BMW commences concept testing for all-electric high-performance models

Fifty years after its foundation, BMW is accelerating its transformation towards electric mobility.

With the first test drives of a concept test vehicle for innovative drive and chassis control systems, the German automaker is now testing the hardware and software solutions designed for future fully electric high-performance cars.

The concept testing focuses on a four-wheel drive system comprising four electric motors and an integrated driving dynamics control system.

The purely electric drive system is combined with innovative control systems to redefine the combination of dynamics, agility and precision that is characteristic of BMW automobiles in a high-performance sports car.

The anniversary year has already seen the auto giant launch the all-electric BMW iLi MS0 performance car, and the BMW iX M60. In addition, the BMW i7 M70, the first BMW automobile based on an all-electric luxury sedan, is to follow as early as next year.

“On our anniversary, we are not only looking back, but above all also looking forward,” says Franciscus van Meel, chairman of the Board of Management of BMW. “Before the end of the year, production of the BMW XM, our first high-performance car featuring a VB M hybrid drive, will commence. Together with our fans all over the world, we are also looking forward to our entry into the LMDh category of the North American IMSA endurance racing series, in which we will also be competing with an eight-cylinder hybrid turbo engine in Daytona and at other events in 2023, as well as in the WEC racing series at Le Mans a year later.”

The core of the revolutionary high-performance drive system making its debut on the road in the test vehicle is an electric M xDrive four-wheel drive system with four electric motors. The fact that all four wheels are each driven by an electric motor opens up completely new possibilities for infinitely variable, extremely precise and at the same time very fast distribution of drive torque.

Within milliseconds, the power and torque of the spontaneously reacting electric motors can be dosed so precisely that the load demand signalled via the accelerator pedal can be realised at a level of dynamics that is unattainable using conventional drive systems.

The four motors are connected to a central, highly integrated control unit that permanently monitors the driving condition and the driver’s wishes.

The high-performance character of the new drive system is also evident in the recuperation of braking energy. Right up to the limits of driving dynamics, the four motors can assume the function of a generator when braking before a bend, for example, and feed electricity back into the high-voltage battery.

“Electrification opens up completely new degrees of freedom for us to create M-typical dynamics,” says Dirk Hacker, head of development at BMW. “And we can already see that we can exploit this potential to the maximum so that our high-performance sports cars will continue to offer the M-typical and incomparable combination of dynamics, agility and precision in the locally emission-free future.”

In other news, in May, Stellantis announced it will acquire the Share Now car-sharing venture formed by BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The sale marks another step in reshaping mobility offerings for BMW and Mercedes, which combined their respective services in 2018 to take on providers like Uber Technologies and save costs.

Read: Stellantis to buy Mercedes and BMW’s car-sharing venture