The fully electric BMW i4 M50, which isn’t a full-on M car, was the best-selling car for the M brand over the past two years, beating the M3.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
There wasn’t a market for high-performance luxury sedans before BMW M released the first M5 in 1984. At the time, M – which stood for “motorsport” – was a small and relatively unknown subsidiary of BMW, formed to facilitate the company’s racing programs.
The newest M5 is a plug-in hybrid, a technological tour de force pushing the limits of internal combustion technology. But it’s likely to be the last one fitted with a V8 engine before it goes fully electric for the next generation.
BMW M chief executive officer Frank van Meel is optimistic about the company’s future even as gas-powered cars are phased out. The fully electric BMW i4 M50, which isn’t a full-on M car, was the best-selling car for the M brand over the past two years, beating the M3. “It didn’t mean we sold less M3s than expected, but we could see a big demand for all-electric cars,” van Meel says.
BMW M was formed in 1972 with just 35 employees. Its first car was the 3.0 CSL based on the BMW E9 Coupe. It was nicknamed the “Batmobile,” thanks to its prominent air dam and large wings. The CSL was a lightweight street-legal racing special and a little more than 1,000 were built for the road to allow it entrance into the European Touring Car Championship, where it ended up winning six times.
The CSL didn’t have M badges and wasn’t marketed as an M car. It was a regular production BMW that was modified to go racing.
The CSL was a regular production BMW that was modified to go racing.Courtesy of manufacturer
The M1 that came next was also built to go racing but unlike the CSL, this was a bespoke creation from BMW M: a purpose-built tube-frame race car that was a mix of German and Italian engineering. The M1 was the right car at the wrong time. It was unsuccessful in racing and BMW was pessimistic about the exotic car market and didn’t make that many of them for the road.
“[The company] was afraid that no one would buy it and that it was too expensive,” van Meel says. “Nowadays, you pay three-quarters of a million for such a car.”
With these first efforts, BMW hadn’t yet seen the potential behind building M as a performance brand and how powerful the badge could become as a sales tool. The M5 changed that. It was the first sedan from the M division and it was fitted with what was essentially a race car engine. They didn’t make that many of them, but the formula was a winning one and it stuck.
“The M5 was the first that followed this new recipe, and it has been copied not only by us with the M3 and M2 but a lot of competitors after that,” says van Meel.
The M versions of the company’s SUVs proved even more popular. The X5 M was one of the earlier high-performance SUVs on the market. The M-performance or “M-lite” cars, as they are often called, followed with an “M” version of nearly every model in the lineup. “They offer a layer in between the track tools, like the M3 and M5, with a sportier chassis and optics, but they don’t go as far as a full-on M,” says van Meel. “They’re developed on the track, but not for the track.”
The new M5 and the XM SUV, which share a drivetrain, are signs of a soft approach to electrification from BMW M. Plug-in technology lets you enjoy some of the benefits of EVs but still leaves a foot planted firmly in the internal combustion era. The company isn’t jumping in head-first just yet. Van Meel says they will “keep up with combustion engines as long as the demand or the necessity is there for those cars.” He adds: “It’s the same thing with the manual [transmission]; everyone kicked them out, but we said as long as there is a market for them, we will keep them.”
A few years ago, BMW M revealed the Vision M Next concept. It was an exotic-looking hybrid supercar that looked like a reimagined M1 and hinted at the brand’s electrified future. While we don’t have any details of an electric M car, van Meel did say they were developing a high-performance all-electric concept that will have four electric motors, “and it will be typical M.” The company has also been working with a startup called Deep Drive that’s reportedly come up with the next generation of compact in-wheel electric motors.
BMW Vision M Next is a plug-in hybrid supercar concept from BMW M.www.daniel-kraus.com/Courtesy of manufacturer
When it comes to sports cars, making them as exciting to drive as their gas-powered counterparts is a challenge for automakers. EVs don’t make any noise and they are the epitome of smoothness and refinement, which are great qualities for a luxury car but not so appealing to those who want to drive on the track. Despite this, BMW M is confident that their electric cars will retain the ultimate driving machine status and not compromise on the attributes that have made the brand so popular over the years.
″With electromobility, everyone says it’s never going to be cool, but I don’t agree,” says van Meel. “It will be and we’re working on it and we’re having fun right now because we know what we are doing, and when those cars come, they will be better than anything you’ve seen.”
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.