2024 BMW i5 Review: The New Electric 5 Series Is Here
Today’s video is brought to you by cars and bids my online Enthusiast car auction site that recently sold this and this and this and this and this check it out at carsand bids.com this is the new 2024 BMW I5 which is the all new fully electric version of BMW’s
All new fully redesigned 5 Series the five Series has been on the market for over 50 years this is the beginning of the eighth generation and today I’m going to review it and show you all of its quirks and [Applause] features all right time for the quirks
And features of the new BMW I5 the electric version of the new Five series first a little Five series overview BMW’s been selling this car for 50 years and the 2024 model is a new Full redesign there’s two basic versions available a gas powerered model still called The Five series and then an
Electric one called the I5 now the gas powered 5 Series starts around $559,000 and it offers various powertrains from 255 horses up to $485 but there’s no more V8 the 550i model now has a plug-in hybrid six-cylinder that makes that 485 horsepower or you could go electric with
Your new 5 series and get an i5 the I5 starts around $68,000 and it offers two versions there’s this one the I5 e Drive 40 this is rear wheeel drive with 335 horsepower and about 295 mes of range or you can step up to the I5 M60 the high per performance
Version which has an amazing 590 horsepower now that starts around $85,000 and it drops the range figure to about 255 miles so not as much but it does have all-wheel drive and it’ll do 0 to 60 in 3.3 seconds still when it comes to the I5 this version the e Drive 40 is
Going to be the one that most Shoppers choose so on to the quicks and features and let’s start on the outside where well actually I think the styling is pretty tame it’s gotten some criticism that it’s not all that attractive but I have heard that criticism about every
Single new BMW model when it came out for my entire life and so I don’t put too much stock in that in fact I think people when they start to see this car on the road will think it’s sort of tame and relatively uninteresting not beautiful but in my opinion not ugly a
Good mainstream car which is what the 5 series is in fact it’s so tame on the outside there aren’t AR really that many quirks you do have a little number five printed here beside the rear windows which is an interesting addition to the 5 series and you also have a large Grill
Which is especially interesting in the I5 because it doesn’t need any Grill since it’s electric but it has a huge one to fit in with new BMW design philosophy and that’s certainly been controversial now speaking of controversial one thing enthusiasts have complained about is this car’s
Increasing size the new 5 series is now 199 in Long which makes this longer than the BMW 7 Series from only 20 years ago that Chris bangled designed weird looking 7 Series this is bigger than that just proving how much car design sizing has increased over the years this
Certainly has become a pretty big car and with that it now has a backup beeper yes that’s right when you put it in reverse it makes this Noise I guess they do that because electric cars don’t make noise and so to alert people that it’s coming they have that it’s sort of like the beep beep beep from construction equipment except modernized and made more luxurious the 5 series backup beeper and actually sounds
Are kind of a theme in this car interesting unusual sounds when you climb inside it gives you sort of a welcome sound and then when you’re sitting in the seat and you press the start stop button to turn the car on and get going there’s kind of a blastoff
Sound but even more unusual and quirky than the sounds you hear when you get in this car and start up the mood lighting when you unlock the doors and open them you’ll see it kind of dances the lighting on all the trim pieces the dashboard the door panels it sort of
Dances around waiting for you to get inside now once you do get inside and sit down the lights Stop Dancing they become Static fixed in place but they’re still unusual especially on the dashboard it looks like sort of jagged edge glass which it isn’t but it gives that Vibe certainly more interesting
Than traditional mood lighting or trim lighting you see inside most new cars interestingly these lighted panels which you have on the dashboard and the door panel you can also press them and there are buttons on them for instance on the driver’s door panel you have the seat memory included in this lighted panel
They don’t have individual buttons you just tap the lighted panel in the appropriate Place same deal with the door locks over there in the center control stack the lighted panel you can see has your hazard lights and your front and rear window defrosters instead of traditional buttons you press there
And these lighted panels also have this slider you can see it goes from zero to one and you can swipe your finger up and down what is that it’s the climate vents if you slide to zero it turns off the corresponding climate vent and if you
Slide it to one it turns the vent all the way on obviously somewhere in between the climate vent is partially open now as you’re looking at this you might think to yourself what climate vents because as you look inside this interior on the dashboard you don’t see any there’s no obvious climate vents
