BMW is about to launch the M car it expects to be the biggest seller in the range both here and globally.
And yep, it’s an SUV.
It’s the BMW X3 M, which goes on sale in Australia in August priced at $157,900 plus on-road costs.
Launched at the same time will be the BMW X4 M ‘coupe’, which shares the same drivetrain, chassis settings and equipment level but adds $7000 to the price.
Head across to the Car Reviews section to read our first drive impressions of both vehicles from the global launch in New York and click here for the details on Australian specifications.
“We expect the X3 M to be the highest selling M car,” BMW Australia spokesman Adam Davis told carsales.com.au.
That’s a pretty safe bet considering the X3 is BMW’s biggest selling model in Australia, aided by the popularity of the X3 M40i ‘M Performance’ model.
“It is now by far the biggest selling M or M Performance car in Australia,” said Davis. “So it’s a logical progression for the X3 M to follow the same course for M cars.”
Having an SUV top the M-car sales hierarchy also makes sense because 60 per cent of all BMW sales in Australia are now SUVs.
Australia is BMW M’s fourth largest market by volume and second in terms of the percentage of sales versus total market volume for the brand.
Global BMW boss Markus Flasch told carsales.com.au he expected the X3 M to fulfil a similar role internationally as in Australia.
“The X3 M will be within the high-performance segment probably the highest selling,” he said.
The biggest selling M car globally and in Australia at the moment is the M2 Competition. Locally, it is followed by the M3 sedan, M5 sedan and M4 coupe.
The X3 M and X4 M are the first full-blown or high-performance M cars to be based on the X3 and X4 and in Australia we only get the more powerful Competition specification.
In previous cases, 85 per cent of buyers in Australia have opted for the Competition version of an M model even if there is a cheaper choice.
Emphasising how important these vehicles are to M, they debut a new-generation 375kW/600Nm 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engine that will flow into the next-generation M3 and M4 due in Australia in 2020.
The pricing of the new BMW X3 M and X4 M undercut their most obvious rivals, the Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S SUV and Coupe, but the V8 Benz has the slight edge on performance with 100Nm more torque and a 3.8sec 0-100km/h claim, versus 4.1sec for the BMWs.