BMW M Performance Automobiles Geneva 2012 launch

BMW X6 M50d - likely to one of the first BMW M Performance Division cars

BMW has announced that they are to create a new division of cars -  BMW M Performance Automobiles – to sit below BMW M.

This week is the Detroit Auto Show, but car makers are already releasing details of their offerings for the next car show at Geneva in March. Today, BMW has joined that list by announcing they will launch the  BMW M Performance Automobiles division at the Spring show.

BMW say that the new M Performance Automobiles division will sit below the current ‘M’ cars division and offer a range of cars which offer exclusive engine variations – both petrol and diesel – but aimed at customers who ‘…don’t want to forgo the everyday usability of their cars.’

BNW go on to compare the new M Performance cars to BMWs from the past like the M535i, so it seems clear that the new M Performance range will include cars like the BMW X6 M50d and the BMW M550d we’ve reported on recently; cars that aren’t quite as ‘hard-edged’ as proper M cars or which use engines that real M cars would eschew – diesels in particular.

It also seems that BMW are to make much wider use of 4WD – or ‘intelligent all-wheel-drive system BMW xDrive’ as BMW would call it – which is something the X6 M50d will get and will be offered on the M550d, and something purists would object to in a pure M car.

All things being equal we should see the BMW X6 M50d and the BMW M550d launched together with the M Performance Automobiles, and more ‘M Performance’ cars to come right across the BMW range.

By Cars UK