Get A Look At The 2024 BMW M5 Hybrid’s Air-Hungry New Bumper While Towing A Trailer

It’s hot down in southern Europe this time of year, which could be why our spy photographers snapped the 2024 BMW M5 with its production-spec front bumper virtually undisguised for the first time.

This particular car is one of multiple M5 prototypes currently being tested by BMW and was snapped towing a trailer. That might not seem like the kind of activity many M5s will get involved in when the final car arrives in showrooms next year, but it’s something automakers do to test their prototypes’ cooling systems, which might explain why engineers have freed the bumper air intakes from any disguise that might affect results.

Without the bulky camouflage seen on other test cars this M5 shows us that the production car’s face will have a wide, but shallow grille that’s paired with an even wider central lower intake with a pair of hockey-stick shapes at either end that mimic the famous Hofmeister kink in BMW’s C-pillar designs.

The central intake will feed air to both the engine and air conditioning radiators, while a 3D triangular shaped opening ahead of each front wheel could be there to channel air around the tires, to provide cool air to the brakes, or just because it looks pretty slick.

Although this car gives us our first look at the production bumper, it appears to still be fitted with placeholder front and rear lights, whereas another prototype we’ve seen looked like it might have been packing the showroom-ready LED lamps, at the front, at least.

The wheels, the spaghetti-on-a-blackboard camo wrap and the the “hybrid test vehicle” stickers though, are the same as those on that other car. The 2024 car will be the first M5 to adopt hybrid technology and is expected to pair a 4.4-liter V8 with an electric motor to deliver up to 790 hp (801 PS) to its four wheels to help it compete with cars like Mercedes-AMG’s 831 hp (840 PS) GT63 E-Performance.