German car manufacturer BMW has teased the possibility of producing a super sportscar which could rival the McLaren or Ferrari market.
BMW have always punched at the top end of the luxury car market, but haven’t entered the stratosphere of the likes of the Italian thoroughbreds such as Ferrari or Lamborghini, or got anywhere near the premium luxury of Bentley or Aston Martin.
But speaking to Autocar this week, Klaus Fröhlich, who is responsible for product development at BMW, raised the possibility of a top class sports car to come from the German stable.
He said: “If you are an engineer, once in your life, you want to make a super-sports car. “I think partial electrification will enable that.
“If we have these very compact and very powerful electric driving units, if we have a carbonfibre chassis – for example, the i8’s – and if we still have high-performance engines, then, if you do it cleverly, you can combine them into a real performance package.
“If you look at the supercars – the McLarens, the Ferraris – beyond 2020, they will be all partially electric. And if you look at power plug-in hybrids we are planning for today, an electric motor in our PHEVs has a little bit more than 99bhp and 184lb ft of torque.”
With an electric future looming large across almost every premium brand in the near future, the combination of electric and petrol could push BMW closer to those premium brands. The German brand currently retails the i8 Coupe at £114,000, but a new supercar from BMW would likely exceed that price tag.