For special editions, where we don’t have to sell 500,000 units, the submarine culture is still very much there.” THE FIRST M CAR? The homologation process is just so formal. I don’t think we can do entire models with this process. My engineering department and the workshop there from time to time develop models that show me that there is still this ‘submarine captain’ spirit in some departments. “It was like a ‘submarine’ project at the time and it wasn’t very popular within BMW. “I knew the guys that were responsible for the Z3 M they’re personal friends,” says Flasch of Burkhard Goeschel and his team. I wonder whether there’s room for after-hours projects like the Z3 M Coupe in the giant, polished machine that is BMW M these days. MORE Five BMW M3 CSL facts you probably didn't know “There’s the M Strategy Next, which we’ll bring to the board of BMW … and there will be further elements in design differentiation. “This hasn’t been all we’re working on,” he notes. That’s on top of the recently announced customer racing program and ongoing work on electrification. Some were disappointed that the M3 and M4 wouldn’t appear before 2021, but the interim launch calendar is rammed with vehicles such as the M5 LCI, the M2 CS, the M550i LCI, the M235i Gran Coupe, the M340d sedan and Touring, the M8 Gran Coupe and the X5 M and X6 M. Time is something Flasch has found to be compressed. Most of the cars, they lose something over time. It’s not a beauty at first sight, but its beauty grows with the years you look at it. “Secondly, I like the underdog thing, the not trying to be everybody’s beauty and everybody’s darling, and this is what the Z3 Coupe did, especially the M version. “First of all, I like the looks,” he smiles. MORE BMW M cars and Motorrad bikes meet on Phillip Island “An electrified car, whether it’s plug in the wall, battery electric, has to take it up with the predecessor, and I know that there are physical limits, but within physical limits of working dimensions, we are going to make it happen.” We won’t mess around or compromise the distinct character that our M cars have today,” he says. “Success has to be better than the predecessor’s character. When it comes to hybridised and electrified drivetrains, Flasch has a very simple measure of what he wants those vehicles to be. Our models are very efficient, and secondly, we are well experienced in balancing our portfolio,” he says. “The increase of market share of M models does not compromise the role you do. Does driving BMW customers towards the faster and higher-emitting cars in the range merely undo a lot of the research and development investment the company is making in electric mobility? He does little to hide a flicker of annoyance. Sales success can breed a new suite of problems though. M supplements BMW and it’s going to remain this way.” “M is the exaggeration of what BMW stands for, in terms of driving pleasure. “M has never been a competing brand to BMW,” he says, shrugging. Maybe too great, as some of his more ebullient lines, such as calling the forthcoming M8 a “911 Turbo killer” seem to have been toned back for a more measured approach.Īfter claiming that nearly 50 percent of all BMWs now wear an M badge or are an M trim line, he denies that M is losing its specialness as a result and morphing into a default shorthand for BMW. Back then, he was affable and great for a quote. It’s a long way removed from the last time I spoke to him, almost a year ago when the 38-year-old ex-Magna Steyr prodigy and M8 product guru was newly installed in the job. And yet the brow is furrowed and he’s prickly, almost combative. He’s just outlined a nine-model product offensive through to 2021, and we’re in the pit lane at a sunny Kyalami race track in South Africa with almost every car to ever wear an M badge available to us. The boss of BMW M has just given a presentation highlighting how, within the space of five years, BMWs with M badges have seen sales rise by 207 percent. MHRA 'BMW', All Acronyms, 12 August 2023, Bluebook All Acronyms, BMW (Aug. BMW, All Acronyms, viewed August 12, 2023, MLA All Acronyms. Retrieved August 12, 2023, from Chicago All Acronyms. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Quote Copy APA All Acronyms.
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