The BMW Vision M Next concept is the fun BMW of the future

This concept isn’t about autonomy; it’s about deploying almost six hundred horsepower on a favourite road and getting stuck in to the driving yourself. It’s surely what mid-engined, wedge-shaped, gullwing-doored two-seaters are for…

According to the designer the car pays tribute to the 1972 BMW Turbo concept – the highly influential precursor to the M1. Profile and proportions confirm the relationship, as do design cues like the BMW roundel badges on both rear corners, as featured by the M1 of course.

Even allowing for the “Thrilling Orange” front and rear body elements, the design is a lot less avant garde than the hybrid i8, confirming the new concept is far more “M” than “i”.  While elements of the design and the hybrid technology are likely to influence the next i8, it is clear that BMW’s real intention is to establish a new performance sports car flagship, what would become the brand’s first standalone M model since the M1, all other M cars having been versions of regular production models.

That is certainly what the car’s spec tells us. In concept form, the M Next has 600PS (591bhp), gets from 0-62mph in 3.0 secondss, and tops out at 186mph, performance way ahead of the i8 and surely worthy of an M1 successor, 38 years after BMW stopped making it.

The M Next is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) with combination of turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, driving the rear wheels only, and electric motors providing drive to the front as well for some all-wheel-drive functionality. For trundling through zero-emissions zones the car can be driven on electric power alone – BMW says its electric range is 62 miles – then when the road opens up you can deploy the petrol motor and have some fun.

For BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk the M Next “demonstrates how state-of-the-art technology can make the experience of driving yourself purer and more emotionally engaging”.

The body, with its naked carbon panels, is notable for a conventional mid-engined profile without any extrovert aero addenda, other than the blade-like lines around the front intakes. Instead there is a pared-back look with taut surfaces and some very BMW details: a laser-etched and illuminated kidney grille, really distinctive Laser Wire headlights and louvres on the rear screen, another nod back to the BMW M1.

The cabin, as you might have guessed, takes the minimalist approach with a simple geometric design and strong focus on the driver. All essential information is shown in line of sight either on steering wheel displays, on a curved glass screen that stretches around the steering wheel, or in an augmented reality head-up display in the windscreen.

Materials are similarly focused: recycled carbon-fibre, synthetic microfibre fabrics, anodised titanium parts and bare painted surfaces. Leather? Only on bits you touch like the steering wheel and door pulls. There is perhaps one frippery: a gyroscopic cupholder that BMW promises won’t spill your coffee!

Details of what’s underneath it all are still scarce, but as the latest hybrid development in BMW’s electrification strategy, the M Next’s platform and drivetrain promise to have a big future. We should know more about that when BMW presents the next chapter in the reborn M1 story at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

Is this the car to carry the standard as ultimate driving machine for an autonomous and digital world? Watch this space…