BMW this week teased its upcoming “Life Cycle Impulse” (translation: a facelift) of its G30 generation 5 Series.
The shadowy teaser reveals little more than the new headlights of the updated model, set to be fully revealed by the end of the month. The photo, however, came as little surprise to us.
That’s because the updated 5 Series has already been leaked. And now, CarNewsChina has shared even more leaked photos.
As you can see, there’s no giant grille like on the upcoming 4 Series. It’s smaller, too, than the enlarged snout of the current 7 Series.
The photos are of the 5-Series Li, a long-wheelbase version of the 5 Series exclusive to the Chinese market. They show two different front end designs, both with normal-sized grilles.
The blue example has the same, more aggressive M Sport fascia as seen on the previously leaked 530e, with prominent creases driving downwards from the centre of the headlights to segment the air dam.
The white car doesn’t have the M Sport package and therefore has a subtler, more elegant appearance. There’s a slimmer air dam that isn’t segmented, as well as shiny, chrome accents around narrower, more vertical fog light cutouts.
The double kidneys don’t look to be much larger, though there’s no longer a strip of body-colour metal separating them.
There are also a collection of new wheel designs.
As we saw in the last leak, the taillights have also been reworked. The assemblies are darker and now more closely resemble the current 3 Series.
Since the G30 was first launched in 2017, models like the 1 Series and X5 have been redesigned and have picked up the new OS 7.0 version of BMW’s iDrive. We expect the 5 Series facelift to also receive this.
Even more exciting is the prospect of a new plug-in hybrid model, the 545e. It’ll use the same powertrain as the 745e and X5 xDrive 45e, featuring a turbocharged 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine mated to an electric motor, with a combined output of 290kW.
