BMW i5 Police Car Spotted in Munich During IAA 2025

Munich’s police presence was arduous to overlook at this 12 months’s IAA Mobility. Alongside the 1000’s of officers deployed throughout town for the occasion, a sharp-looking BMW i5 in full Polizei livery was sighted working the streets—one other signal that Bavaria’s capital is steadily electrifying elements of its fleet whereas sticking with a long-standing BMW partnership. Native experiences put the whole police deployment at roughly 8,000 officers for this 12 months’s Munich Auto Present, so the timing for rolling out a high-visibility electrical patrol automobile couldn’t have been higher.

Munich and BMW: A Many years-Lengthy Patrol Partnership

Munich’s relationship with BMW patrol automobiles goes again seventy years. Within the Fifties, town’s officers started utilizing the stately BMW 501 and 502—nicknamed the “Barockengel”—as a few of Europe’s first fashionable “radio automobiles,” dramatically elevating the visibility and picture of the police on Bavarian roads. That period remains to be a part of native lore, memorialized by the “Isar 12” radio name signal and interval photographs of green-painted 501s serving the Munich precincts.

BMW’s “authority autos” arm has solely grown since. Through the years Bavarian and Munich police have fielded 5 Series Tourings purpose-built for obligation (together with an iDrive-integrated mild and sign system greater than a decade in the past), a gradual stream of 3 Series wagons, and—extra not too long ago—electrical pilots. In 2015, Munich formally took supply of BMW i3 patrol cars as a sustainable metropolis unit, a transfer that previewed the electrical shift we’re seeing at this time. In 2020, Bavaria added the newest G21 3 Collection Touring (320d) to its fleet, underscoring how the area nonetheless leans on BMW for every day patrol work.

The brand new face of the beat: BMW i5 on Patrol

The i5 noticed throughout IAA traces up with what BMW has been showcasing all 12 months in Munich: a rising lineup of police-ready EVs and hybrids, from iX1 and X3 crossovers to five Collection wagons configured for obligation. BMW staged an entire police fleet show at BMW Welt earlier in 2025, telegraphing precisely this path. Past the sedan seen in the course of the present, there’s already a documented, totally marked i5 Touring (G61) stationed in Munich, outfitted by specialist provider Haberl—clear proof the platform is being evaluated and used for front-line work.

Whereas Munich beforehand trialed i3s with combined outcomes for all-purpose patrol (vary and packaging had been limiting components a decade in the past), the i5 is a distinct animal: a bigger, faster-charging, long-range EV on a contemporary electrical structure that higher suits gear, individuals, and shift patterns. It additionally integrates cleanly with BMW’s long-running authority-vehicle program that provides factory-engineered electrical interfaces, cargo options, and lighting management—precisely the elements of a police conversion that make or break day-to-day usability.

[Photos: quirin_schoen]