Seeing the future is a really rare gift. Especially when it comes to how one of your favorite brands plans to develop and expand your performance car line -up. Sylvia Neubauer – Vice President, brand and sales at BMW M – we learned that the G81 touring does not come to America. But it wasn’t all bad news. Fortunately, there is still a lot to be enthusiastic about at BMW M..
The condition of the manual
“It is a lifestyle statement,” Ms. Neubauer begins when he is asked about the US manual. “It’s not ‘Oh yes, I have the cheaper car and it’s a manual.’ It is a statement … like a boastful thing. ” She agreed to us when we said that the US market had the higher setting for manuals, but had no precise numbers to offer. But not everything gets a manual: “It depends on the concept. The manual transmission is not the right solution for every segment. “And don’t let it twist – the lion’s share of the M cars is still automatic.
This does not mean that BMW is separated with the manual. On the contrary: “It is never closed forever,” says Neubauer when he was asked whether BMW closes the door on manuals. You probably already knew it, but it is always easy to hear that BMW wants to keep manual gear alive.
Supercar or something else?
Big News is brewed at BMW: “There is something on the horizon that I probably can’t talk about,” says Sylvia when I am asked what kind of innovation we can expect from BMW M. “The introduction of a new concept into a market always has a certain risk. There is a very specific project on the horizon where we are currently working. I think it could be very attractive for many markets in the world. “
Not much to do, but maybe there is something to do with this crazy electrical BMW prototype that was discovered a few months ago. One thing that will not be is a result of the fantastic M8. Unfortunately, this car left production at the beginning of this year. Sylvia confirmed that the M8 “has no direct successor”.
M2 will be more customizable – and maybe sent faster
“We know that there is a demand,” says Sylvia, when asked for an extended or individual color palette for the smallest M car today, the M2. “San Luis Potosi is limited to a certain number of colors … and yes, there is an assessment to open more individual colors.” Unfortunately, she stops a few words that it does not confirm, but at least she knows that you are investigating it. BMW M also optimizes the larger individual ordering process with the executive board of the BMW Group, which can lead to faster options.
Sylvia surprised us with a shocking statistics: the best -selling M car in 2024 was apparently the M2. After that it is pretty predictable, M3 and then M4. “The M3 only offers you everything,” she says. The “extroverted”, which “select the less functional car that is the M4, a smaller target group than the M3”.
M5 production surprised
The new M5 journalist surprised almost universally when they climbed behind the steering wheel for the first time. And it turned out that it also had some surprises for BMW M in stock. “Originally, our plan was to have two thirds of production across the entire production [M5] Life cycle as a sedan and a third as a tour, ”begins Sylvia. “We now see that there is more demand for the limousine, so we have increased production there. But even more demand for the tour. So the increase in touring is much higher. “She claims that the production is currently divided evenly by 50:50.
