REVIEW: The BMW XM has certainly divided enthusiasts with its controversial design, but what is it like to drive? We get behind the wheel of the 644bhp and 590lb ft behemoth to find out
One down, one to go. This is the year that two blue-blooded carmakers – Ferrari and BMW M – dispense with tradition and launch their own SUVs.and found it to be profoundly good – although the presence of an 8250rpm 6.5-litre V12 always helps. That leaves the BMW XM. This is M division’s first bespoke car since the mid-engined M1 of 1978 and one that M CEO Frank van Meel says offers the best of X and the best of M. Hence the name.
A low-slung 29.5kWh battery grants an electric-only range of 55 miles. It feeds a 148bhp electric motor integrated into the ZF-built eight-speed automatic gearbox. The rest of the output comes from M’s phenomenally strong ‘S68’ twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 – an engine that will realise more of its potential when the 738bhp XM Label Red arrives.
The inside is better, although the pervading theme continues. First sight of the leather-lined, Dunhill-style holdall containing the charging cable genuinely had me wondering whether somebody from a fancier publication left their luggage behind. Nothing wrong with a nice bag, but it’s indicative of a style-over-substance approach.
But the comparative lack of practicality, the obstinately ugly aesthetic and the punchy asking price are all okay, because the XM redrafts the dynamic rulebook for fast SUVs, with M5 CS genes palpable in its very DNA, right? Wrong. And unfortunately, this is down to not just one key weakness but several.
It is an entertaining powertrain, at least. In the default Hybrid mode , the XM sets off more or less silently before – precise moment dependent on throttle position – the V8 explodes into life with zero latency and calculated ferocity.
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