BMW M’s vice president has confirmed that the German brand’s high-performance division is “working on hybrid power already”.
Dirk Hacker told Autocar that the firm was in the process of testing hybrid BMW M prototypes, adding that production M cars with hybrid power were inevitable.
“We cannot avoid the need for electrification and it is true that we are working on hybrid power already,” Hacker told the British publication. “For now, all I will say is that we are working on a very precise technical solution, but there is no final decision on how to deploy the concept.”
The main challenge, of course, is the extra weight that a hybrid powertrain traditionally brings.
“Adding mass to performance cars is never ideal. But if we can use electrification to install more performance, then we start to have the answers,” said Hacker.
“That might be more speed, or it might be the ability for a car to be driven on electric power in a city. It might also be the case that we need different answers to that question in different cities,” he added, referring to increasingly stringent emissions legislation.
Still, Hacker stressed that the Munich-based automaker would offer traditional purely petrol-powered M vehicle for as long as possible.
“For some enthusiasts, they [combustion engines] will always have advantages, and we have seen with the sales of the M2, which are well past expectations, that these are the kinds of cars many enthusiasts still want,” he said.
