BMW stretched the X5 for China, and its wheelbase now beats the X7's
The back seat is the whole point
Europe has just got the new X5, but China is getting a different one. BMW has revealed long-wheelbase versions of the X5 and the electric iX5, built in China and sold only there, stretched by 130 mm purely to make the rear seat a better place to be driven. The result has a longer wheelbase than an X7.
What is stretched
BMW has added 130 mm between the axles for a wheelbase of 3,165 mm, which is longer than the one under the seven-seat X7. Every millimetre of it goes into rear legroom and cabin space rather than boot or styling. Codenamed G78, it goes on sale in China at the beginning of 2027, and there are unconfirmed suggestions it could also reach India, but nowhere in the West.
Petrol and electric
There are two versions. The combustion X5 gets an engine tuned for China, and the all-electric iX5 runs BMW's sixth-generation eDrive, the same Neue Klasse electric technology arriving across the range. BMW quotes the iX5 at over 1,000 km of range, though that is on China's lenient CLTC cycle, so the real-world figure will be meaningfully lower. Power outputs have not been disclosed.
The rear-seat tech offensive
The cabin is where the extra length earns its keep. There is BMW Panoramic iDrive with Operating System X, a free-floating central display and a dedicated passenger screen, and for those in the back a ceiling-mounted Theatre Screen, shared with the long-wheelbase 5 Series, that supports 8K streaming, gaming and video calls. The seats front and rear are specially developed for the car. This is a lounge that happens to be an SUV.
Why China gets its own X5
China is the world's largest luxury car market, and its buyers value rear-seat space and screen technology above almost anything else, often because the owner sits in the back. Long-wheelbase specials have become standard practice there, across BMW, Mercedes and Audi, and building them locally is the only way to compete on cost and speed with the domestic brands now flooding that segment. An X5 stretched into near-X7 territory is simply BMW meeting the market where it is.
What it means for Europe
Directly, nothing, because neither car is sold here. Indirectly, it is worth noting that the electric platform under the iX5 is the same sixth-generation eDrive underpinning the Neue Klasse BMWs coming to Europe, so this is a preview of the technology even if the format stays in China. European buyers get the tech, just in a car sized for European tastes rather than Chinese ones.
AutoNext Take
There is a quiet significance in a German icon being reshaped for a market on the other side of the world and then kept there. For decades the X5 was designed in Germany for German roads and exported outward, and Europe saw the definitive version first. Now China gets a bespoke one that Europe will never drive, built locally, tuned to local taste, and in some respects more advanced inside than anything in a European showroom. The centre of gravity in luxury has moved east, and a long-wheelbase X5 that outsizes the X7 is just the clearest sign of it yet.
