BMW XM hyper-SUV revealed

UPDATED 28/09/2022 NOON: BMW Australia has announced a starting price of $297,900 plus on-road costs for the BMW XM, which will therefore become the Bavarian brand's most expensive SUV when it arrives Down Under in the first half of 2023.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED 28/09/2022 8:45am: The 2023 BMW XM has made its world debut and it’s a sign of the times that the German car-maker’s second ever stand-alone M model is a top-end SUV that’s by far the heaviest BMW-badged car ever made.

However, with up to 1000Nm of torque, the new BMW flagship is also the most powerful plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle ever built, and will also be one of the fastest SUVs available.

BMW M suggests the twin-turbo V8 plug-in hybrid-powered SUV could be convinced to stretch out to 305km/h, despite limiting its official top speed to 250km/h, or 270km/h with the M Driver’s Package.

And it can eke out 80km of EV range from its plug-in hybrid system.

Due to be released globally in April 2023, there will never be a ‘normal’ BMW version of the XM with this combination of bodyshell, weight, complexity, cost and speed.

That’s because BMW M boss Frank van Meel wants people to buy something unique to his brand, that will never be diluted with a six-cylinder or diesel version.

Pitched as a unique hyper-SUV, the 2710kg XM is M’s first dedicated model since the original 1978 M1, and it stretches out to 5110mm in overall length.

Before the Aston Martin DBX707, Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and Lamborghini Urus Performante came along with their 3.3-second 0-100km/h claims, the speed king of hyper-SUVs has long been the standard Urus with its 3.6sec 0-100km/h time and 305km/h top speed.

But van Meel suggested at a prototype drive that the Urus figure were “within reach” for the XM, even though M cites a relatively slow 4.3sec 0-100km/h sprint, which is a full second slower than the quickest SUVs and half a second slower than BMW M's own X3, X4, X5 and X6 models. The BMW XM is also claimed to hit 200km/h in 14.3sec and a top speed of 270km/h.

The XM’s starting point is the 4.4-litre twin-turbo S68 V8 from the M5 Competition supported by electric power, combining for 480kW of power and 850Nm of torque in its ‘entry’ format.

But there’s more to come from the heavyweight, with the XM Red Label arriving in the third quarter of 2023 with 550kW and 1000Nm.

That will be enough to make the XM Red Label the most powerful road-going M car ever made – and the most powerful production SUV on the market, eclipsing the 520kW Aston DBX707.

The abruptly styled 2023 BMW XM willingly invites controversy and van Meel has made it clear the company isn’t afraid of risking polarisation for people to know that this SUV is absolutely not like a BMW SUV – even if it rides on the X7’s core chassis architecture.

The BMW XM is not shy and van Meel is equally up front about why. It’s for people who are, as van Meel says, “outwardly confident”.

There is no doubt it’s going to light up the socials with criticism but M doesn’t care. What it cares about is having a design and a car that BMW doesn’t have, and never will, so M and its customers can make a statement they simply can’t do with anything from the mothership.

“The design of the BMW XM is an extravagant statement by BMW M at the heart of the luxury segment,” BMW’s head of design, Domagoj Dukec, said.

“It has a resolutely unique identity and embodies an expressive lifestyle like no other model in the BMW line-up.”

There are split matrix LED headlights up front and a front-end that the polite would call striking. It does a better job of hiding its clunkier visuals when you see it in person, but it’s still not an elegant contributor to the visual SUV diaspora.

The kidney grilles are astonishingly large and, in case you miss it, M illuminates them. BMW tries to offset this by referencing its mid-engined M1 wherever it can, with logos engraved into the rear window, a louvred structure and even accented bands down the flanks.

It’s fair to say that nothing – not in the BMW range nor anywhere else – looks quite like the XM.

“It is logical to do an SUV,” van Meel said. “The performance SUV segment is now the biggest globally, and it has lots of potential for further growth.

“The people who will buy this will not need it as a daily driver. They will have many other cars. This is the car they will drive to feel special.”

The BMW XM’s interior is a lot less controversial than its body styling, which isn’t saying much, but it is designed around what M calls an “active driving experience”.

There is a new head-up display, a wide, curved multimedia screen that swallows both the 14.9-inch multimedia system and the 12.3-inch instrument cluster behind a surprisingly conventional, multi-button steering wheel.

There are multifunction seats up front, gear-shift warning lights on both the HUD and the curved display, and though there is extravagance, it is more restrained than outside.

The XM shares the same wheelbase as the X7 but offers just two rows of seats, so all the space the X7 uses for its third row is dedicated to rear seat occupants of the XM, which is just 41mm shorter than the X7 M50i overall at 5110mm, but runs the same 3105mm wheelbase.

There are generous doors to go with the generous legroom portions, and the rear seat has been designed as a pure luxury and fun zone, complete with 100 LEDs in the glass roof, which BMW calls the M Lounge.