Like in every other car instead they’re hidden the center ones are in this little space below the center screen very small very hidden and same deal on the driver side the climate vent is here you can barely see it and on the passenger side the intent I guess is a
Minimalist interior not cluttered by climate vents but the result they’re very small and out of the way but they can be adjusted specifically by by using these switches that go up down left right that can change the positioning of the climate vents I actually find it kind of unusual the switches for the
Vents are more pronounced and obvious than the vents themselves they’ve made those switches unusually prominent considering the goal was to declutter the dashboard and hide any sense of climate Vents and there are more interesting and quirky controls in this interior on the ceiling above your head
This button here with a light on it doesn’t actually turn on the interior lights when you press it instead it pulls up a menu on the infotainment screen that allows you to adjust the ambient lighting whether the light turns on when you open the door all that stuff
All of your lighting options are turned on by pressing this light button in the ceiling next up the gear selector is kind of odd it’s this switch which is in the center sort of strangely shapen you pull it back for Drive Push It Forward for reverse the operation makes sense
But it’s c certainly unusual compared to most gear switches or levers you also have a shift paddle in this car on the left side of the steering wheel that’s marked boost if you pull that it gives you a quick 10-second boost of power so you can have extra performance like if
You’re going to make a quick pass on the freeway you pull the Boost padal and you can go a little bit faster than you normally would obviously it probably depletes your range pretty quickly which is why it’s temporary and another cool control in here is this glass wheel in
The center console you can adjust this wheel by twisting it or move it up down left right and it changes what you see on the infotainment screen this is one of your infotainment controllers but it’s better than some plastic controller a glass wheel it just looks good and
This brings us to the infotainment system which in this car is mounted on a giant curved panel that you can see goes all the way across the driver side of the interior and into the center now the infotainment screen is the middle part of this and the system is excellent I
Already showed you that you can control it with this dial in the center this glass dial that’s cool but it’s also a touchcreen so if you’d prefer to control it that way no problem you can this is the home screen has a map and other information which is great and it’s very
Intuitive to move to other parts of the infotainment system and control basically what you need of course Apple carplay and Android auto also standard in this car like in most new cars now there is a drawback of this infotainment system the climate controls are integrated into it and the function is a
Little bit clunky you can make easy adjustments to The Climate controls here just in the corner of the screen by tapping you can increase the air temperature here for instance pretty simple but if you want to do more than that it requires a few more pushes for
Instance turning on the heated seat you got to tap this icon and then turn on the heated seat so it’s a two-step process and if you want to change the fan speed you actually have to go go to the climate screen press that button and then you can adjust the fan speed from
There it complicates things a little more than you would want for some simple control adjustments but one way this infotainment system makes up for that is the excellent camera system that this car has you go into reverse and instantly you’re greeted by a tremendously high quality camera much
Better than what Audi has and you can see it gives you these little boxes that show how far you are from something green then turning to Yellow yellow then turning to Red which makes it very very easy to see what you might hit and exactly what part of the car is in
Danger you also have a great top- down 360 camera as you can see that even shows the positioning of the doors when they swing open so you know if you’re parking too close to something for your passengers to get out you can see their door paths on the screen which is a
Great idea and there’s even this 360° camera that’s like a little helicopter hovering over the I 5 showing exactly what’s going on from whatever angle you want to see that makes maneuvering in tight spaces especially easy and there’s even a car wash mode you go into that and it gives you a top-
Down camera that shows where your wheels are positioned so you can exactly line it up with a car wash like a drive-through car wash to make sure you’re right in position I’m not sure when people will use that but it’s another cool feature of the camera
System in this car next we move on to the drive mode which well they’re interesting you don’t have your typical sport normal Eco in this car instead well you press the my modes button here in the center console and it pulls up a slew of Drive modes that include names
Like personal and expressive and relaxed and when you adjust and go into one of those modes you can see it changes the ambient lighting color in the interior it’s not just changing the steering and the acceleration to be quicker in sport mode it actually changes the mood of the
