Spy Shots – BMW 5-Series Estate Police Car

It is rarely so that our spies not only catch a secretly tested new car – but get a hint at the model’s new customer at the same time. This BMW 5-Series Estate, however, can’t hide where it’s going once in production: German police – especially in Bavaria – loves Beemers and hence intensive testing is a compulsory programme for BMW.

The front part of the new estate will be identical to the four-door 5-Series saloon. Further back, it will have an extended roofline ending above the nicely shaped tailgate and different side windows, complete with the Hofmeister kink. The rear lighting signature will be similar, too.

The styling of the upcoming model that will continue to take on the likes of the Mercedes E-Class Estate and Audi A6 Avant. That will also apply to their AMG and Audi Sport performance versions, namely the E 63 Estate and the RS 6 Avant, respectively, as the all-new five-door 5-Series Estate will also give birth to a full-blown M derivative – though not in police car guise.

AUTOMEDIA

In addition to the punchy electrified V8, the 5-Series Touring will also be offered with four- and six-cylinder plug-in hybrid engines and with a few mild-hybrid setups, just like the new 5-Series sedan. And an i5 electric variant is also in the pipeline. Or better said, at least two of them, in the eDrive40 and M60 xDrive configurations, boasting 335 hp and 590 hp respectively.

But why testing a police car? It’s not the decals turning an otherwise silver car into an official authority vehicle. And it’s not (so much) the light bar on the roof. Much more it’s a reinforced chassis and drivetrain as the standard equipment of a police car weighs up to 150 kilograms and therefore eats up a lot of the car’s payload. Also modified compared to the family estate variant are the windows (often equipped with safety films), seats, lightning and signalling equipment, sat nav, radio and much more. So, yes, testing a police car alongside the standard models does make as much sense (if not more) as testing a M5 alongside a four-pot diesel.