By: Mpho Mahlangu
BMW South Africa has quietly added the all-new 5-Series to its configurator, with pricing, ahead of its official launch later in the year.
Surprisingly, only the 520d Sedan has been added to the configurator, however we do understand that a more powerful, all-electric i5 M60 xDrive will also be launched at the same time as its oil-burner sibling, as confirmed to us by a representative of BMW South Africa.
he BMW 520d Sedan will be priced from R1,247,894 when it goes on sale, with several options bundled in packages also available for customers to choose from.
The 520d Sedan will be powered by a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbodiesel mill, producing 145kW and 400Nm of torque. An acceleration of 0-100km/h is achieved in a claimed 7.3 seconds, with fuel consumption rated at 5.6L/100km. T
The i5 M60 xDrive churns out a meaty 442kW and 820Nm of torque from its 81.2kWh useable battery capacity, with 0-100km/h achieved in 3.8 seconds. Expected driving range is claimed at between 455km-516km We’ll bring pricing for this model once it has been announced.
BMW also recently pulled the covers off two plug-in hybrid versions of the new 5 Series, but these have yet to be confirmed for the local market.
As for features, the 520d comes with the M Sport Package as standard, and customers can choose from a wide variety of additional options and feature packs.
Among others, these include the Deluxe Package, at R70 000, which comes with a skyroof, ambient interior lighting and four-zone climate control, and the Equipment Package Professional (R40 000), which includes BMW Live Cockpit Professional, BMW Natural Interaction, Interior Camera, Parking Assist Professional and Adaptive LED headlights.
Computing power in the 5 Series is provided by the new BMW Operating System 8.5, which comes with a wider range of digital entertainment and information content as well as faster update cycles.
It also ushers in a fresh iDrive interface, complete with a more user-friendly ‘Quick select’ menu structure that places vertically arranged function icons on the driver’s side of the central screen.