BMW has stuck firmly to its guns of having a shared platform between their ICE and EV vehicles, there are pros and cons to that approach but the upside for us is that it allows us to directly compare the new i5 and the 520i.

The first-ever i5 is an electric-powered version of the best-selling 5 Series sedan and because of BMW's EV philosophy, the two cars share a lot of its underpinnings as opposed to the i5 having a dedicated EV platform.