Pioneering, but not quite there

Photo: Callum Crawley

David Bosselman takes the BMW XM Label Red for a spin.

ROAD TEST

Super-sized crossover SUVs are invariably substantial and visually confronting machines, and especially so when they come from BMW.

The German marque has, after all, been pushing styling boundaries since the early 1990s, when American Chris Bangle became the firm’s design chief. He introduced a design language that polarised opinion, but during his time holding the styling pen, BMW enjoyed unprecedented sales success, nudging past Mercedes to become the world leader in premium car sales.

Bangle signed out of BMW way back in 2009, but as the new XM V8 twin-turbo plug-in hybrid shows, confronting styling is now part of the company’s DNA.

A bold look apparent enough in the "everyday" XM, which also packs a 480KW/800Nm power punch, matched to a $299,300 price tag. Beyond that proposition, and appreciably closer to a styling limit that might be described as thuggish brutalism, there’s the XM Label Red: just 500 available worldwide; a staggering 500kW and 100Nm of power and torque on offer; a price tag of $345,900.

The Label Red is an automotive armadillo, and on its looks alone, owners will need to be equally thick-skinned. Everyone I met while testing the car expressed a less-than-positive view of its looks. Most quite vehemently.

Undoubtedly, the signature matte black with red slash A-Team van homage colour scheme didn’t help. But the metalwork is really quite challenging. Even taking into account that M boss Franciscus van Meel has impressed that this, the second pure M car since the M1 supercar of the 1970s, was purpose-shaped to shock, it risks being just too much of an outrage.

Photo: Callum Crawley

So it’s on shaky ground. Yet it’s also the biggest earthquake you might ever dare to experience, for in addition to being the most expensive BMW one can buy, it is also the most powerful M car ever.

What exactly to do with it? Over a week of use, I was left flummoxed.

Everyday driving uses perhaps 1% of its talent and reveals very little of its pedigree. If you do find opportunity to wring it out, where might be the best place? I’d say half a globe away, on Germany’s autobahns.

As for its appeal, first there’s exclusivity. Implicit in that limited production run is the big drum beat of the car you buy today being a future classic, and perhaps even an appreciated asset.

Aside from rarity value, it also offers a chance to sample a powertrain as technically fascinating as any I’ve known, and one that also fully delivers on its promise of being something of a life-changing force.

At time of delivery, the XM Label Red alone could offer this engine in its highest pedigree, but now we know that the impending M5 will have the exact same powertrain, in exact same tune. Logically, anyone of sound M-mindedness would await that sedan, because it will be a better placement.

Indeed, in hindsight, could the XM really be seen as a trial by disguise for the M5? In as much as the products are wildly different, BMW obviously needed to blood this engine to prove it was on the right path before committing it to the famous M5 plate.

In briefing for the M5, van Meel admitted a multitude of options were considered — including smaller engines with less cylinders and a non-plug-in hybrid system — before concluding that the V8 was integral to the appeal of the car and that a useful electric range was desirable in Europe especially.

Photo: Callum Crawley

The challenge was then to make the hybrid system powerful enough, and the chassis of the M5 competent enough, to overcome the 500kg weight gain of a plug-in hybrid system.

That process logically required a test bed, and the XM Label Red is effectively that car.

As much as the Label Red, as a whole, reeks of ballistic bombast, the drivetrain itself is without question an incredibly impressive offering. Not just its outright explosiveness, but how it creates that big, big bang.

That the twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 petrol engine using twin-scroll turbos is a familiar device should not diminish the extent of its accomplishment. On its own, this unit makes up to 436kW at 5600-6500rpm and a whopping 750Nm of torque from just 1800rpm up to 5400rpm. That’s a massive 70kW and 100Nm more raw combustion than the already muscled standard XM packs.

But that’s not all, for those figures are boosted by BMW M’s first ever plug-in hybrid system, which combines a permanently synchronous e-motor inside the ZF eight-speed auto, along with a 25.7kWh battery. The electric motor is rated at 145kW and 280Nm. Maximum power and torque figures produced when the engine and motor work together are 542kW and 1,000Nm.

A 19.2kWh battery stores enough electrons to allow the Label Red to coast along in pure electric silence for around 80km according to WLTP scale (more like 60km max according to my real-world experience approach, but with a light foot). Boot it and you can see it run to a top speed of 140kmh as a pure EV.

Integrated braking enables some mechanical-to-regenerative transitions, but realistically you will have to plug in to replenish. That process is about the car’s slowest aspect, as the battery can only accept an AC charge rate of 7.4kWh. So 4.5 hours on the plug.

As much as the electric aspect makes for a marketing feel-good, the real reason it’s here is to elevate the primarily petrol-fed fury.

Photo: Callum Crawley

When all systems are at optimal, the XM Label Red can accomplish 100kmh from a standing start in 3.7 seconds. That is 0.4s quicker than the standard XM and lineball with some of the fastest pure electric performance cars.

One can sense the power no matter how easily it’s driven — and hear it as well, in the form of a menacing growl emerging from little more than walking pace. Any thought that it has too much for general operation doesn’t stick, thanks to the quality of the tyres and the traction controls.

So the XM Label Red is a weapon. But to what extent?

For all the effort BMW has put into prioritising the driving dynamics, they’ve still ended up with a machine that handles and steers extremely well ... for an SUV.

In the pantheon of M greats, it is hard to say it stands tallest.

Limitations stem from more than just the substance and 2.7-tonne weight; as hunkered as it is, and as much as it delivers a stunning decent low-slung driving position, the XM Label Red hasn’t an especially road-hugging feel.

It’s not that BMW hasn’t lavished it with kit that should lend an edge. There is standard adaptive M Suspension Professional, active anti-roll control, M Sport differential torque vectoring and rear steering.

And it’s not that it lacks precision and control. When you smash it along, there’s all the grip in the world, good balance and steering feel, and fantastic brakes.

Photo: Callum Crawley

Yet as is so often the case with performance Euros, the ride being anything from very firm to crushingly brutal depending on how you set things up is going to be challenging for Kiwi use.

The extent to which it dominates a lane also comes into how you drive it; ostensibly, it’s sized between an X5 and an X7, but often you’d swear it was wider.

The manner in which the XM carries also has repercussions for passenger comfort, which is a pity because the cabin entices with how much room it lends and even more so in the quality of the materials.

As an example, quilted Merino leather surfaces, with custom XM pillows for back benchers, make regular hide premium upholstery seem quite ordinary.

But would you enjoy it if the occupant of the command position — also brilliant not only because of the seat but also the stunning presentation from the BMW Curved Screen, that subtly biases toward the driver — was prone to press on?

And that’s perhaps the core issue with the concept.

As a driver’s car, the XM is above the level at which passengers might wish it could be, given how plush it is.

Yet it is also arguably not enough of a driving machine to satisfy those who have enjoyed some famous past M cars.