The BMW M5 Touring will be revealed on 15 August, the brand has confirmed.
The new super-estate will be unveiled as part of the company’s involvement in Monterey Car Week in California and will make its debut at the Lodge at Pebble Beach.
BMW has all but confirmed that it will use the same powertrain as the saloon-bodied M5, comprising a twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 and a gearbox-mounted electric motor. The V8 puts out 577bhp and the motor 196bhp, and the pair combine for outputs of 717bhp and 738lb ft.
The plug-in hybrid set-up also includes an 18.6kWh drive battery that, in the saloon, officially provides 47 miles of electric-only driving. This may be slightly reduced for the Touring, given its higher roofline is likely to compromise aerodynamic performance.
It may also add to the M5 saloon’s 2.4-tonne bulk, which could yield a slower 0-62mph time than the existing car’s 3.5sec.
Some may judge these to be worthy trade-offs for the extra practicality offered by the estate, which, in the electric i5 Touring, adds 80 litres of boot capacity. If this is mirrored in the M5, that would give the Touring around 540 litres of cargo space.
Prices are likely to be slightly higher than for the saloon, which starts at £111,405.
The new M5 Touring is the first since the V10-engined ‘E61’, which was withdrawn from sale in 2010. The only other M5 to get an estate-bodied variant was the second-generation ‘E34’, although a one-off prototype of the revered V8-powered ‘E39’ was built.