It has been on every BMW fan’s mind for quite some time now. It has grown from a distant thought to a downright certainty and it is now officially confirmed by no other than the company’s CEO: BMW M models will be electrified. The announcement came from Harald Kruger during a statement regarding the results of the BMW Group over the course of the first quarter of 2019. Alongside Rolls-Royce, the M division will get electrified and, by the looks of things, sooner than you might expect.
Talking about the current model offensive deployed by BMW, Kruger mentioned that there’s currently a need to introduce sustainable drive technologies across the fleet, over all brands and models. BMW sold over 27,000 electrified cars over the first quarter of 2019 and they expect to have over half a million such vehicles on the roads worldwide by the end of the year. Those are encouraging numbers, no matter how you look at it.
“In Europe, our percentage of electrified vehicles delivered is three times the industry average. In 2018, we were the market leader for electrification in both Europe and Germany – not just in the premium segment, but in the market as a whole. We plan to maintain a leading position going forward – both in Europe and worldwide. To do so, we will continue to introduce more electrified models across all brands and model series. This also includes Rolls-Royce and BMW M,” said Kruger.
There’s no definitive timeline mentioned but electrification is coming and that, obviously, can be a good thing. Just picture Tesla-like accelerations but in a lighter, considerably more agile package. That would definitely work for me. Maybe throw in some internal combustion engines as well, just for a nice soundtrack; nothing fancy, just something to have us smelling burnt dead dinosaurs when getting out of the car and I would definitely try this bold new future out.
In the first phase of M electrification, I expect to see a hybrid configuration, which has been hinted at in the past.