Car or at least that’s their hope with these my modes that go beyond just traditional Drive modes now that is an interesting thing but the most unusual my mode is the digital art one you scroll over to digital art and when you tap on that the infotainment system
Display is taken up by a piece of digital art that was specifically created for BMW for the new Five series there’s even an audio guide that explains the digital art to you by the artist who did it as if you were in a museum listening to an audio guide well
Now you can be in your car listening to the BMW digital art audio guide certainly quirky but anyway the other notable screen on this giant curved screen panel is the gauge cluster screen directly behind the steering wheel which has its pros and cons one pro is it’s
Very easy to adjust using this like switch on the steering wheel you can change what it’s showing you the format of its display to exactly tailor it to what you want to see the drawback of this gauge cluster screen though is it’s not really good at showing you two
Things at once for instance it can’t show you the music you’re playing and a map of where you’re going which some Rivals including mercedesbenz can do they can give you that twoos screen option right in front of your face with that said the heads up display in this
Particular I5 helps make up for that a little bit because it can show you more stuff projected directly onto the windshield ahead of where you’re looking and next up we move on to the back seat of the new 5 series the new I5 which is predictably huge I say predictably
Because given the size of this car how big it’s gotten the back seat had better be big and it delivers I have the front seat positioned where I would sit as someone who’s tall 6’4 and sitting back here my knees don’t even come close to touching the back of the front seat I
Got head room I got hip room there’s a lot of space space in this car and a big generous comfortable back seat aside from that nothing too quirky back here you do have two USBC ports in the center which is obviously nice and then you have another two USBC ports on the backs
Of the front seats you can see on driver and passenger side next to a little hook for an accessory for some device you could install an iPad there for instance and keep it charged while you’re looking at it as you drive along possibly the quirkiest thing in the back seat is that
The back rest is two-tone you can see the center headrest is black along with the upper part of the backrests and then the rest of the seats are white including the other two headrests certainly an interesting thing you don’t often see a deviated color rear headrest
But you do have that here aside from that nothing particularly interesting you do have a center armrest that folds down and also has some cup holders and you got some climate vents back here which is pretty much part for the course in a vehicle and at this price point in
This segment and finally we move around back in the I5 where you can see back here the blue rimmed BMW badge has a blue ring around it to signify that this is an electric BMW as opposed to a gas powered BMW with no blue ring but that
Badge is mounted on the trunk we open up the trunk and discover there’s a pretty good amount of cargo space back here even though this is the electric model and so batteries probably take up some of the space you got a good siiz trunk it’s wide flat deep and there’s good
Space in here decent sized trunk but again it should be given that this is a pretty large sized car also worth pointing out in the trunk you do have a latch to drop down the back seats you have two individual latches one for each side and it’s nice to be able to unlatch
The back seats from here so if you have some large item you can just do that and then send it right through without having to go to the seats individually and drop them down now in terms of storage with this car One Thing Worth pointing out the front
Does not contain a storage compartment you open up the front you have this giant plastic BMW thing but there’s no front trunk in this car kind of a missed opportunity considering how much space there is up front enough for the gasoline engine in the regular 5 series
But no front trunk storage still the rear cargo area trunk is certainly large enough for most people and most needs all right driving the new i5 and thus the new new Five series and I have to say this car has gotten a little bit of hate on the internet for the way it
Looks but like I said every Enthusiast has hated every BMW that has come out since I’ve been alive initially how it looks and then eventually it grows on you and then 15 years from now I’ll be like that was a cool car so I’m getting past that the way it drives is excellent
Now I want to make a really important distinction here the way it drives is excellent if you just want a nice comfortable good stable quiet high quality car this feels like that as an Enthusiast I think that some people will probably be disappointed with the way it
Drives it is big it is pretty floaty now this isn’t the M version this isn’t an M5 this isn’t the I I5 M60 there are more exciting models of this car but you can just tell the steering and handling this is not like an E39 it’s not like a
5 series from back in the day but I have a suspicion that the people buying these cars aren’t NE necessarily even looking for that the truth is I think what they want is a comfortable Hightech you know roomy vehicle and this is that to an excellent degree uh this new 5 series is
