The Detroit Bureau bills itself as “The Voice of the Automotive World,” which came as quite a shock to me, since I always thought Satch Carlson was the voice of the automotive world. Anyway, The Detroit Bureau cites an unnamed BMW executive who claims that the next BMW M3—and by logical extension, the next M4—will be plug-in electric hybrids (PHEV). If that’s true—and that’s a big “if”—is the motoring world ready for green M cars?
The M3 has been the benchmark BMW since the first E30 M3 rolled off the line in 1985, right up to today’s F80 M3—and its fraternal twin, the F82 M4. It’s the M car most wanted by BMW enthusiasts who appreciate handling and performance over all things.
And M-car nuts are a testy lot when it comes to messing with their favorite ride.
Each iteration of the M3 that was heavier than the one before was met with derision and disappointment, but hardcore enthusiasts still bought them—because they were great cars. When BMW hinted at eliminating manual transmissions in the M3 in favor of SMGs and DCTs, we dusted off our pitchforks and lit the torches, and kept on buying enough manuals to get BMW to back off. When normally aspirated engines became a historical footnote, even though we didn’t want turbochargers, we sucked it up and bought the M3 because it was an M3; because it went fast and stuck in the corners and stopped when you told it to.
When the latest-generation M3 actually weighed less than its predecessor, we thought it meant that BMW had seen the light about lightness for the sake of performance. Actually, it was for the sake of fuel mileage and CO2 emissions. I can think of no car company that has embraced the philosophy of environmental responsibility for as long as BMW; over many decades, the Bavarians have pioneered recyclable vehicles, alternative-energy-powered factories, and low- and zero-emission propulsion systems based on hydrogen and electricity. The company should feel good about its environmental positions, but I suspect that meeting government regulations and avoiding stiff fines is at least an equal motivator.
That’s why I can believe the rumors that BMW may be planning a plug-in hybrid M3 and M4.
We already knew that every major BMW model line would get a PHEV version, but we thought that the BMW 330e would meet that requirement for the entire 3 Series—including the M versions. Apparently not, if the M3 PHEV reports turn out to be true.
Maybe the BMW bean-counters calculated the company’s projected corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and looked at the possible 54-miles-per-gallon target the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been tossing around for the year 2025, and decided that the company needed more PHEVs. Or perhaps the European Union-mandated emission standard for a company’s new-car fleet average of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g/km) has something to do with it, since a car driving in electric mode produces no emissions. The penalties for not meeting the required fleet-emissions average could run into the billions of dollars, and that must affect BMW’s product decisions.
So yes, I think it’s entirely possible that an M3/M4 plug-in hybrid could be on the drawing boards—not necessarily as a confirmed production project, but maybe so that BMW could rush one into production if it was needed to meet government rules.
At first, I thought of many reasons why an electrified M car would be a bad idea. It would be much more expensive than a normal M car, just as all other PHEV BMWs are pricier than their internal-combustion brethren. The BMW design team would have a harder time making the M3 lighter if they had to include an electric motor and a pile of lithium-ion bricks in every car.
Speaking of which, the luggage space—not the most important concern for performance enthusiasts—would be smaller. High-voltage PHEV batteries take up space, of which an M3 or M4 does not have a surplus.
But just when I thought that I could find no reason to appreciate a PHEV M car, a funny thing happened: I was able to drive a current BMW plug-in hybrid—the one with the two-digit model designator, where the first digit is a lowercase I and the second digit rhymes with great.
I may appreciate BMW plug-in hybrids a little bit more now.
Driving in city traffic in a car with an electric-only mode is nice: quiet and cheap. Not particularly necessary for an M car, but nice. But the addition of an electric motor really pays off when you ask the car for torque; the electric power plant gives it to you right now. What’s more, the electric motor can deliver torque while the turbochargers on the internal-combustion engine are still spooling up, so turbo lag becomes an urban legend.
The BMW i8 weighs around 3,400 pounds or so, and its combination of electric motors and gasoline engines provide about 360 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. BMW claims a zero-to-60 time of 4.4 seconds, but Car & Driver tested it at 3.6. That’s not bad for a car with a beefed up three-cylinder Mini engine. What if you mated a high-torque electric motor to an M3’s three-liter, six-cylinder mill that already makes more than 400 horsepower and pound-feet of torque. You might end up with close to 500 of each—and wouldn’t that be worthy of an M3 or M4?
As long as BMW engineers could put a suspension under it that can take advantage of the extra power, with brakes that slow the thing down when they have to, a plug-in-hybrid M3 started to sound like a good thing to me—except for the more-expensive part.
It comes down to this: We don’t know what the world’s car companies are going to be building to meet government mandates five years from now, when the next-generation M3/M4 is due out. If they can get it done with normal cars, fine. But after experiencing firsthand what BMW’s first plug-in electric hybrid can do, I’m not all that concerned about an M3 or M4 PHEV version maintaining the M-car tradition.
Just as long as they don’t mess with the M2.—Scott Blazey
