BMW M CEO says there will not be an i8M in the near future

CAR magazine interviewed BMW M’s new CEO, Franciscus Van Meel at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show to talk about the future of the M brand.

“I can see a marrying of BMW’s M and i brands, but I can’t see an i8M just now,” says van Meel. “There is a very close collaboration between M and i – we have an open-book policy, and each brand can look into the other’s magic box of technologies and ideas. The i team used that making thei3 and i8, looking at the carbonfibre technologies M cars have used for the past ten years,” adding further on the topic.

He also talked about the carbon fiber technology which helps future M cars as well as the vehicle dynamic control system which he deemed as “very interesting on the i8.”

In conclusion he said: “We are not trying to make an i8M though – that would be a mixing of cultures that wouldn’t work. We want to retain our positions without ignoring the good ideas each one has.”

“Again, [a hybrid M] has to enhance the properties we have right now without making anything worse. I wouldn’t exclude it but we haven’t found the right system yet to fulfill all these requirements and stay with the philosophy of M. The power-to-weight ratio is the problem – of course you can simply add more power, but that isn’t the smart way. The car may be fast but it will still be heavy, and that is not M.”

Regarding the M3 or M5 xDrive, he says that M doesn’t believe in the all-wheel-drive since it is just “a rear-wheel drive with added traction.”

When asked about the product outlook for 2015, van Meel was evasive, but he did let slip a few information:

“I’m not allowed to talk about them. We will show a few of them this year – we showed the organic LED lights at the recent Consumer Electronics show, and they will be on our cars – and we will show a very interesting high-tech new USP that is even more M-like at the Geneva motor show in a few weeks’ time. I am very excited about this so I have to stop talking now.”