The chief executive officer of BMW’s M division has confirmed that M cars will be electrified in the future.
Speaking to journalists at the launch of the latest M2 and M5 Competition, Frank Van Meel confirmed that all sporty models will use electrification in some way, with the target set for the end of the 2020s.
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Van Meel said: "For sure, all M vehicles will be electrified by the end of the next decade. It's going to happen step-by-step. The important question is timing – what's the right time for it?
“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. 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.”
This move towards electrification is in line with BMW’s own targets to have 25 electrified models by 2025 – with 12 of those set to be purely battery-powered.
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Van Meel added: "Without going too deep into details, if we do an M car in an electrified way, it should still drive like an M. If you look at M3, we have had four-cylinder, six-cylinder, and a naturally-aspirated high-revving V8.
"Now we have a turbocharged six and there is the question; is this the right concept or the right technology, or is there another one. But the real question from our customers was whether the M3 was driving like an M3. I don't really care what configuration we use, it should drive like an M3... The basic target is not so much the components of the technology itself. It's more the philosophy."
