The BMW M5 Touring Is Coming to America to Eat the Audi RS 6

• The BMW M5 was always going to come to the U.S. in sedan form.
• But the wagon variant dubbed the Touring was a bit of a stretch.
• Now we know for sure ... the M5 Touring is coming to America.

In the 40-year history of the BMW M5 there has been just one generation that came in a wagon body style, and that car never made it stateside. But BMW has recently been teasing the rebirth of the M5 Touring (or wagon, as we know it here in the U.S.) for the new seventh-generation car ... and guess what? BMW has just confirmed the M5 Touring will be put on sale in America for the first time.

BMW's M division has never really put that much effort into the wagon game. Barely even a handful of M cars have come in the wagon body style, and none of them have ever been put on sale here in the United States. But after years of enthusiasts begging BMW to bring something here to compete with the RS 6 Avant, prayers have finally been answered.

The new BMW M5 will be a hybrid

Now that we know the M5 will be coming to the U.S. in both sedan and wagon body styles, we should talk about what'll be under its hood. The M5 will use a version of the plug-in hybrid powertrain that's in the BMW XM SUV — and because the M5 is so important to BMW, it will likely get the higher-power Label Red's stats right out of the gate. That means you can expect the M5 to make at least 738 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque from a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 that's paired up with an electric motor.

That power will be sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic, and the all-wheel-drive system will likely be switchable, meaning you can send all that power to the rear wheels only. Expect a 0-60 mph time of well under 3.0 seconds and a top speed of around 200 mph. While this is just speculation, the M5 has always followed the same formula — be the baddest, most powerful BMW on sale — and we hardly see that mantra fading anytime soon.

Edmunds says

Please enjoy the throwback photos of the E61 wagon we never got here in the U.S. While it might have been labeled as "ugly" in its day, we think the Bangle-era M5 and its screaming V10 has aged very well.