Mentioned just under three years ago, BMW has released the first official teaser images of its debut fully electric M model based on the incoming Neue Klasse sedan.
Quad-motors
Set to arrive next year as the effective EV alternative to the M3, the newcomer will utilise a quad-motor layout as hinted at in 2023, while riding on the same platform equipped with the Heart of Joy control module as the Vision Neue Klasse concept.
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Reported to have 100-kWh of “useable” energy, the powertrain involves each electric motor driving one wheel, which BMW claims combines the advantages of rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive in one.
At the same time, the front axle can be fully disconnected to enable a traditional rear-wheel-drive configuration.
“Everything that is driving-performance related, chassis-control related, propulsion- [and] powertrain-related is now in one integrated control unit,” BMW Development Head, Frank Weber, told Autocar on the sidelines of the Vision Neue Klasse’s launch.
“This will come not too far away from the initial launch of the Neue Klasse as a product line, and we’ve said we want to have it early and close to the SOP [start of production] of the core model because people want to have what M can do next also in the battery-electric world”.
Around 1 000 kW
Alleging the systems’ power capability to be as much as 1,000 kW, Weber said, “we want to come up with something where we show that Neue Klasse is already very ambitious, but this [performance model] is doing something far above what people are used to today”.
Going into production later this year as the second Neue Klasse model after the Vision Neue Klasse X, which became the second-generation iX3 in September last year, the standard sedan is expected to produce the same 345kW/645Nm and dispatch the 0-100 km/h sprint time under five seconds.
By expectation, this will fall considerably in the M version, though for the moment, little else is known.
While the iX3 has been confirmed for South Africa from the third quarter of this year, it remains to be seen whether the production sedan will become available at some stage.
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