Electrification is the future for most, if not all, car makers. BMW has committed to this trend as outlined in their NUMBER ONE > NEXT group corporate strategy which details their next generation platforms will be designed from the start to cater to electrified powertrain(s). But what will happen to BMW M?
It would seem that BMW M is already preparing for this change. In an interview with BMW M CEO, Frank Van Meel, he said “For sure, all M vehicles will be electrified by the end of the next decade,”
“That’s going to happen step-by-step. The important question is the timing question – what’s the right time for that? If you’re too late then you’re too late, but if you’re too early then you don’t have the ‘straight to the point’ technology.” Van Meel told by CarAdvice AU.
He added: “Look at today’s electrification components, they are quite heavy and, for us as a motorsports company, overall vehicle weight and power-to-weight ratio is key.”
However, with the group’s advancements in electrification technologies, the weight issue is slowly being overcome but M division is in no hurry to implement electrified technologies to their vehicles without getting the perfect balance of driving performance and electrification.
“But the real question from our customers was whether the M3 was driving like an M3. I don’t really care if we use a HEAT or another configuration, it should drive like an M3… The basic target is not so much the components of the technology itself. It’s more the philosophy,” concluded Van Meel.
