He recalls that when the sports saloon went four-wheel drive for its previous generation, there was concern about what that would mean for the model’s trademark rear-biased handling balance, but he had been impressed by prototypes and was confident in the car’s dynamic credentials. He said: “I already knew how it was going to drive, but I couldn’t tell anyone or explain, so I had to just wait until the car came out and everyone could drive it, and then it was fine. And now it’s the best M5 ever…”
Van Meel said he feels the same now, having spent time at the wheel of test mules for electric M cars: “I’ve driven our cars and I know what we’re doing, and they’re really cool – but either I don’t want to say right now what we’re doing, or I can’t transfer the message because you come from what you know, and you don’t know what we’re doing.”
Crucial to appeasing the keen driver will be the new quad-motor powertrain arrangement that M engineers are testing in prototypes. This allows for full four-wheel torque vectoring that means “you can have a perfect line and the precision you know from an M car”.
But, van Meel added, “to get the precision, it does not help only to have four electric motors: you need a central control unit and that’s what we used to call the Hand of God.” This is the central computer BMW M cars use to vary power delivery to each wheel and it has been renamed the Heart of Joy for its electric performance cars.
“It seems more complicated, but it’s also more interesting if you control them with one ‘hand’ – not only in regards to accelerating or cornering but also braking and stabilising,” he said. “Then you have the possibility to create a new dimension of vehicle dynamics, and then you can counteract the increase in weight.”
His comments echo those of Alpine CEO Philippe Krief, who has said torque vectoring between multiple electric motors can create a feeling of “perceived lightness” that masks the true weight of an EV.
Importantly, each major component in a BMW M electric drivetrain will be bespoke to the sporting division. Much as it has always used heavily reworked versions of standard BMW engines, it will continue to use parts from its parent company as the basis for higher-output, performance-focused electric systems.
