New BMW M2 revealed

UPDATED 12/10/2022 11:00am: BMW Australia has announced a price tag of $119,900 plus on-road costs for the new BMW M2.

That's $28,000 more than the 2022 M240i xDrive and significantly more than the original M2, which first launched in 2016 at $86,915, followed in 2018 by two M2 Competition variants priced from $99,900 and in 2020 by the M2 CS ($147,400).

However, BMW Australia says it will offer the highest level of standard equipment available for the M2 from the first half of next year, including an M Carbon roof for the first time and, once again, both automatic and manual transmissions.

BMW M 50 Year anniversary badging will be available until March 2023 production and the the optional M Carbon Experience will cost $14,500, including M Carbon bucket seats, the M Driver's package and M Driving Experience Advance 1 and 2 courses.

Exterior paint colours available in Australia include Alpine White and M Zandvoort Blue solid hues, plus Black Sapphire metallic, M Toronto Red metallic and M Brooklyn Grey metallic.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE PUBLISHED 12/10/2022 9:00am: It’s the successor to a much-loved cult car and it brings more power, more speed and better handling, but all the debate rages around the design of the 2023 BMW M2.

The second-generation BMW M2 remains a rear-drive two-door coupe with a big twin-turbo six-cylinder engine up front and a claimed 4.1-second sprint to 100km/h, but nobody on the forums talks about that since photos of it leaked a couple of weeks ago.

Instead, the forums are full of fire about the new horizontal vanes in the kidney grille, the boxy front air intakes and the even boxier rear bumper design, all attached to a much-strengthened version of the BMW 2 Series Coupe bodyshell.

It’s just the latest in a long line of initially uncomfortable BMW designs, including the iX electric SUV, the M division’s standalone XM hyper-SUV and the beaver-toothed M3/M4 twins.

The design storm masks a smallish coupe that promises to take the qualities of its predecessor and add maturity to its ride and to its handling at the outer edges.

“This has grown up. It’s not as agile by default, but it’s as agile as it was when you set it up to be with its mode buttons,” BMW M boss Frank van Meel said.

“You can put those modes on your M1 or M2 buttons on the steering wheel, if you like, and then it reverts to that old agility in one push. But it’s calmer and more comfortable by default.”

Growing up means every dimension, and the worst of that means weight. At 1725kg, the new M2 is 155kg heavier than the stock M2 in the previous generation, but van Meel says it’s worth it to make a car that more people wanted. And it comes with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission now, instead of a seven-speed dual-clutch unit.

“The target for the M2 was to make it more precise and powerful but to keep the very playful handling,” he said. “The precision of the car is much higher than before because the basics are very strong already.”

Because the new BMW M2 is bigger, faster, accelerates harder and has bigger wheels and far more standard equipment than before, you can also expect the price to climb in every market around the world.

In Australia, where the original M2 launched at $86,915 in 2016 but the 2022 M240i xDrive now costs $91,900, that means it will likely be pricier than the old M2 Competition, which arrived in two specs in 2018 priced from $99,990.

“We looked at what people ordered as options on the last car and the majority of people ordered the things that are now included,” van Meel explained.

The 1725kg M2 is at its best in auto form but a six-speed manual option remains, though it’s slower despite being 25kg lighter. Half of all M2s sold in the US were manual, but that drops to 20 per cent globally.

It takes 0.2sec more than the automatic to reach 100km/h, and 0.8sec longer to hit 200km/h, though they share their 250km/h top speed. Both versions can have that lifted to 285km/h with the Driver’s Package, which includes M driver training courses.

There’s power aplenty, with the 338kW peak – 10hp more than the 331kW BMW M2 CS released in 2020 for $147,400 – arriving at 6250rpm and the carryover 550Nm torque plateau now on station over a broad 2650-5870rpm.

But it’s the handling that BMW M has been focused on, with on-road testing backing up development from both the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife and GP circuits as well as the Sachsenring, Hockenheim, the Arjeplog winter test facility in Sweden and BMW’s own Miramas proving ground in southern France.

The 2023 BMW M2 sits on super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres – 275/35 ZR19 at the front and 285/30 ZR20 at the back, making them wider at both ends – by as much as 30mm up front.

The suspension, axles and braking packages also come from the M4, the latter including six-piston callipers for the 380mm front discs and a single-piston set-up for the 370mm rear rotors.

Also transferred directly from the M4 are the standard electronic dampers and at least three significant areas of underbody reinforcing. There are vertical and horizontal reinforcements beneath the rear seat, and the engine bay has an A-frame brace joining the two suspension towers with the nose and firewall.

There are two invisible ones, too; one down low from the engine subframe to the firewall and a vertical brace connecting the M2’s unique aluminium front-axle subframe to the stiffening network. There’s also an aluminium shear panel with integral bracing as well.

For the boffins, the M2 runs large castor and kingpin angles and M has lowered the roll centre as well, all in the interests of the ride/handling compromise.

