BMW Thinks Electric Vehicle Tech Isn’t Up To M’s Standards Yet

BMW M manager of product Carsten Pries says electric vehicle technology isn’t up to scratch to be used by the German automaker’s performance division.

Speaking with Cars Guide at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, Pries cited the weight of batteries as a key reason why he doesn’t think they can be used for M models just yet.

“As far as the EV future for M cars, it’s not easy to predict when it will be ready for us, or good enough for us,” he said. “And we showed clearly in the past, with technology like all-wheel drive and turbocharging, the technology has to qualify for what we aim at with M high-performance cars; it has to add to the driving dynamics, the agility, the precision, then it qualifies for our models. If you look back at turbocharging technology, the response times were not considered appropriate for an M performance car, so we held off on using it until we’d come up with our own solution.”

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“Today, BEVs carry a lot of weight with them, therefore the technology would be more appropriate if the weight of the batteries came down,” Pries added.

Also present at the LA Auto Show was the Porsche Taycan. According to Cars Guide, Pries seemed quite impressed with what its rival had produced but said BMW M tries to be “proactive rather than reactive” and won’t following Porsche’s lead into the performance-focused EV market just yet.

“So yes, we look at Porsche, but the key factor is what do we stand for, and we’re very much about motorsport, so the decision to build an EV would have to suit that image,” he said.