The Hollywood legend doesn’t seem to know the lyrics of the song, but he goes “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” so that is all he needs to entertain himself on board the all-new BMW i5 while driving in what seems to be an almost deserted Los Angeles. The 15-second video confirms that the i5 is going to star in the German carmaker’s ad on the night of the Big Game.
The second teaser asks another question in the caption that accompanies the video uploaded on the carmaker’s YouTube channel: Is there a car as iconic as Cristopher Walken? Of course, there is, but the i5 is not there just yet.
BMW dropped the V8 from the range of the 5 Series. Only the M5 retained the 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged power plant. Meanwhile, customers have to settle for the i5M60 xDrive if they want the top-of-the-line variant. And the i5 comes with plenty of oomph and agility, but without the drama of the V8 soundtrack.
Two separately excited synchronous motors bring 593 horsepower (601 metric horsepower) and 604 pound-feet (820 Newton meters) of torque in an all-wheel drive setup for a run from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in 3.7 seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 143 mph (230 kph).
A lithium-ion battery pack with a capacity of 81.2 kWh stores enough energy for a trip of up to 256 miles (412 kilometers) before the electric sedan needs to be plugged in again, according to the EPA rating.
BMW had plenty of options for this year’s Super Bowl. The Germans have recently unveiled the electric BMW i5 xDrive 40, the 500e xDrive plug-in hybrid, the facelifted 4 Series Coupe and convertible, the updated M4 range, and the Z4 M40i, which has finally received the six-speed manual transmission. And more variants are coming to America, BMW warned.
The teaser showing Cristopher Walken driving was the second and last “ad for an ad,” as his agent explained in the first teaser before we get to see the actual commercial. BMW is going to release it on February 5 and will air it during the 2024 Super Bowl on February 11. The German carmaker will run the promotional video on its social media networks, but also on the YouTube and Rory platforms.
In the first teaser that BMW released two days ago, Christopher Walken was walking down a lobby talking to his agent on the phone and asking them what a teaser was. “An ad for an ad? Why would they do that?” he asked confused.
