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The new BMW X5 has arrived, and its face is doing most of the talking. This is the third model of BMW’s Neue Klasse era, following the second-generation iX3 and the i3 saloon. Much of the silhouette reads as a familiar big Bavarian SUV. Then your eye drops to the daytime running lights, and the internet’s favourite talking point comes into focus.
Where the iX3 and i3 make do with simple angled slashes, the X5 stamps in full X-shaped units. They look almost identical to the logo of the platform once known as Twitter, right down to the void carved through the stroke and the angle of the sweep. Perhaps the design studio spent a little too long scrolling social media. Whatever the reason, once you spot the resemblance, you cannot unsee it.
The signature does more than sit there looking sharp. Like many modern cars, the running lights double as the indicators, so the X mark flashes every time the driver turns or flicks on the hazards. The clusters are mirrored left to right, so both flanks wear the motif. It is a genuinely distinctive lighting graphic, and one that no rival is likely to copy soon.
Why BMW chose this path rather than carrying over the cleaner iX3 and i3 treatment is open to debate. The most likely answer is separation. The X5 is the brand’s heavyweight SUV, and giving it a lighting signature all its own keeps it from blending in with its smaller electric siblings. Whether the execution lands is a matter of taste. What is certain is that BMW got there first, stamping the X into its headlamps before Tesla ever thought to try.
