Why Don’t BMW Make A Supercar? Will They Ever Make One?

BMW has a reputation for building excellent quality cars that tend to be on the more luxurious side. BMW market their automobiles as symbols of status and success, so you might be wondering why BMW don’t make supercars or if they’ll ever make one. 

BMW don’t make a supercar because they believe in building quality cars that have a more mass-market appeal. A combination of competition from rival car manufacturers and the increasing demand for hybrid/electric vehicles has ruled out a BMW supercar for the foreseeable future.

While BMW doesn’t have any plans to design or build a supercar anytime soon, understanding why requires a deeper look into the future of BMW and automobiles as a whole. Below, we’re going to be taking a comprehensive look at the factors surrounding BMW’s decision not to make a supercar of their own.

Why Doesn’t BMW Have A Supercar?

While BMW did have one supercar in the past, as a whole, they’ve opted not to go down that business route. This is due to their brand’s reputation and who they target, which doesn’t include the supercar buyer demographic, along with the business risks that come with making a supercar.

Technically speaking, BMW did have a supercar, which was called the BMW M1. The design and manufacture were initially a collaborative effort between Lamborghini and BMW. The car was produced from 1978 until 1981, but it wasn’t a great commercial success despite causing a great deal of excitement among car fans worldwide. 

The M1 could reach a top speed of 162 mph and had a 0-60 time of 5.6 seconds. This was possible thanks to its 3.5 liter straight-six engine that was capable of putting out just under 270 horsepower. Aside from the technical specs, the M1 also looked like a supercar. 

Brand Reputation

But BMW isn’t Ferrari, Bugatti, or Lamborghini, and they don’t have a long history of creating supercars. BMW does play some interesting marketing tricks, and it does have powerful cars (the M5 Competition is a great example), but they aren’t quite the genuine supercar article. 

BMW’s belief is that form should follow function, and this tells us everything we need to know about BMW. Their cars all follow the same formula of being premium grade quality and relatively high performance, without the over-the-top, needlessly extravagant designs of many super cars. 

Sophistication And Status

BMW markets its cars, but not for the super-wealthy who can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions for an exotic powerhouse. BMW instead targets affluent men and women between 25 and 50 years old, or people operating during the peak of their careers. Their cars offer a blend of performance and reliability as well as being a touch more expensive and sophisticated than the competition. 

BMW believe that they have the most to gain from sticking to what they know, which is creating premium quality cars that can get near to performance levels usually seen in only high-end, powerful sports cars. This approach has been the cornerstone of BMW’s success since its inception, and this is unlikely to change. 

Supercars Or Super Risky? 

While on the surface selling expensive supercars might seem like a logical next step for a brand like BMW that prides itself on being the premium quality option, making a supercar might not be the best business strategy for them.

Supercars are incredibly expensive to design, and they also have to be marketed in a very different way than mass production cars. While lots of BMW fans might want to see them create a supercar, how many could actually afford it? 

BMW already faces fierce competition from the likes of Audi, Ford, and Tesla, but it has no name whatsoever in the supercar niche. Not to mention that the buyers of supercars are usually not only incredibly picky, and likely some of the most knowledgeable customers you could ever encounter, making a new supercar a tough sell. 

KEY POINTS

• BMW don’t have a supercar for many reasons

• It’s primarily because a supercar would not be in line with their values or target market

• It would also be too expensive and risky to produce

What’s The Fastest BMW?

The fastest BMW is the BMW M5 CS, which has a top speed of 190 mph (306 kph). It has an engine capable of producing 626 horsepower, allowing it to accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds. Their i8 model is also capable of hitting speeds of up to 155 mph (249 kph).

The BMW M5 Drag Car (AKA as the Boetie Budler), which hits a very impressive max speed of 216 mph/348 kph, is technically the fastest BMW. But the caveat is that this isn’t a production model or street legal, so you can’t buy one!

So, the true fastest BMW the very formidable 2022 BMW M5 CS, which can go from 0 to 60 in less than 3 seconds! It can achieve a top speed of 190 mph/306 kph. This is a street-legal car which means it’s able to be purchased and used on public roads (although it only ran for one year and sold out rapidly in many countries around the world). 

BMW has delivered plenty of fast cars, and while enthusiasts can certainly talk these cars up, they are not supercars. Their i8 model car could hit 155 mph/249 kph, and while it certainly looks the part, it does not match the performance or capabilities of a true supercar. 

Will BMW Ever Make A Supercar?

It’s unknown if BMW will ever make a supercar, but it’s unlikely to happen at any time in the near future. While there have been rumors about BMW working in collaboration with supercar manufacturers, there is no confirmation that BMW is currently working on one. 

There are rumors abound that BMW is working in collaboration with either McLaren or Lamborghini, or with various renowned supercar manufacturers. These rumors have circulated for years, and they certainly generate a lot of excitement in the automotive world, but the fact remains that BMW is yet to produce a true supercar

BMW has not confirmed or denied any rumors, as this speculation is only helpful to their business. There was excitement in the air as BMW stated that they were designing the M NEXT, a spiritual successor to the famous M1, but in 2020 it was confirmed that the M NEXT supercar had been scrapped

BMW believes that it needs to put all of its focus into setting up and designing hybrid and fully electric cars, as it is lagging behind other automotive brands like Tesla and VW. 

Emissions Controversy

One potential reason for BMW scrapping its supercar could be due to some recent legal scandals. In 2021 BMW was fined around $440 million by the EU for colluding with other leading manufacturers in an attempt to limit emissions control technology development. 

This is not the first time either, as back in 2019, they were also fined for installing the wrong emissions software in their cars, which led to higher than intended emissions. These repeated mishaps may have forced BMW to radically alter any future design plans they had for their next catalog of models, taking notoriously emission heavy supercars off the table.

Final Thoughts

BMW don’t make a supercar primarily because it wouldn’t fit with their brand’s values or their target market. While the M1 from the late 1970s was technically a supercar, the brand hasn’t shown much intent recently to produce a new supercar in the near future.

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