2025 BMW i5 M60 Review
2025 BMW i5 m60
Price: Starting $84,100
Battery: 84.3 kWh
Power: 593 HP / 586 TQ—
Efficiency: 2.6 kWh
Range: 200 as observed
Guy who did stuff: Yousef Alvi
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Okay, well damn. <— that’s heckuva way to start a review ain’t it?
I didn’t want to like this i5. It’s expensive, it’s heavy, it has mediocre range, it’s an EV (meh) and I wasn’t thrilled at the way it looked at first but then….
Slap me silly and call me a dumdum because damnit to hell…I really like this thing.
Wait.
I don’t just like it.
I adore this thing!
I adore it so much that it has landed itself on my very short list of:
‘EVs I would actually buy with my own money’
So it’s taking up a slot between the Ford Lightning and the Porsche Taycan on my list. The BMW i5 M60 is a triumph in engineering and design. It’s hellaciously, literally neck snappingly quick and yet utterly composed when poking around town. Like seriously.
It’s so freakin’ comfortable and quiet, that hand to heart, it’s in the top 5 quietest cars I have ever reviewed! The only thing that comes into the cabin is a wisp of tire noise but it’s not a ‘noise’ noise…it’s more of a ‘white-noise’. Strangely soothing to be completely honest with you. So bravo to the folks over at Continental on the EcoContact Tires tires.
Adding to the luxuriousness, is the suspension. The air suspension is just a work of engineering and mechanical art. Somehow, even with the 30 series (rear) sidewall tires, it soaks up bumps without any sort of ‘crashing’ sensation whatsoever. Heck, it soaks them up so well that it’s more of a ‘soft thunk’ rather than a cringey, I-just-broke-everything-from-my-wheels-to-my-spine, ‘crash’ sound. In other words, this i5 M60 rides beautifully.
It also holds people and things in such a technowonderful abode that you feel like you have been transported 10 years forward in time. The ambient lighting is so precisely placed and lit that it doesn’t distract you at night…rather it enhances night driving. The glass controls are so exquisitely and meticulously crafted that it would make DeBeers jealous. Lastly, the rear seat room is enormous to the point that I really think the 7 series is a bit redundant. Unless you are transporting NBA athletes on a daily basis, there is no reason to move ‘upmarket’ to the 7 series at all.
Did I mention it was fast? I’m sure I did but let me mention it again and i’ll mention it further down this review for good measure…because this sucker is fast!
Just a quick verbiage refresher for you fine folks. Most cars can be ‘quick’. Even most supposedly fast cars just merely ‘quick’. This 5200 pound rolling behemoth is fracking fast! 60 mph comes up in a blistering 3.3 seconds, the 1/4 miles at an ever more blistering 11.5 seconds! Even more blistering is the 30 to 50 time of a neck snapping 1.4 seconds!! In other words, passing someone on the highway generates the same amount of G forces as launching this thing from a dead stop!
Yes, all of that power and weight does add up to ‘okay’ range. Topped off our test unit stated 260 miles till empty and we averaged 2.6 kWh in our week of testing. But it was more like 200ish at the end. As with every EV, highway driving at 80 mph will drain it’s battery quicker than fat dude at a KFC buffet. But that’s an EV thing, not really fault of the cars.
I’ll leave you with this:
The 2025 BMW i5 m60 is good that it has dawned me that I have fallen head over heals over the entire BMW lineup. In all of my years (10 years now) testing cars, every single BMW I tested…I liked. From the small 2 series all the way to the gigantic X7 and everything model inbetween! I like they way the drive, look, feel and perform. All of them.
The Great
Power
Oh god it’s quick. 593 HP may not sound exciting nowadays but applied that to instanenous power delivery, it’s like a sledgehammer to your chest. That doesn’t stop on the highway either, depress that throttle and you will get get neck snpaping power at 80 mph!
Interior
BMW is making one fhte best looking interiors on the road today. It’s not perfect but damnit it looks good. Bathed in lucious lighting, beautiful seats and exqusite glass dials, the i5 is the definition of modern day luxury
Quiet
Even riding on rubber band, 30 series tires, this i5 is whisper quiet. It’s so quiet, it’s almost eery and the only faintest tire noise comes into the cabin and even then it’s more of a white noise if anything
The Good
Looks
It took a few days but I adore the way the i5 looks. Because it looks like a regular 5 series, so you know…a car. BMW seamlingly understands what barely any other automaker understands, the public wants their EVs to look like…cars! Not some Dove inspired bar of soap (looking at your Mercedes).
Knob and Touch!
Giving you the option of using the exqusitite glass dial or the touchscreen, the iDrive system is a mastercalss of simplicity and operational excellence.
Lights
Boasting BMW’s ‘laser’ LED lighting system, the headlights are one of the best on the road today. They are bright, cast a huge arc and are not blinding to the driver.
The Disappointing
Handling
Okay it’s not bad ‘per se’ but with fancy sounding options like ‘4 wheel steering, Active Roll Bars, M-Tuned suspension’, you would be forgiven in assuming the i5 m60 would be a chuckable thing…it isn’t. Sure you can dive into a corner but you feel like it’s something the car is begrudgingly doing rather than enthusiastically responding to you.
In other words, if you’re expecting M5 levels of fun…reset your expectations.
BUT! It is very, very comfortable.
Steering
Light, numb and lacking any sustainable feedback. The steering is geared more toward cruising rather than ham fisted hooliganism.
Everything is an option
Taking a page out of the Porsche handbook, Everything is an additional extra. Our test unit was knocking on the door of $100,000 and you have to pay an additional $2400 for ventilated seats, which get rid of these beautiful red seats.
The Ugly
Touch Controls
While you do get an option of some beautiful glass controls, unfortunately, the rest of the controls are capactive touch. And these are one of the worst I have ever tested. The ‘force feedback’ is barely registerable, so you end up taking your eyes off the road and pounding the ‘button’ until it lights up. Some manufactures offer some type of detent, so at the very least, you can attempt to ‘feel’ your way to engage the button but not with BMW. They all reside equally in a flat plane of acrylic.
BRING BACK PHYSICAL CONTROLS
HVAC
The HVAC, seat and steering wheel heating controls, like every recent BMW, resides itself on the infotainment screen. Which is annoying for a host of reasons since that is something you tend to fiddle around with the most…
Driver Display
If you like to keep an eye on your speed and powertrain, don’t think the gauges are going to be of any help. They are illegible at speed and requires a fear inducingly long time for your eyes to focus through the myriad of distracting graphics for something that should take a millisecond or two.
The Overall
The 2025 i5 M60 is not just a good EV. It’s not just a good luxury sedan, it’s tranceded to something more…it’s a great BMW. Those three letters say it all.
