BMW’s redesigned X5 landed this week with a styling move that’s already splitting opinion: X-shaped daytime running lights that double as turn signals, built directly into the front fascia as a visual identity marker for the entire SUV lineup. MotorTrend weighed in on July 1st with a verdict that may surprise skeptics—the X-shaped headlight graphic, they say, actually works.
The new light signature is a deliberate departure from BMW’s Neue Klasse design language, which uses a more restrained circular DRL motif across its electric models. For the X5, BMW’s designers chose something more literal and more aggressive: an X, rendered in light, that announces the SUV’s identity from a distance. Whether that reads as confident brand-building or a gimmick depends heavily on who’s looking, but MotorTrend’s early read suggests the execution is cleaner in person than early renders implied.
What MotorTrend Actually Said About the X-Shaped Design
2027 BMW X5 40 front 3.4 shotBMW
MotorTrend’s assessment focused on how the X-shaped DRL graphic integrates with the rest of the front-end design rather than sitting on top of it. The lighting element isn’t simply an X stamped onto a conventional headlight housing—it’s woven into the overall lamp architecture, with the four arms of the shape extending outward to define the headlight’s upper and lower boundaries. That integration, MotorTrend noted, keeps the graphic from feeling like a badge or a novelty. It reads as structure, not decoration.
The publication also highlighted how the X functions as a turn signal, animating sequentially in a way that reinforces the shape rather than dissolving it. That’s a meaningful detail. A lot of signature lighting elements lose their identity the moment they switch modes—BMW’s approach here keeps the X legible whether the car is parked, running, or signaling. That consistency is what separates a design signature from a design stunt.
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How The New Headlights Compare To The Outgoing X5’s Design
Front 3/4 view of the 2026 BMW X5 xDrive50eIsaac Atienza | TopSpeed
The current-generation X5 uses a more conventional split-headlight arrangement, with slim LED strips running along the top of the housing and a lower lamp cluster below. It’s a clean, premium look—but it’s also one that blurs into the broader luxury-SUV landscape. Audi, Mercedes, and Volvo all use similar thin-strip DRL approaches, and at a glance, the differences are subtle.
The X-shaped graphic solves that problem bluntly. Even in a crowded parking lot or at night, the new X5’s front end is immediately identifiable as a BMW SUV rather than a generic luxury crossover. Carscoops noted that the X-shaped running lights break from every other Neue Klasse model in the lineup—which means BMW is using the X5 specifically to establish a visual sub-language for its SUV family, distinct from the circular motifs on the iX and the upcoming electric models. That’s a strategic choice, not just a styling exercise.
Design Evolution Or Marketing Theater? The Case For Both
BMW
Polarizing design moves in the luxury segment have a complicated track record. BMW’s own enlarged kidney grille—introduced on the 4 Series and later spread across the lineup—drew immediate backlash before gradually becoming accepted as part of the brand’s visual vocabulary. The X-shaped headlight is a smaller intervention than the grille controversy, but the dynamic is similar: a bold graphic element that forces the viewer to form an opinion.
The difference here is functional grounding. The X isn’t just a shape applied to the surface—it’s the actual light source, doing real work as a DRL and turn signal. That functional justification gives designers and brand communicators something to point to beyond pure aesthetics. It’s easier to defend a polarizing element when it has a job to do. Whether buyers in the $70,000-and-up luxury SUV segment respond to that logic or simply react to whether they like the look remains to be seen, but BMW’s track record suggests that distinctive, consistent design language tends to age better than cautious neutrality.
What Else Changed In The X5 Redesign
BMW
The headlights aren’t the only thing the new X5 is leaving behind. Motor1 reported that BMW has also dropped the X5’s split tailgate—a feature that had been part of the model’s identity for years and one that many owners genuinely used. BMW says there’s a functional reason for the change, though the move has generated its own share of criticism separate from the headlight debate.
BMW
On the powertrain side, the new X5 arrives with a broad lineup that includes a V8 option for the X5 M60, confirmed by Car & Driver, keeping the eight-cylinder alive on the Neue Klasse platform. That’s a notable commitment given the broader industry push toward electrification, and it signals that BMW is treating the X5 as a vehicle that needs to appeal across a wide buyer spectrum—from those who want a plug-in hybrid to those who want a naturally aspirated V8. The X-shaped headlights, in that context, are the front-facing signal that this X5 is something new, even if much of what’s underneath it is familiar.
The “love it or hate it” divide that tends to follow bold automotive design moves is already forming around the new X5’s front end. But MotorTrend’s early verdict—that the X-shaped graphic is good, actually—suggests BMW’s designers may have threaded the needle between distinctive and overwrought. For luxury SUV buyers weighing the new X5 against rivals from Audi, Mercedes, and Land Rover, the headlights will be one of the first things they notice in a showroom. Whether that first impression converts to a sale is the real test of whether polarizing design pays off.
