BMW M cars will be hybrids in the near future, and it’s pretty much confirmed now. Does that revelation deliver a shock? Perhaps it shouldn’t as its clear that’s general direction the industry is moving in, and the Munich outfit is one of the main proponents of alternative propulsion as a means to high performance, evidenced by their i8 sports car.
According to an Autocar report, BMW are already developing and actively testing hybrid drivetrains in preparation for a fully electrified M car. Dirk Hacker, vice president of the company’s M division, describes the transition as “inevitable” but declined to expand upon any future plans.
“We cannot avoid the need for electrification and it is true that we are working on hybrid power already,” he said. “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.”
There’s perhaps no way to avoid this outcome, so we may as well give into it to avoid that shock and crash in disappointment: our favourite performance cars are about embrace electrification in a big way. The finer points of its arrival are still up in the air, but the ultimate eschewing of fossil fuel power was always going to be the end game.
Of course, the increasingly tight emissions regulations also play a big factor in the accelerated schedules various automakers have to now consider and adapt to. For BMW, particularly, their high performance cars sell in higher volume than the more boutique purveyors of fast cars. Mercedes-AMG face a similar dilemma, we imagine.
The sticking points for a part-electric drivetrain, especially for the purposes in high performance cars, have always been weight. More specifically, can the extra weight make up for the benefits in response and overall quickness. Delving deeper, current battery technology means that the lithium-ion cells currently used have a less-than-ideal lifespan, deteriorating in charge capacity after a prolonged use cycles, and are costly to manufacture and replace.
However, Hacker does express a degree of hope as BMW’s endeavours into the next generation of electric technology will likely yield the breakthrough that cars like the M3 and M5 need to viably incorporate hybrid drive at very little compromise. Engineers at BMW are optimistic that in the next few years, the company would be able to mass produce batteries that are significantly lighter, cheaper to produce, and are able to be charged rapidly.
By 2021, the energy density of these new-generation batteries could also reach a high enough tipping point that BMW might even consider an all-new high performance fully electric model. It’s not clear where things go from there, specifically whether the M division will yield to full electric power in a shorter timeframe than expected if the technology permits.
But again, with the steady tightening of emissions regulations, automakers as a whole may not have any other choice. Keep in mind, though, that BMW and Toyota are also one of the major manufacturers to be actively involved in the development in hydrogen fuel cell technology. And should they extend their existing technical partnership to include joint FCEV development, the post-combustion era of motoring could look very different than the battery-dependent one being painted right now.
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