BMW M’s CEO, Frank van Meel, believes that downsizing the engines in their future offerings isn’t the way forward for the Bavarian performance car manufacturer.
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“That’s not the way we see it because we want to have a strong base engine anyway. So, for us, going to smaller combustion engines in combination with bigger batteries would not be the right way.” – Frank van Meel, BMW M CEO.
Engine downsizing, referring to the action of replacing a larger engine with a much smaller engine (“smaller” usually refers to a powerplant with a smaller displacement or cylinder count), has become a more pertinent topic as of late. Marques like Mercedes have significantly restructured their lineups, which were once awash with large displacement, multi-cylinder engines, now relying on a single-engine platform. During an interview with CarExpert, BMW’s performance wing’s CEO offered insight into the future of the firm’s power plants amidst a trend of engine downsizing within the automotive industry.
Related: BMW Development Boss says M3 will go All-Electric
This means that for now, the six-cylinder and eight-cylinder powerplants we’ve come to know and love will continue to power the firm’s offerings. Reaffirming this sentiment is the firm’s decision to employ the XM SUV’s 4,4-litre turbocharged V8 engine in the next generation BMW M5, which debuts next year. Moreover, the firm is adamant about transferring its signature driving experience, solidified by its ICE M-badged offerings, into its future all-electric M cars.
“For future generations of M. Especially in the performance segment, we are already there, starting with the i4 (M50), which actually is our best-selling vehicle in the whole M line-up right now… but of course, it’s not a high-performance car yet. Because high performance means developing on the track for the track, and that means continuous power output in a significant way. And also, every high-performance car we make must be better than its own predecessor.” continued van Meel.
Related: BMW M announce new performance i4 M50 concept
Last year, BMW released a short cinematic about its first all-electric M-badged car, the I4 M50. In the video, a camo-clad I4 M50 could be seen performing centre-axis doughnuts, denoting its high-performing underpinnings. We know now that this was the higher-performance version of the I4 M50, which is still being developed and will be positioned as one of the firm’s leading performance-oriented electric vehicles. BMW’s development head, Frank Weber, has mentioned that monikers like the M3 will go electric, but will not supersede the already-established ICE-variant. Instead, the electric M3 will live alongside the ICE M3.
“What is really important about M is the overall impression and the feeling that you get when you drive the cars. What you feel when you’re driving a car actually is that precision, that dynamics and that agility, even if you’re not on a track, if you drive, if you’re in inner city driving, if you turn the steering wheel, the car actually is like a razor blade, it drives where you want it to and that already causes a lot of joy,”
