BMW: New SUV causes biting ridicule – Group counters: “You have to really knock one out”
Created: 05/24/2022Updated: 05/24/2022 08:41
By: Markus Hofstetter
The BMW XM has drawn heavy criticism.
The manufacturer has now spoken up and explained the background to the provocative design and the type of drive.
Munich - Since the concept study of the BMW XM became known at the end of last year, the model has been heating up tempers.
This is not a wonder.
The BMW XM is a huge SUV that is over five meters long, 2.21 meters wide and weighs 2.7 tons.
The newly developed V8 petrol engine, together with the electric drive, provides an output of 650 hp with a torque of 800 Nm.
Later, even a 750 hp version with a torque of 1000 Nm will roll off the assembly line.
The electric range should be 80 kilometers.
However, the manufacturer has not yet announced the exact data and driving performance.
BMW defends giant SUV XM: outrage deliberately factored in
As soon as the first data on the BMW XM became known, criticism hailed on Twitter.
For the author and mobility expert Don Dahlmann, given the model in "Munich, the coke must be bad".
He already sees BMW as the next Nokia.
Another simply calls the SUV a “tank”.
The freelance journalist and NDR moderator Daniel Bröckerhoff writes: “BMW no longer builds cars, but psychedelic, post-apocalyptic nightmares.
A clip like a bad trip.
Pure horror.”
The BMW XM is geared towards the tastes of customers in the USA and China © BMW/Fabian Kirchbauer
But BMW seems to have deliberately factored in the indignation that was triggered.
"We were well aware that the XM would polarize," quoted
Spiegel Online
Sven Ritter, who is responsible for the BMW XM as project manager.
“A project like this is only possible with a unique vehicle and a provocative design.
You really have to hit the ground running.”
BMW defends giant SUV XM: Target group is not in Europe
Ritter justifies the fact that the BMW XM is a plug-in hybrid and not a pure electric car by saying that customers come from high-performance combustion engines, so "we can't take the complete step to full-electric vehicles right away".
The shit storm in Germany doesn't matter to BMW in the sense that the SUV was designed for customers in the USA and China.
According to Lutz Fügener, the car even "fits perfectly into our times".
The German market hardly plays a role in influencing the general directions of developments, according to Professor and Head of Design and Mobility at the Hof University of Applied Sciences in
Spiegel Online
.
In addition, people have more and more money that they spend on luxury goods.
They don't really care how climate-friendly the cars are, as long as the legislature allows this type of waste of resources.
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BMW XM: Series production starts in Spartanburg at the end of 2022
The prototypes of the XM series model are currently undergoing an intensive test program on public roads.
Production is scheduled to start in December 2022 at the US plant in Spartanburg.
The first models are to be delivered to customers at the beginning of next year.
