BMW's next X5 arrives as a whole family of powertrains, and the version EV watchers are talking about is the electric iX5. In an early first look, Out of Spec Reviews walks around a pre-production car and zeroes in on the numbers that matter for road trips. BMW puts the usable battery at about 144 kilowatt hours in the US, slightly more than the 141 quoted in Europe, and lists peak charging of 460 kilowatts on an 800 volt system. The starting price is $79,800 before a destination charge of around $1,450, and the host notes a realistically optioned car lands near $90,000. Power for the US version is rated at 570 horsepower, with a zero to sixty of 4.4 seconds and a top speed of 130 miles per hour. This is a preview rather than a full review, since the host has not driven it, but the pitch is unmistakable: a battery big enough to make charging an afterthought.
The headline is the pairing of a large pack with genuinely fast charging. Out of Spec compares the roughly 144 kilowatt hour battery to a Rivian R1S Max pack of similar size, and reports BMW's claim of a 10 to 80 percent charge in about 22 minutes, though the host expects something closer to 25 in practice, still roughly twice the pace of that Rivian. The complication is infrastructure. Charging at 400 kilowatts and above still outruns most US public stations today, so the real world advantage shrinks until higher power sites become common. That build-out is underway through networks like IONNA, the charging joint venture BMW helped found alongside several other automakers, which is installing high power stalls across North America. The host also flags the details buyers will actually argue about in a showroom: there is no dog mode for leaving pets in the car, and the flush electric door handles are the kind of styling choice that splits opinion. Neither is a dealbreaker, but at this price they are the sort of omission that stands out against rivals that include them as standard.
Beyond the battery, the video digs into engineering. Out of Spec reports the iX5 uses an externally excited synchronous motor at the rear paired with an induction motor up front, a layout chosen for highway efficiency, and says the pack is assembled by Rimac with heavy emphasis on thermal management, using large-format cylindrical cells. BMW quotes an EPA range of around 435 miles, and the host predicts the real world figure could beat that, pointing to earlier BMW EVs that outran their official ratings. He notes the electric version tows less than the combustion X5, translating the European rating to roughly 6,000 pounds for the US market. The car is built in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and BMW has confirmed the same body will carry gasoline, diesel, plug-in hybrid, and, in 2028, a hydrogen fuel cell version developed with Toyota. That flexibility is the real story of the platform: one vehicle engineered from the outset to accept almost any powertrain, with the electric iX5 positioned as the range-topping, longest-legged member of the family rather than a compliance afterthought.
Bottom line: On paper the electric iX5 looks like the road-trip EV a lot of X5 buyers have been waiting for, and a $79,800 start undercuts what many expected from BMW. The reservations are real, though. Fast charging only pays off where the chargers exist, the missing dog mode and camp-style features are odd gaps at this price, and none of it is proven until BMW ships and someone actually drives it. Treat the specs as promising claims for now. If they hold up in independent range and charging tests, this jumps straight onto the short list.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.