Today, the BMW X5 represents a solid percentage of all cars BMW sells. Indeed, it beats even the ubiquitous X3 in volume sales for the brand. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, BMW was arguably late to the game, with the first generation X5 appearing in 1999. That’s long after vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee — arguably the first luxury SUV — appeared on the roads circa late 1992. Perhaps less surprising is that the BMW X5 is, through and through, a product of America — and specifically, California.
California Dreamin’: The X5 x Designworks Story
If the name Designworks sounds familiar, it should. It’s BMW’s creative design company, and they’ve been inextricably linked for the past 30 years or so, after being fully acquired by BMW in 1994. The acquisition took place at a unique time in automotive history. Foreign car companies were locked in a power struggle for the American car market from the 1980s on. This gave birth to brands like Honda’s Acura and Toyota’s Lexus. But it also birthed something decidedly closer to home for BMW heads: the BMW X5.
The US state of California is where Designworks calls home — specifically, Santa Monica. And in 1993, sport utility vehicles were all the rage, as drivers realized previously inaccessible or unfavorable road conditions were now mere challenges rather than a conclusion to any given adventure. So, BMW asked Designworks to design a sport utility vehicle. The result was Project E53, the X5 sketch that was nearly production ready from first pencil. Aside from an aggressive Hofmesister kink in the C pillar, the sketch is almost identical to what made it to the final product.
Do It Right the First Time
Designer Chris Chapman apparently struck gold. Chris Bangle, Head of Design at the time, recalls the X5’s design as “ninety percent Chris’s design with the last ten percent finished off by Frank Stephenson.” Chapman, who had previously worked at Isuzu, drew on his past experience to guide BMW toward “right-sizing” the X5, too. Initially the Ultimate Hauling Machine was designed to be around the size of a Kia Sportage. But Chapman told higher-ups that anything smaller than the Grand Cherokee wasn’t worth pursuing. “What I learned in my four years at Isuzu is the architecture of an SUV is directly related to the DNA of a pickup truck,” Chapman has said. Maybe that’s as close as we’ll ever get to a BMW pickup.
The BMW X5 would likely have looked very different if the SUV had been left up to the boys in Munich. It’s a good thing BMW drew on its resources in California — we’re not sure a Sportage-sized X5 would have quite the same legacy. Passages of this story come from Steve Saxty’s book, BMW by Design. We highly recommend checking out his BMW books for more exclusive stories, photos, and more.