Has really impressed me with the way it drives I’ve been driving around for a few days now and I just it is so nice and so comfortable and so kind of wafted around and relaxed it’s just a really good solid well-built excellent car as long as you’re not looking for a lot of
Excitement now people are going to say well BMW used to be the ultimate driving machine the most exciting brand and we can debate the pros and cons of the you know BMW’s latest Direction all day long but for people who just want like a modern good car with good Tech this is
That the steering uh is light I mean it’s not as communicative or as quick as in some cars not even in as communicative or quick as in Teslas which don’t exactly have the quickest or best steering but it’s predictable it’s linear it’s easy the ride quality is excellent I mean really really soft
Comfortable ride the 5 Series in general is a car that has to appeal to the masses because there are a lot of masses buying this car and this is the maybe the best one they’ve done yet the exception being it’s just not the most Enthusiast one they’ve done yet in fact
I would I would Hazard to guess it’s probably the least Enthusiast one I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with this platform for the M5 which I suspect will be an excellent car but the way that this drives is just it’s blime I mean it’s just comfortable and quiet
And nice and easy and it’s it’s just really good and by the way if you accelerate hard 355 horsepower it’s no slouch it moves it is a quick car and the M60 must be like really fast but this thing kicks you in the face it really does go uh like you’d want from
An electric car people are going to say you know why buy this over Tesla the charging Network and there are some real drawbacks to this car obviously the range figure even at 295 for this version it’s not an enormous amount of range and it’s a little pricey but it
Does offer really great technology I think that Tesla’s Tech is actually not really the best I also find the quality of this car to be excellent the materials the interior everything here is really nice even though the Driving Experience may not be quite the the very
Best that BMW has ever done or or where they used to be overall I think this would be a great Cruiser if I was buying an electric car and I just kind of wanted to like get some miles like on a commute this is a really good car for
That and of course adaptive cruise control with you know driver assist Tech and BMW’s Auto steering does a really good job I I really think your perspective on the new 5 series is going depend on exactly who you are if you’re an Enthusiast you’ll be a little
Disappointed by this car it’s big it’s floatier it’s not the Enthusiast pick if you’re a regular person who wants like a nice luxury car to commute in which I think is the majority of Five series sales and probably always has been If we’re honest I think that you’ll find
That this is an excellent vehicle and quite possibly the best 5 series yet it is certainly diverging from the Enthusiast path but for some people that’s going to be a benefit No harsh ride no really tight steering no compromises on size you know to have a a
Smaller car with a smaller footprint it just now feels like a luxury car and it does a good job delivering that luxury and so that’s the new 2024 BMW I5 the fully electric version of BMW’s new 5 series now people always complain about the styling of new BMWs
When they’re released so I’m going to ignore most of that but from the perspective of Technology interior Comfort roominess this is a pretty impressive car and now it’s time to give the new I5 a Doug score and the Doug score is here 62 out of 100 which places the I5 near the
Bottom of this list of sort of Rivals it’s worth pointing out though that basically every car on this list is either far more expensive like the Mercedes eqs BMW i7 or intentionally a performance car like the BMW I4 M50 or the Tesla Model 3 Performance the i5s
Closest rival on this list is the Mercedes eqe and the BMW is leagues ahead it’s better inside nicer to drive more comfortable and frankly it just feels and seems more premium plus I’m sure the I5 M60 is a hoot to drive however even the e Drive 40 model I
Tested is legitimately good not necessarily fun but effortless comfortable high-tech allaround great it’s surprising how far ahead of Mercedes BMW is Here
CHECK OUT CARS & BIDS!
https://carsandbids.com
Today I’m reviewing this 2024 BMW i5, and I’ll show you all the many quirks and features. I’m also going to get behind the wheel of the 2024 BMW i5 and show you what it’s like to drive.
WEBSITE & MERCH!
http://www.dougdemuro.com
FOLLOW CARS & BIDS!
YouTube – @carsandbids
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/carsandbids/
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@cars_and_bids
Twitter – https://twitter.com/carsandbids
FOLLOW ME!
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/dougdemuro
Instagram – http://www.instagram.com/dougdemuro
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/ddemuro
DOUGSCORE CHART:
https://www.dougdemuro.com/dougscore
CHAPTERS:
00:00 CARS & BIDS!!!
00:16 THIS…
00:46 Overview
02:25 Styling
02:57 Exterior Quirks & Features
03:53 Sounds of the I5
04:54 Interior Quirks & Features
08:46 Infotainment
11:26 Drive Modes
12:45 Gauge Cluster Screen
13:33 Rear Seating
15:00 Trunk
15:54 Front Trunk
16:24 Driving Experience
20:44 Final Thoughts
21:14 DougScore
#dougdemuro #bmw #electricvehicle
