The X6 wasn’t the first SUV with coupe influences, but the original E71 launched in 2008 perfected the formula and helped BMW carve its own niche. Other automakers have followed since, and for the 2024 model year, the German luxury brand has given the third-gen model a Life Cycle Impulse. Featured here in the Bavarian Forest is the flagship version, now available strictly as a Competition model.

The X6 M continues to be offered with an assortment of Individual paints, including this matte finish. Frozen Pure Grey suits the G06 quite nicely and with this being the LCI model, it gets the updated kidney grille design with horizontal slats shared with the X5, XM as well as the new M2. The revised version has also received slightly slimmer headlights incorporating daytime running lights shaped like arrows pointing outward.

The LCI has been rather subtle on the outside but bigger changes have occurred in the cabin where the iDrive 8 now calls home. BMW has reworked the dashboard to accommodate the two large screens and remove most of the switchgear on the center console. The X6 M keeps the bulky gear lever whereas the M60i and the lesser models now have a small selector. A nifty illuminated graphic with the “M” letter adorns the passenger side of the dashboard.

Although that gear lever is the same, the transmission itself has been tweaked for 2024 with shorter gear ratios in the first three gears. BMW says the shifts are sharper now and the overall economy has increased after incorporating an electric motor into the eight-speed Steptronic. Yes, the X6 M Competition is now a mild hybrid based around the M division’s newly developed S68 engine. However, power stays the same, at 617 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque.

If there’ll be another X6 M late this decade or in the early 2030s, chances are BMW will have no other way but to further electrify the high-performance SUV. Time will tell whether the engineers from the M division will be able to retain the V8 or downsize to a smaller gasoline engine to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations. Whatever the case may be, that won’t happen anytime soon as the current model is expected to remain in production until the first months of 2028.

Source: BMW