‘Electric M models also drive like M models’
BMW’s M division celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, so BMW’s sports department likes to look back on the past. However, BMW M GmbH also looks to the future and sheds light on its electrical future. It announces, among other things, the arrival of an electric M powertrain with no fewer than four electric motors
BMW’s M department is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with the first ever M3 Touring and also pulled the M4 CSL from the barrel of horsepower magic potion. In addition, the M-division fired a number of 50th Anniversary versions on car land, but the future is also being looked at. That M future will consist of several fully electric M models. BMW already has a fully electrically powered M Performance model in the form of the i4 M50, but it certainly doesn’t stop there. BMW M GmbH has seized an i4 M50 and turned it into a driving laboratory to test not only fierce M powertrains, but also new hardware and software that guarantee the driving dynamics of its electric models.
The modified and stickered i4 M50 shown by BMW has wider wheel arches and modified front and rear axles. The grille of the camouflaged test model is reminiscent of that of the M4 and that is not the only thing that the test car borrows from those cars. For example, the updated i4 M50 also has reinforcements on the front that are borrowed from the M4 (and M3). Or does that mean that there will also be a full M version of the i4 in addition to the M Performance i4 M50? Probably yes, but BMW doesn’t say that in so many words. Next year BMW will introduce the i7 M70, an M Performance version of the electric top sedan i7. It is about 660 hp strong.
Back to the i4 M50 packed with new technologies. It has no fewer than four electric motors, which means that each wheel is driven by its own motor. Called M xDrive, this system is capable of controlling each wheel individually, meaning the amount of force released to each wheel can be adjusted in a matter of milliseconds. Even real M models should feel like M cars in the future, despite their electric powertrains, BMW promises.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl