New BMW X5: £56,710 price for Jaguar F-Pace and Audi Q7 rival

Chassis developments include optional air suspension featuring air springs both front and rear. Available as part of an off-road package that also brings off-road driving modes and a differential lock, it replaces the suspension set-up of the outgoing model, which only used air springs at the rear, and is combined with front double wishbones and a fivelink arrangement at the rear.

A stiffer bodyshell with added aluminium is also said to offer a 33% increase in torsional rigidity, to help better isolate road shock and secondary vibration. The new platform and chassis will also be used by the third-generation BMW X6 that’s due in the middle of next year.

Viewed by Autocar in an engineering workshop at BMW’s Spartanburg factory in the US, where the new model will once again be exclusively produced alongside the BMW X3, BMW X4, BMW X6 and upcoming X7, the new X5 is larger than its predecessor in every vital dimension.

X5 grows in size

Length stretches by 35mm at 4921mm, width increases by 32mm at 1970mm and height is up by 11mm at 1737mm. The wheelbase has also increased by 42mm at 2975mm in a move that provides the new BMW with slightly shorter overhangs as well as larger door apertures both front and rear.

Despite the increase in size, the new BMW offers the same boot capacity as the outgoing third-generation X5 at 645 litres (rising to 1860 litres when the 60:40 split rear seat is folded away).

The new model can be ordered with optional electronic control for both the upper and lower sections of the two-piece tailgate. It also receives an electric luggage blind cover that can be stowed automatically within the boot floor at the press of a button.

The new X5’s evolutionary styling includes an angular kidney-shaped grille that is joined in the middle to help give it greater prominence. It also has active air flaps to help the model achieve a drag coefficient of up to 0.31.

Headlights come with a laser light option, which is said to increase high-beam reach by more than 200 metres compared with standard LED headlights.

Inside, there is more space for all occupants. Tech highlights include a 12.3in digital instrument panel and a similar-sized infotainment screen, both featuring BMW’s new ID7 operating system.

At the rear, an optional third row of seats is said to provide added leg and head room compared with the existing X5.

Other options include a head-up display with a larger screen than the outgoing X5’s, a Bowers & Wilkins sound system, conversational speech recognition control, gesture control and a touch-control rear seat entertainment system.

Bestselling X5 will be 261bhp diesel

One six-cylinder petrol and two six-cylinder diesel engines will be available at launch.

The petrol engines is BMW’s familiar turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder with 340ps and 500Nm in the xDrive40i.

The most popular unit for the UK is expected to be the 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel-powered xDrive30d, which produces 261bhp and 457lb ft.

Positioned at the top-of-the initial line-up will be the M50d M Performance, whose quad-turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder diesel engine delivers 400ps and 531lb ft of torque.

Additional engines will follow, including a plug-in hybrid that will use a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine in combination with a gearbox-mounted electric motor to deliver a combined 321bhp and 664lb ft as a successor to today’s xDrive40e.