There are heated backrests and luxuriously designed cushions for the rear seats, plus the choice of four interior trim levels.

Other highlights include four-zone climate control, a Harmon Kardon surround sound system and the option of a Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound set-up with a 1500-Watt amplifier that also adds four more speakers.

The S68 V8 has been an exceptional performer in every job it’s ever had, but the BMW XM’s 2710kg (dry) weight is way more than it’s ever been asked to move before.

In the XM’s initial specification, the entire powertrain will deliver 480kW and 800Nm, even though there’s a planned bump to 550kW and 1000Nm later.

That’s split up into 360kW and 650Nm from the 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8, plus 145kW and 280Nm (450Nm when it’s pre-geared as the computer senses impending demand) from the electric motor.

So it no longer matters that the 650Nm peak arrives at 1600Nm, because the disc-shaped electric motor’s torque peak cracks home at just 100 revs, and stays on station until 5500rpm.

There are some inefficiencies that arise from sticking the electric motor inside the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, but it allows M to use proven BMW technology, including the all-wheel drive system that can go from a 0-100 per cent front to rear drive split, and vice-versa, in a heartbeat.

This combination of old- and new-school motors makes the XM the most powerful M car there is, but even though its V8 has the same oil pump, crankshaft and turbocharger upgrades as the X7 M60, the margin is not as wide as you’d think.

It’s only about 13kW up on the M5 CS’s 467kW/750Nm combination in the entry format, and even the stronger version will only be up by 85kW. And it seems a lot of trouble and complexity to add for 85kW.

The upside is incredible economy numbers and the ability to drive where only EVs are allowed to go – at least in Europe, so far – with 82-88km of WLTP range (and a 140km/h top speed) when running in EV mode.

The lithium-ion battery runs 25.7 usable kWh of capacity, which the XM uses up at a rate of 28.9 to 30.1kWh/100km in EV mode. That’s not great by pure EV standards, but it’s carrying a spare V8 when it does it.

It ekes out a WLTP consumption figure of just 1.5L/100km for the 59-litre fuel tank, giving it CO2 emissions of only 33g/km.

It also gets M buttons on the steering wheel as per the higher-performing M cars, allowing drivers to configure the performance, hybrid and driver-assistance systems.

There’s even a sand mode, for those who are enthusiastic about that sort of thing. In, presumably, the Middle East.

Weight is the bugbear of any plug-in hybrid, and that’s even more pronounced here with the BMW XM’s massively heavy V8 up front.

One of its key rivals, the Lamborghini Urus, weighs 2200kg. The Audi RS Q8 weighs 2290kg, the Bentley Bentayga weighs 2422kg in its heaviest W12 spec and the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63 S weighs a relatively spritely 2320kg.

The chassis is part of the heft here, since the BMW X7 M50i (which ekes even more power out of the V8 than the XM, but lacks a plug-in hybrid system) weighs 2455kg.

The XM is another 255kg heavier than that, and it’s not all in the PHEV system. Mostly, but not all.

The BMW XM uses a complex and sophisticated five-link rear suspension and a multi-link front-end, and all of its heft is stopped by a set of six-piston fixed callipers up front and single-pistons at the back (along with regeneration from the electric motor), plus enormous tyres.

Up front there’s 275/45 R21 rubber, while the back-end uses 315/40 R21s, though Australian models will ride on 22s as standard and 23s will be a no-cost option.

The core X7 platform uses rear-wheel steering, active air suspension and 48-volt active anti-roll bars to help arrest body roll in cornering, both for speed and comfort.

BMW stuck the PHEV batteries in a saddle configuration under the rear seat to counter the big V8 up front and to maintain 50/50 front/rear weight distribution.

The 59-litre fuel tank is then squeezed into the rear, under the floor, which lifts the loading lip for the luggage area’s flat floor notably higher than in any other M-badged SUV.

It runs everything BMW can offer for driver assistance systems, including an automated parking assistant that can go forwards or backwards into tight spaces without a driver in the car.

There are systems covering everything from lane departure, collision warnings, autonomous braking, crash-evasion assistance, active cruise control, steering and lane control, traffic light recognition and active navigation. It’s the largest conglomeration of assistance systems BMW has ever offered.

BMW XM specifications:
Price: $297.900 plus ORCs
Body type: Five-door SUV
Powertrain: Plug-in hybrid
System output: 480kW/800Nm
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo petrol V8
Power: 360kW
Torque: 650Nm
Motor power: 145kW
Motor torque: 250Nm
0-100km/h: 4.3 seconds
Top speed: 250km/h (270km/h option)
Weight: 2710kg
Length: 5110mm
Width: 2005mm
Height: 1755mm
Wheelbase: 3105mm
Fuel tank: 59 litres

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