One touch of the brake pedal is now enough to close the driver's door on the new BMW X5. It's a genuine leap for the model: the outgoing generation only had Soft Close, while the G65-series X5 gets fully automatic doors for the first time — doors that open and close on their own. In the US, the system will be part of the optional Luxury Package.
BMWBLOG spotted a fresh demonstration of the feature from BMW. The usual exterior handles are gone entirely, replaced by small Winglet elements mounted near the body pillars: a single touch triggers the electric drive. From inside, each door can be operated with a button, and there's also voice control, BMW Panoramic iDrive, and the My BMW app. The driver's door has its own dedicated scenario — after getting in, a tap on the brake is all it takes to close it.
The real story, though, is hidden below the doors. Radars in the sills and at the front and rear of the body track walls, nearby cars, and approaching pedestrians or cyclists, so the electric drive never swings a door open into an obstacle. And if the automation ever fails, there's no need to panic: a built-in servo mechanism still lets you open the doors by hand, without unusual effort.
The principle itself isn't new for BMW. Automatic doors already feature on the 7 Series and i7, where they can also be operated remotely through the My BMW app. Now the technology is trickling down to the X5 — one of the brand's core, high-volume SUVs in the premium segment. Telling detail: once a flagship-level feature reaches the brand's best-selling model, it's usually a sign BMW is betting big on it.
First up for the US market, in October 2026, is the X5 40 xDrive. The rest of the lineup, including the X5 50e xDrive hybrid and the all-electric iX5 60 xDrive, is slated for the first quarter of 2027. It's only once these cars land in the hands of regular owners — rather than on a press demo stage — that we'll really find out how convenient automatic doors are day to day, especially in tight parking spots where every inch counts.
