Meet the new BMW XM, the world’s first plug-in hybrid M car

BMW has unveiled its first M car to feature a plug-in hybrid powertrain, the XM. 

This bold five-seater crossover boasts 480kW, combined from its 4.4l twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine and electric motor, and 800Nm worth of torque. This is sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed M Steptronic gearbox.

According to BMW, the XM will sprint from 0-100km/h in 4.3 seconds and reach a governed top speed of 250km/h (or 270km/h with the optional M Driver’s Package). When set to Electric Mode, BMW claims the XM will cruise at speeds of up to 140km/h with a maximum range of 88km. In Hybrid Mode customers can look forward to fuel consumption figures as low as 1.5l/100km.

Notably, the new BMW XM shares its V8 engine and electric motor setup with a much faster car, the BMW M Hybrid V8 prototype racer that will participate in the prestigious 24-hour endurance races at Daytona and Le Mans in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

In welcome news to many, the BMW XM will come standard with heated seats and not with the seat-heater subscriptions that fired controversy from South Korea to the UK earlier this year.  

BMW’s communique comes as the world’s largest luxury vehicle manufacturer works to overhaul its supply chain to deal with surging raw materials costs. It is also working to figure out how to capitalise on the smaller margins EVs have, compared with internal combustion vehicles.

On September 9, the company said it plans to buy electric vehicle batteries from six new factories scattered across Europe, China and North America. Batteries contribute the biggest cost in making electric cars, and BMW’s strategy — to buy cells, rather than make them — differs markedly from that of such competitors as Tesla Inc and Volkswagen AG. 

The company will have to watch the world’s strongest plug-in market — Europe — closely on the eve of this launch. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales have stalled there as rising sales of pure EVs command more market share. Plug-in hybrid sales fell 25% in August since a year earlier, even as those in China remained healthy.

This summer, PHEV sales fell nearly 30% in France and dropped 16% in Germany. In the UK, plug-in hybrids sell at half the rate of purely electric vehicles — valued as much for a “green-living option” box to tick as for the returns they produce. In the US, sales of hybrids and plug-in hybrids from April to June dropped 10.2% from the same period in 2021, according to Statista, a marketing and consumer data provider.  

Production of the XM will start later this year at BMW’s plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. 

The BMW XM will be on display at the upcoming 2022 BMW M Fest. Market introduction in SA will be from the second quarter of 2023. Local pricing is yet to be confirmed but in the US the new BMW XM starts at $159,000 (roughly R2,890,532). 

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