Photo: @bmw_m_collector via @wilcoblok on Instagram
Electric vehicles go a long way back. Scottish inventor Robert Anderson is credited as the creator of the first electric vehicle, or better said a carriage with primary (a.k.a. non-rechargeable) cells. A few years earlier, back in 1828, a Hungarian physicist demonstrated a model car powered by a homebrew electric motor. Proper EVs came into being when French inventor Gustave Trouvé demonstrated an electric tricycle in the 1880s.
Internal combustion had slowly but steadily chipped away at all-electric propulsion in subsequent decades, which is why electric vehicles were mostly abandoned until the 1990s when General Motors presented the EV1 to the public. Series-production hybrids followed soon thereafter. Toyota rolled out the Prius in 1997, and the Honda Insight came next in 1999.
Somewhat inevitably, other companies took notice. Performance-oriented hybrids and EVs are pretty common today, but in the next handful of years, they’re going to get especially common. Increasingly stringent fuel economy and emission regulations will ultimately end the reign of the internal combustion engine, and BMW M is preparing for this dystopia.
The performance division’s final purely internal combustion-engined car is the all-new M2 for the 2023 model year, codenamed G87 by the Bavarian automaker. Speaking to Bimmer Today, the big kahuna of BMW M said: “We’ll see increasing electrification, starting with 48-volt systems and plug-in hybrids to full-electric drives.” Frank van Meel further confirmed a manual transmission for the M2, along with an eight-speed automatic.
Similar to the M3 and M4 – and the 2023 Toyota GR Supra for that matter – the row-your-own gearbox is based on the S6-53 from ZF Friedrichshafen. The automatic is a torque-converter setup rather than a dual-clutch tranny, coming in the guise of the 8HP. Shared with every current M vehicle, this eight-speed unit replaces the Getrag GS7D36SG of the previous M2.
As part of the performance division’s 50th anniversary, BMW M will premiere its very first hybrid-assisted model in the guise of the XM.
Somewhat inevitably, other companies took notice. Performance-oriented hybrids and EVs are pretty common today, but in the next handful of years, they’re going to get especially common. Increasingly stringent fuel economy and emission regulations will ultimately end the reign of the internal combustion engine, and BMW M is preparing for this dystopia.
The performance division’s final purely internal combustion-engined car is the all-new M2 for the 2023 model year, codenamed G87 by the Bavarian automaker. Speaking to Bimmer Today, the big kahuna of BMW M said: “We’ll see increasing electrification, starting with 48-volt systems and plug-in hybrids to full-electric drives.” Frank van Meel further confirmed a manual transmission for the M2, along with an eight-speed automatic.
Similar to the M3 and M4 – and the 2023 Toyota GR Supra for that matter – the row-your-own gearbox is based on the S6-53 from ZF Friedrichshafen. The automatic is a torque-converter setup rather than a dual-clutch tranny, coming in the guise of the 8HP. Shared with every current M vehicle, this eight-speed unit replaces the Getrag GS7D36SG of the previous M2.
As part of the performance division’s 50th anniversary, BMW M will premiere its very first hybrid-assisted model in the guise of the XM.
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