A heavily camouflaged BMW M5 prototype was caught on video hammering through high-speed testing, and even under layers of swirly wrap, the car can’t hide what’s coming. The G90 is getting a mid-cycle refresh that goes far beyond new bumpers and taillights. This is BMW trying to drag a current-generation car into an entirely new design era without paying for a clean-sheet redesign.
The front end is completely reworked. Redesigned headlights replace the current units, and the kidney grille has been visibly toned down from the aggressive face BMW launched with. If the M Concept Neue Klasse shown earlier this year is the template, expect cube-shaped white LED “Track Lights” stacked in pairs, a motif BMW plans to roll across every future M car.
The rear will mirror that theme with red square elements, but the taillights themselves won’t change in shape or size. Altering those would mean retooling rear fenders or the trunk lid, and that’s a line BMW won’t cross on a facelift budget. The front bumper looks largely carried over despite some possible minor revisions.
Where the real money goes is inside. The M5’s cabin is being gutted of its current architecture to accommodate iDrive X and BMW’s Panoramic Vision system, which stretches a head-up projection across the full width of the windshield. A center touchscreen is coming, a passenger-side display may be optional, and the iDrive rotary controller that defined BMW interiors for over two decades is gone.
That interior overhaul alone makes this one of the most ambitious mid-cycle updates in BMW’s history. Normally a refresh means revised lighting, maybe some new trim options, and updated software. Here, BMW is rebuilding the dashboard to match the Neue Klasse cars arriving alongside it.
The math is simple: a 5 Series that looks and feels like last generation’s product can’t sit in showrooms next to the electric M3 and the new X5. For anyone hoping the plug-in hybrid powertrain might quietly disappear, the spy footage offers no comfort. A charging port is clearly visible on the driver-side front fender, and the German test plates carry the telltale “E” suffix denoting an electrified drivetrain.
The PHEV setup that pairs a twin-turbo V8 with an electric motor stays put for the second half of this car’s life. The M5 Touring wagon, internally coded G99, will receive the same treatment. Both body styles should be revealed sometime in 2027, following the standard 5 Series sedan and wagon variants through the update cycle.
BMW M is facing a year unlike any other. The electric M3 is finally due, the refreshed M5 has to bridge two design philosophies, and every product in the lineup needs to visually cohere with Neue Klasse without the benefit of new platforms. The G90 M5 was designed before BMW committed to this new direction, and now it has to look like it wasn’t.
That tension between cost constraints and brand transformation is written all over this prototype. The front says new era. The rear fenders say budget meeting.
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