The electric M3 isn’t the only M sedan pounding laps at the Nürburgring right now. BMW’s facelifted M5 has been caught on video circulating the Nordschleife under heavy camouflage, and the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 sounds angrier than the current car. Noticeably angrier.
That’s a curious development for a car that just got quieter on paper. In Europe, Euro 7 compliance forced BMW to detune the S68 engine by 41 horsepower, dropping it from 577 to 536. BMW offset the loss by bumping the electric motor’s output so the plug-in hybrid’s combined 717 hp figure stays untouched.
Neat accounting. But accounting doesn’t explain why the exhaust note in this spy footage carries a deeper, more aggressive V8 rumble than the current production car delivers.
Whether engineers have reworked the exhaust system or are simply running a less-restricted calibration for non-Euro 7 markets is unknown. What’s clear is that BMW wants the M5 to sound like it means business, even as regulations tighten around its throat.
The bigger story is what’s hiding under all that cladding. The facelifted M5, expected in the second half of 2027 as a 2028 model, is getting the full Neue Klasse visual treatment. The front fascia is completely redesigned, borrowing the design language from BMW’s new-generation models like the i3 sedan and the refreshed 7 Series.
Multiple prototypes spotted at the Ring wore different taillight configurations, suggesting BMW is still finalizing the rear-end design.
Inside is where the real upheaval happens. Like the facelifted 7 Series before it, the updated 5 Series platform will adopt a completely rethought dashboard architecture. A large central touchscreen replaces the current setup, and a pillar-to-pillar windshield projection system arrives.
That kind of wholesale interior rethink makes a mid-cycle refresh feel more like a new generation. Whether BMW will extend the 7 Series’ dedicated passenger display down to the 5 Series remains unconfirmed, but the precedent is there.
BMW is clearly unwilling to let the M5 lag behind the standard 5 Series even briefly. Both the G60 sedan and the G61 Touring are expected to receive their Neue Klasse facelifts simultaneously, with the M5 sedan and M5 Touring following on the same timeline. Launching a flagship M car with a dated interior while its lesser siblings sport the new look would be an unforced error BMW can’t afford.
The scope of this refresh is staggering. BMW has roughly 40 models slated for Neue Klasse visual alignment by late 2027. That’s not a rolling update — it’s an industrial-scale brand reset compressed into an absurdly tight window.
For M5 buyers in markets outside Euro 7 jurisdiction, the proposition actually improves: the uncorked V8 continues unchanged, wrapped in sharper bodywork and a genuinely modern cabin. For European customers, the math is different — same total output, less combustion horsepower, more electric compensation — but the packaging gets dramatically better.
The M5 has always walked a line between grand touring luxury and outright performance. This facelift suggests BMW isn’t willing to concede either side of that equation, even as emissions regulations squeeze the combustion half of its powertrain harder. The V8 stays. The volume, if anything, goes up. And the interior finally catches up to 2027.
That’s not a midlife crisis. That’s a midlife reinvention.
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