Fans have been dreaming of a new BMW supercar since the early 1990s during the Nazca C2 days before the M1 Hommage arrived in 2008. Pictured here is the plug-in hybrid 2019 Vision M Next, which also never saw the light of production day. Why? Accountants in Munich crunched the numbers and determined the development costs would be too high compared to the projected sales figures. In the end, the ambitious project was cancelled.
Good things may come to those who wait as BMWBLOG sit down and chat with the automaker in charge of engineering and R&D. Frank Weber talks about the Neue Klasse platform and how it was developed to support high-performance applications. In its most powerful form, the NE-based model will have no less than four electric motors with a combined output of one megawatt, producing 1,341 hp.
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Lest we forget BMW showed off a modified i4 Coupe last month with a quad motor doing tank rounds. Each motor drives a wheel, and while no further details have been shared, the video serves as an announcement about the Bavarians starting work on a fully fledged M car with an electric drivetrain.
“The most demanding vehicles we have are real high-performance M products. Very high-performance M products. What you can expect from this Neue Klasse architecture is not only flexibility in your high-voltage battery. You can also have a single super efficient motor architecture, dual-motor architecture, and it can even produce four-motor architectures up to one megawatt.”
While the electric supercar will technically be available on the NE platform, Frank Weber says BMWBLOG decision has not been taken. He also didn’t say anything about the interesting rumors indicating another BMW-McLaren collaboration after the iconic F1 from the 1990s – still the fastest naturally aspirational car ever made.
The Neue Klasse will debut in 2025 with sedans and SUVs in the 3 Series segment as it represents the largest sales volume. Gradually, combustion engine models will get an electric counterpart and there are rumors of entry-level i1 and i2 models coming sometime in 2028. By the end of the decade, BMW believes half of its annual sales will be represented by cars without ICE. By 2030, Rolls-Royce will be the exclusive electric car while the MINI will follow at the start of the next decade.
