With BMW’s EV and hybrid sales up twofold this year, and the global climate crisis continuing to generate headlines, the new concept from the juggernaut European automaker is one the public can get behind. The luxury-performance rig marries upper-end BMW regular production and M-level sport features. It is, notably, the second standalone BMW M model; the first was the M1, a now-iconic mid-engine sports car produced between 1978 and 1981.
BMW chose Art Basel at Miami Art Week to unveil the new model. It is called the XM, and it’s what a top-tier PHEV, or PHSUEV, might look like in a couple of years. Last year, BMW’s marketing alchemists came up with their own unique name for the popular SUV body style: SAV, or Sport Activity Vehicle. Which would make the XM a PHSAV, really.
But the emphasis is on sport either way, and that suits the XM to a T. As currently drafted, the model is loaded with a single electric motor and a V8 engine, which collectively deliver up to 740 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. BMW calls the kit the M Hybrid Drive system, and the XM marks its inauguration as a concept in its own right.
But the positioning of the model — as upper-end luxury daily driver — is also significant; BMW clearly sees potential to move upmarket and establish the M brand as a pointed response to arch-rival Mercedes and others in the six-figure pricing tier. The XM’s design language is almost militantly assertive in its luxury, with LED trim surrounding the massive new grille, 23-inch wheels, and a brutal-looking series of lines expressing the nose as uncompromising, even angry.
Interiors are illuminated by a greenhouse roof. The interior design sensibility fuses carbon fiber with traditional luxury elements, and that seems apropos; carbon fiber is the super-tough, super-rigid material that seems more and more to conspicuously define contemporary luxury and exotic cars in both pragmatic and cosmetic terms. And this concept looks very tough, and very rigid; some might say the surge in SUV popularity, together with the general shift in auto design toward an ‘armored truck’ look, is reflective of our troubled times, but that debate is best left to sociologists.
BMW knows it needs to be bold and creative to defend its turf and come out a winner in the decade of electrification, and it’s paying no mind to critics who lambast its new design language. Subscribing to that philosophy, the XM pulls off the conceit and should be the first in a long line of hits for the revived M brand.
The car’s reveal is accompanied by an abstract video featuring interpretive dance. Will driving the XM make you a better dancer? Buy one and find out.
