BMW is pushing forward with their efforts to bring to market a new generation of electric vehicles. Built on the upcoming Neue Klasse EV-first platform, the next generation of electric vehicles will arrive in 2025. The first EV to graduate on the Neue Klasse platform is the NA0 i3 sedan. But that’s just the beginning for the BMW brand. Last week, we sat down with Frank Weber, Head of Engineering and R&D at BMW, to learn more about the future EV plans.
1,360 horsepower tech
Naturally, we asked about the electrification of the M division and about the potential of high-performance electric vehicles. “The most demanding vehicle that we have is a real high-performance M product,” Weber told us. “Really high performance M product,” he emphasized. “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.” In other terms, a one megawatt translates into 1,360 horsepower.
Of course, the BMW CTO refrained from expanding on the subject, so there is no indication that BMW is currently working on a 1300 horsepower M car. But he rather points out the future capabilities of Neue Klasse and how significant of a tech jump is for BMW products. With one electric motor per wheel, this potential high-performance M car would use a very similar concept to the i4 M prototype already used by M as a development platform.
Even though some German media jumped on this subject to speculate on a future BMW – McLaren supercar, there was no point in the lengthy interview where Weber even remotely hinted at that. Instead, the R&D boss emphasized over and over the importance of the Neue Klasse platform for the brand and how this will shape the future of BMW. Half of the BMWs produced by 2030 are expected to be fully electric, according to Weber.
The mirage of a new BMW supercar will always be there, and according to our sources, that topic has been explored many times in the last couple of decades. But the business case was never strong enough to get a full buy in from the BMW board. Will Neue Klasse finally give us the BMW unicorn? It remains to be seen, but at least for now, we know that the company has the tech to built a hypercar.
