferociously fast yet comfortable tourer or admirable track weapon – certainly lives up to the nameplate’s multi-decade lineage.