Why the New BMW X5 Lost Its Split Tailgate
Article Summary
- BMW’s Philip Koehn explains four X5 design decisions in a Spartanburg interview, none of them arbitrary.
- The split tailgate is gone because, in Koehn’s words, only tall drivers could really use it without struggling.
- Automatic doors made the cut only once rear-facing radar could reliably spot cyclists approaching from behind.
A BMW executive says one of the X5’s own features only really works if you’re built like him. Philip Koehn, BMW’s SVP of Product Line Luxury Class, told us during an interview at the X5’s world premiere inside the Spartanburg plant why the new generation dropped its split tailgate, and he gave a straight answer that might or might not satisfy X5 customers. He said the low-opening half only makes sense if you have long arms like his, standing at nearly 2 meters tall (6″5), and that most owners were actually struggling to reach into the boot the feature was supposed to make easier. That wasn’t the only cut he explained on the record.
The Split Tailgate Didn’t Survive Contact With Average Arm Length
The outgoing X5’s two-piece tailgate is gone, and Koehn didn’t pretend it was a clean call. “If you have got long arms, like myself, split tailgate is a wonderful thing,” he said, “but any average person with average arm length is actually struggling.” He then admitted he’s in the 99th percentile for height, so the actual use case might be different for average height people.
The new X5’s faster roofline also lowers the tailgate opening, so BMW widened the aperture instead, since the redesigned tailgate no longer needs a separate water channel. He says the boot is now easier to load through one opening than it was through two.
The Hidden Wiper Only Works If The Roof Is Boxy
Range Rover tucks its rear wiper under the spoiler for a cleaner look, and BMW has done the same trick before, on an older Compact-generation model. A reporter asked directly why the new X5 didn’t follow suit, and Koehn didn’t dodge it.
The geometry doesn’t work on this roofline, he explained. Hiding the wiper under the spoiler requires a certain vertical drop from the top of the spoiler to the glass, and a boxy roof has enough of that drop to hide the mechanism without blocking the driver’s view through the rearview mirror. The new X5’s faster-sloping roofline pulls the spoiler down closer to the glass, so the same hidden wiper would sit directly in the driver’s sightline. “It only works for rectangular” shapes, Koehn said, pointing at the Range Rover as the example that has the roofline to pull it off. The X5 doesn’t.
Third-Row Seating Lost To A Single-Digit Take Rate
The previous X5 offered an optional third row, and it’s not coming back on the new car. Koehn said the take rate never justified it outside one specific market. “I think the UK market was the only market that really asked for [a third row] on an X5,” he said, adding that on a bigger vehicle like the X7 a third row makes obvious sense, but on the X5 “it’s honestly a bit compromised, because there’s only so much space you have.” Globally, he put the take rate at a single-digit percentage figure.
There’s also a packaging conflict that predates the new generation. Koehn confirmed the outgoing X5’s third row was never available on the plug-in hybrid, because that’s exactly where the PHEV’s battery lives. With the new lineup adding more electrified variants across the board, not less, that packaging conflict wasn’t going away.
Automatic Doors Needed Sensors That Didn’t Exist Yet
The new X5’s automatic doors are the one feature on this list that BMW is adding rather than cutting, and Koehn’s explanation traces back to his previous job. Before this role, he was engineering director at Rolls-Royce, where automatic doors have existed for years as a low-volume luxury flourish. Bringing that feature to a high-volume SUV was a different problem.
“We had this auto-close thing for [an] age at Rolls-Royce, but we could never move [it] forward functionality-wise because the sensor technology wasn’t readily available,” Koehn said. What changed is rear-facing radar sensitive enough to spot a cyclist or motorcyclist approaching from behind before the door swings open into their path.
Koehn was blunt about why that threshold matters more on a mainstream SUV than on a Rolls-Royce: “There are kids, and there are school runs, and there are all sorts of crazy situations where you really need to ensure that you don’t do the wrong thing.” The sensor technology only cleared that bar recently, which is why the feature is arriving on the X5 now and not five years ago.
Whatever the reasoning, the split tailgate is clearly the one that stung. Most of the reaction to the new X5 on social media has zeroed in on its absence, more than any other change on this list. Whether that vocal group actually reflects what X5 buyers as a whole care about, or just what a smaller, louder segment of them do, remains to be seen.
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