BMW M5 Wagon Coming to US Market, Will Debut at Pebble Beach

• BMW will unveil its coming M5 Touring, aka wagon, at Pebble.

• Like the M5 sedan it showed at Goodwood earlier, this will have a hybrid drivetrain.

• Many more BMW activities are planned for Monterey. Read on to find out.

It'll be all BMW all week at Monterey this year.

The biggest news, which was the industry's worst-kept secret until now, is the debut of a coming US-spec M5 wagon, called the M5 Touring by BMW. The wagon will make its world premiere alongside the sedan, with BMW promising the Touring will "deliver race-bred performance with a new dimension of utility."

Long-roof fans already know the M5 has been offered as a Touring model in the past—as the E34 in the mid-1990s and as the E61 in the mid-2000s. But the 2025 M5 Touring is the first to be made available to enthusiasts in North America.

Both M5s will debut at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, at the reviewing stand at the Lodge at Pebble Beach as part of an event hosted by motoring personality Justin Bell. The premiere will be preceded by a parade of all six previous generations of BMW M5, leading up to the reveal, which will be presented by BMW M CEO Frank van Meel.

"Both models promise exceptional levels of comfort and utility blended with supercar-level power and performance bred from BMW Motorsports experience," BMW promises.

That performance will come from a plug-in-hybrid powertrain, with an M Hybrid drivetrain similar to the one in the BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP racing car, BMW says. The M TwinPower Turbo V8 is supplemented by an electric motor fitted within the eight-speed M Steptronic gearbox. The result is the most powerful M5 ever, with 717 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque.

To get all that power to the pavement where you can do something with it, BMW has added M xDrive all-wheel drive, which will get the M5 sedan from 0-60 mph in 3.4 seconds and on to the 190-mph top speed with the optional M Driver's Package. No separate acceleration figures were offered for the wagon.

BMW says the M5 is projected to deliver 25 miles of purely electric driving with a full charge. Production of the all-new 2025 M5 sedan is underway right now at BMW Plant Dingolfing, with US deliveries planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2024. Production of the M5 Touring starts in November, with deliveries scheduled to begin in the spring of 2025.

If you want to get the first M5 sedan in North America, be sure to be at the Gooding & Co. auction, where it is expected to go for well into the six figures.

And if that's not enough Bimmer for you, be sure to see Legends of the Autobahn on Aug. 15 at Black Horse Golf Club in Seaside. After the two M5 models debut that morning, they will parade, along with all six previous generations of M5s, onto the lawn at Legends.

"Fans will have the opportunity to track the evolution of the iconic high-performance sedan spanning nearly four decades, from the original E28 of the 80s to the thundering F90 M5 CS from 2022," says BMW. "When the very first E28 BMW M5 landed on US shores in 1987, it was the fastest sedan in the world. It also defined what all future M5s would be: a business-class sedan that offered performance born from Motorsports without sacrificing practicality and all-day comfort.

"It featured a race-bred 3.5-liter inline 6-cylinder engine based on the one found in the M1 sports car, a 5-speed manual gearbox, and a lightweight suspension. But unlike other dedicated high-performance cars of the day, it offered four doors, a luxurious interior, a large trunk, and excellent visibility. In 1987 it cost $48,000—the equivalent of $135,000 in 2024—and is now a highly prized and sought-after classic."

Also get yourself over to the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Aug. 14-17. There, BMW will race three of its historic competition cars for all four days of on-track action.

The first will be a 1975 3.0 CSL IMSA Group 4 race car, the first race car developed by the then-new BMW Motorsport GmbH. Based on the production 3.0 CS coupe, the aluminum-skinned CSL (wherein L = lightweight) homologation special, nicknamed the "Batmobile" by its fans, formed the basis for an assault on Group 2 through Group 5 European touring car racing that would make it one of the most successful production racers of all time, BMW said.

Throughout its span of development, the M49 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder grew from 3.2 to 3.5 liters, increasing in horsepower from 340 to 430, thanks to the development of a four-valve cylinder head.

Next, look for the 1981 BMW M1 IMSA Group 4, a purpose-built race car designed by Giugiaro to race in Europe, but delays in production meant it wouldn't be able to do that, so BMW raced it in the IMSA GTO series.

And then look for the BMW E92 M3 GT ALMS, based on the fourth-gen M3. It raced in ALMS and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

And last but not least you can see the 1999 V12 LMR, developed with Williams F1. It was made for Le Mans and ALMS, where it did quite well, winning Le Mans overall in 1999, BMW's first overall victory at La Sarthe.

And finally, look for BMW's 1972 Turbo Concept and 1996 McLaren F1 GTR on the show field at the Pebble Beach Concours, while the M5 and M5 Touring will be parked on the Concept Lawn.

At that point you may be Bimmered-out, but it's unlikely. See you there. In a BMW.

Will the M5 wagon prove to be a popular model with BMW enthusiasts in the US, or is the body style too much of a niche offering at this point, after only sporadic appearances? Let us know what you think.