While BMW may have been early to the EV game with the quirky and compelling i3, and it has had many plug-ins available over the years, it still hasn't dived into electrification like some of its rivals. Now, with Tesla being arguably a top competitor, the brand is making big plans for the future.
BMW is currently working on a platform for its next-gen EVs, which are expected to come to market in 2025. The future Neue Klasse EV-first platform will provide a foundation for the NA0 i3 sedan, among many other cars that will follow it. BMW Blog had a chance to talk at length with BMW CTO Frank Weber, who's also the company's chief of engineering and research and development.
The publication asked a few very important questions that many people have been considering. What are BMW's plans for the electrification of the M division, and what can we expect from the brand's next-gen high-performance vehicles? Weber explained:
“The most demanding vehicle that we have is a real high-performance M product. Really high performance M product. What you can expect from this Neue Klasse architecture is not only flexibility within your high voltage battery. You can also have a super efficient single motor architecture, a dual motor architecture, and this can even deliver a four motor architecture up to one megawatt.”
BMW Blog clarifies that "one megawatt translates into 1,360 horsepower." However, sadly, Weber didn't want to get into more detail about his response. This means while BMW could actually be working on a 1,300 horsepower high-performance electric M car, that's probably not yet the case. This isn't to say the potential isn't there, but, either way, it's a bit early for the CTO to be touting technology that's just beginning to take shape for future products.
Weber went on to say that the Neue Klasse platform is a major step forward that will allow BMW the flexibility to be able to reimagine a high-performance M car. BMW Blog mentions that since it uses one electric motor per wheel, it could be compared to BMW's i4 M development prototype.
While there's been plenty of talk about a new BMW supercar, and especially the potential for a BMW and McLaren partnership, Weber didn't so much as mention it. Instead, he spent his time during the interview touting the future platform and the fact that BMW is aiming for half of its total sales to be fully electric vehicles by 2030.
