The BMW brand has jumped up in the latest 2024 Driver Power rankings compared with its 2023 score, going from 21st out of 32 manufacturers to 14th out of 32. It still has some way to go because newer electric car brands such as Tesla are up in second place in the same survey.

Owners of the previous generation 5 Series praised its high-quality interior, and we reckon there’s been a noticeable jump in the materials used for this i5, so the 5 Series faithful should have no cause for concern when jumping into this electric version.

The i5 should be a very safe car because it has been awarded the same maximum five-star rating as the 5 Series (the car upon which it’s based) by safety experts Euro NCAP in 2023. It was criticised for not having a rear seat child presence detection system, or a way of monitoring the driver’s attention. We’d like to think parents would notice when their children are in the back of the car, and, in our experience, driver attention alert systems can be highly irritating in the real world, so these shouldn’t be things to put you off buying an i5.

Key standard safety features	Euro NCAP ratings
Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) eCall Lane departure warning Lane keep assistance	5 out of 5 stars (Euro NCAP, 2023) Adult occupant protection - 89% Child occupant protection - 85% Vulnerable road user - 86% Safety assist - 78%

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In This Review

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Richard Ingram

Deputy editor

Richard has been part of the team for over a decade. During this time he has covered a huge amount of news and reviews for Auto Express, as well as being the face of Carbuyer and DrivingElectric on Youtube. In his current role as deputy editor, he is now responsible for keeping our content flowing and managing our team of talented writers.