BMW M5 (G90) review: 727 hp, a plug-in hybrid, and 2.4 tonnes to explain
3.9/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The G90 M5 is objectively the fastest and most capable M5 BMW has built, but the plug-in hybrid system that gets it there adds roughly 300 kg over the outgoing F90, and the car cannot fully hide that weight through a corner however clever the software is. Buy it for the technology and the straight-line performance; a well-kept F90 M5 remains the more honest driver's car and costs meaningfully less to insure and maintain in Bahrain. Charging the battery matters little here given short average trips, so treat the hybrid system as a performance tool, not a fuel-saving one.
Pros
- 727 hp combined output makes it the fastest M5 BMW has built
- Instant electric torque fills in below the V8's boost threshold for strong off-the-line pace
- M xDrive and Integral Active Steering disguise the extra weight well at moderate pace
- Cutting-edge technology and driver-assistance suite
Cons
- Roughly 2.4 tonnes; about half a tonne heavier than the outgoing F90 Competition
- Weight becomes apparent under hard cornering however good the software is
- Electric-only range is largely irrelevant to typical Bahraini driving
- Meaningfully more expensive to buy, insure and maintain than an F90
BMW M has never made a car as fast or as complicated as the G90 M5, and the two facts are directly connected. The S68 twin-turbo V8 now shares duty with an electric motor built into the transmission housing, drawing from a battery pack that lives where the M5's fuel tank used to sit, for a combined 727 hp and a claimed sub-3.5-second run to 100 km/h.
The weight question
None of that changes the car's biggest talking point: at roughly 2.4 tonnes, this is the heaviest M5 BMW has ever sold, close to half a tonne over an F90 Competition. BMW's chassis engineers have done real work disguising it; the rear-biased M xDrive system and Integral Active Steering make it feel smaller than the scales suggest at moderate pace, but push hard into a decreasing-radius corner and the mass is there, in a way the previous generation never had to manage.
What it means in Bahrain
Straight-line performance is where the extra weight stops mattering: the instant torque of the electric motor fills in below the twin-turbo V8's boost threshold, making this the quickest-feeling M5 off the line despite its bulk, useful for the causeway's merge lanes as much as any track. The plug-in hybrid system's electric-only range is a rounding error for most Bahraini commutes and largely irrelevant to how the car is actually used here; this is a performance hybrid, not an efficiency one.
Buyers who want the purest M5 experience, and a meaningfully cheaper one to insure, service and eventually resell, should give a late F90 a serious look before committing to the extra weight, complexity and price of the G90.