There’s a specific M2 version of the 2 Series’ ball-jointed aluminium wishbones, a forged swivel bearing and a unique spring strut clamp and new wheel bearings.

The five-link rear axle design is also drawn from the M4, and the rear-axle subframe is directly mounted to the body, instead of being mounted on bushes.

The M2’s steering uses a variable rack to achieve its 11.9-metre turning circle, and there are two driver-selectable effort settings for it.

All of this attaches to the wheels through an adaptive suspension system, using electro-magnetically controlled dampers to switch between three basic damper settings, from comfort to sporting to track modes.

“These parts are responsible for much higher performance, but the steering is unique to the M2 and the applications for steering and damping control and rear diff are all just for the M2,” van Meel confirmed.

The 2023 BMW M2’s upgraded electronics systems are there for two things: more speed and more fun.

Unlike the outgoing car, the next-generation M2 is calm and relatively comfortable in its default setting, but can be switched into the crazy-fun-party-guy mode at the push of a single button on the steering wheel.

The M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel can be programmed by the driver, meaning they can have two different preferred handling suites organised for different roads, along with the default set-up of ‘everything on’.

That’s a very different philosophy to the rest of the mainstream BMW fleet, which is moving away from easy-off switches for the assistance systems, and burying that ability deep in the multimedia tiles.

“The track button switches off all the assistance systems and turns off the MMI, leaving the instrument cluster alone to reduce distractions,” van Meel said.

“We have a lot of people who like to take it to racetracks and we don’t want to go to the fifth multimedia level to turn it all off. One button. On the wheel. That’s it.”

The Dynamic Stability Control is far more precise than before, as is the M Dynamic Mode (which is M’s way of saying ‘drift mode’) with 10 stages of slip angle.

This wheel-slip limitation function corrects itself 10 times faster than on the previous car, meaning greater precision and less risk.

While all this is going on, the 2023 BMW M2 has picked up all the grown-upness from the standard 2 Series Coupe, including the large curved screen that combines the multimedia display with the instrument cluster.

The display is angled in towards the driver, and combines a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster with a 14.9-inch infotainment display running BMW’s operating system 8.0.

But the M2 has a different display for its performance modes and offers the ability to shut down the multimedia display completely to allow the driver to concentrate on the custom M2 instrument cluster.

Unlike a stock BMW, the M2’s display will show everything from the fuel status to the transmission oil temperature, and which driver-assistance systems are switched on or off, while there are shift lights at the top of the display.

Comfort seats are standard, though there are options for M Sports seats with stronger side bolstering and integrated head restraints, and 10.8kg-lighter M Carbon seats that are heated, fully electric and have removable headrests (so helmeted drivers fit better) and the ability to fit multi-point harnesses for track work.

Like its predecessor, the M2 remains surprisingly practical, with a 40:20:40 split in the rear seat, useful rear legroom, front seats that slide forward to access the rear and 390 litres of luggage space.

The standard equipment list includes three-zone air-conditioning, acoustic windscreen glazing, a pair of USB ports and a Bluetooth interface, while inductive charging is an option, along with a range of audio systems up to a Harmon Kardon surround-sound set-up.

There are two optional roof variants for the M2 as well, ranging from a tilt-and-slide sunroof that’s 20 per cent larger than before or a full carbon-fibre roof that saves weight and looks cool.

BMW seems to be mining free airtime with the remarkable strategy of making its cars look... controversial. The 2023 BMW M2 is no different.

It hasn’t helped that the leaked images of the M2 haven’t been flatteringly lit or set up, but the car is undoubtedly a step away from the cohesive, cheeky chunk of its predecessor.

It’s a bigger car than the outgoing model, and it’s even bigger than the 2 Series Coupe itself, measuring 4580mm long (+112mm on the old model), 1187mm wide (+33mm) and 1403mm high (down 7mm). Even the front and rear track widths have gone up – by 40mm and 4mm respectively.

The headlights are different to the 2 Series Coupe too, but the biggest and most controversial change is the switch to horizontal strakes in the middle of the two kidney grilles.

“We looked at vertical strakes on the grille but they would have taken away too much air, and it has two turbochargers so it needs air,” van Meel explained.

“These strakes also pronounce how horizontal it is, because it’s 60mm wider than the standard 2 Series and the entire front apron is new.”

The double-spoke mirrors are new too, because people asked for them to be more like the M3/M4 mirrors, and the rear-end design is also controversial with two massively boxy elements at the ends of the bumper and a very subtle lip spoiler on the bootlid, although there is a wilder M Performance wing coming.

The boxy rear-end houses four enlarged exhaust outlets complete with switchable flaps, and vertically mounted rear reflectors.

More than 2600 examples of the original BMW M2 and its variants were sold in Australia, where one in five BMW vehicles sold are M cars, between 2016 and 2022.

Expect the new BMW M2 to arrive Down Under in early 2023, so stand by for full Australian pricing and specs.

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