This is a roomier, long-wheelbase BMW 5 Series and you can’t have it

The new BMW 5 Series is a controversial car (what new BMW isn’t these days?), partly because there’s only one petrol variant at launch but mostly because it looks like, well, like it does.

This is not the case in China, where appetite for the 5 Series is huge: 530,000 examples of the old Mk7 were sold between 2020 and 2022 and more than two million since local production began in 2016. Unsurprisingly, those numbers make it the market leader.

And as a reward for its enthusiasm, China is getting its own exclusive version of the new 5 Series and electric i5 variant; the swoopy, long-wheelbase model you see in the gallery above. Kinda softens the design a bit, doesn’t it?

The LWB 5er is stocked with features that appeal to BMW’s ‘young generation’ of customers in China. Which means lights. Lots of lights. We’re talking LEDs front and rear, a (standard) illuminated grille surround and ambient lighting inside, all of which combine to create a ‘five-stage welcome and goodbye scenario’. Sounds fancy.

And the electron-powered model gets an illuminated i5 logo on the Hofmeister kink, which pulses while charging. Because of course it does.

Inside customers get a curved instrument cluster and touchscreen display, complete with BWW’s iDrive system and digital services specific to China.

Plus rear passengers can take full advantage of the extra legroom by kicking back to enjoy a film on the 31.3-inch, 8k theatre screen borrowed from the 7 Series and i7. Audio is via Bowers & Wilkins’ Diamond Surround Sound System, naturally.

Add a sprinkling of bi-colour quilting on the seats and titanium bronze inlays up front and you’re pretty much there.

Would that be enough for you to overlook the styling if it came here?