Munich’s police presence was onerous to overlook at this 12 months’s IAA Mobility. Alongside the hundreds of officers deployed throughout the 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 studies 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 automotive couldn’t have been higher.
Munich and BMW: A A long time-Lengthy Patrol Partnership
Munich’s relationship with BMW patrol automobiles goes again seventy years. Within the Fifties, the town’s officers started utilizing the stately BMW 501 and 502—nicknamed the “Barockengel”—as a few of Europe’s first trendy “radio automobiles,” dramatically elevating the visibility and picture of the police on Bavarian roads. That period continues to be a part of native lore, memorialized by the “Isar 12” radio name signal and interval images 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 Sequence Tourings purpose-built for responsibility (together with an iDrive-integrated gentle and sign system greater than a decade in the past), a gradual stream of 3 Sequence wagonsand—extra just lately—electrical pilots. In 2015, Munich formally took supply of BMW i3 patrol automobiles as a sustainable metropolis unit, a transfer that previewed the electrical shift we’re seeing as we speak. In 2020, Bavaria added the most recent G21 3 Sequence Touring (320d) to its fleet, underscoring how the area nonetheless leans on BMW for each day patrol work.
The brand new face of the beat: BMW i5 on Patrol
The i5 noticed throughout IAA strains 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 Sequence wagons configured for responsibility. BMW staged an entire police fleet show at BMW Welt Earlier in 2025telegraphing precisely this course. Past the sedan seen through the present, there’s already a documented, absolutely 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 blended outcomes for all-purpose patrol (vary and packaging had been limiting components a decade in the past), the i5 is a special animal: a bigger, faster-charging, long-range EV on a contemporary electrical structure that higher matches gear, folks, and shift patterns. It additionally integrates cleanly with BMW’s long-running authority-vehicle program that gives factory-engineered electrical interfaces, cargo options, and lighting management—precisely the elements of a police conversion that make or break day-to-day usability.
(Images: quirin_schoen)
