The next-generation BMW X5 leaked on Instagram two days before its scheduled world premiere, and the most striking detail isn’t what BMW added — it’s what they removed. The split tailgate, a defining feature of the X5 since the original E53 launched in 1999, appears to be gone.
The photographed car is the iX5 60 xDrive, BMW’s electric flagship variant of the G65-generation X5. It was caught in full production trim from every angle, leaving little mystery for Tuesday’s official reveal.
BMW has been leaking like a rusted fuel line lately. Early photos surfaced back in March, though they were murky enough that some dismissed them as AI fabrications. These new shots leave no room for debate.
Up front, the iX5 borrows heavily from the iX3’s design language — kidney grille, lower fascia, overall proportions. From a distance, you could confuse the two. But BMW gave the X5 one distinguishing trick: a stylized X-shaped daytime running light graphic embedded in the headlamps. It’s a small move, but it works. The X5 needs its own face, not a hand-me-down from a smaller sibling.
The profile reveals flared fender arches that push outward aggressively, reading more like a design statement than a packaging necessity. More interesting are the door handles — low-mounted winglets previously seen only on BMW’s ultra-exclusive Speedtop and Skytop models, both six-figure, near-bespoke machines. Putting those on an SUV that will sell in six-figure volumes globally is a deliberate signal.
Trickle-down design is real at BMW, and it’s accelerating.
The rear is where the story turns. A full-width light bar spans the tailgate, broken only by the BMW roundel, echoing the iX3’s treatment but with enough differentiation in the bumper and lower trim to keep them distinct. The split tailgate — that two-piece clamshell that let you drop the upper glass independently or fold down the lower section as a bench — is nowhere in sight. Twenty-seven years of X5 identity, quietly retired.
Under the skin, the iX5 60 represents BMW’s most aggressive electric SUV play yet. Sixth-generation eDrive technology runs on 800-volt architecture with cylindrical battery cells, the format Tesla proved out and the rest of the industry has since chased. The battery pack is 144 kWh usable in the U.S. — the largest BMW has ever installed in a production vehicle.
Two motors combine for 578 horsepower with standard xDrive all-wheel drive.
The price of all that hardware is weight. BMW’s own figures put the gap between the lightest G65 variant and the iX5 at roughly 600 kilograms — over 1,300 pounds. That’s the mass of a Smart Fortwo sitting invisibly in the cargo area.
To manage it, BMW loads the iX5 with air suspension, electronically controlled adaptive dampers, active rear steering, and active roll stabilization, all standard. They have to be.
The G65 X5 will continue to be built at Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina, where every X5 has been assembled since the nameplate’s inception. Additional variants — presumably including combustion and plug-in hybrid models — will be detailed at Tuesday’s full reveal.
But the conversation this week won’t be about horsepower or battery capacity. It will be about a tailgate. The split design was never just functional; it was the X5’s visual handshake, the detail that told you this wasn’t just another luxury SUV.
Dropping it aligns the X5 more closely with BMW’s current design family. Whether that’s evolution or erasure depends on how many years you’ve spent loading groceries off that lower gate.
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