Franciscus van Meel has been reappointed as the head of BMW M after Markus Flasch who has been placed as the head of Rolls-Royce. For van Meel this is a return to the chief executive position at the top of BMW M.
Between 2015 and 2018 he led the company, which now bears the status of an independent automobile manufacturer. During this time, van Meel has also been in some way responsible for the Rolls-Royce product line as well as for the BMW luxury offerings. Under his leadership, the BMW’s new technology flagship, the BMW iX, was brought to series-production readiness. Van Meel also headed development of the forthcoming purely electrically powered model variants.
With this experience in hand, BMW explains that van Meel brings along the ideal prerequisites to also shape the next stages already commenced on the way to electrification at the BMW M. The first highlight of van Meel’s second term of office has already been fixed. 2022 will witness the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the company which was originally founded as BMW Motorsport.
During this time, many new high-performance models will be presented. These will also include the first BMW M3 Touring, which is already in an advanced stage of its series development process.
Flasch will assume the position within the BMW Group as head of the production lines Rolls-Royce, BMW luxury and upper class, in future also including the BMW midrange production line.
