A fleet of BMW prototypes has been spotted by a CarScoops reader while doing the rounds in South Africa. While BMW conducts much of its testing in the Northern Hemisphere, it does often take its cars to South Africa for testing. While some of its prototypes were covered from view, a handful of images of them were snapped under heavy camouflage.
The most eye-catching prototype that was
snapped is the production version of last year’s XM Concept. This will be the
BMW M division’s first standalone SUV and just the second standalone vehicle it
has produced since the iconic M1 supercar of the late 1970s. Despite being
covered head-to-toe in camouflage, we can see that it will retain many of the
same striking design elements as the concept, including the same oddly-shaped
taillights and quad stacked exhausts.
The production model is expected to have
the same hybrid powertrain as the concept, consisting of a twin-turbocharged V8
coupled to an electric motor and muscling out an almighty 750 hp and 999 Nm of torque. It should hit 96 km/h in around 3.0 seconds and
have 50 miles of all-electric range in Europe.
In addition to snapping the XM up close, also spotted a prototype of the new 7-Series that will be sold in both
ICE and EV guises. The new car was originally scheduled to be
unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show this month but as that event was cancelled
after the Covid-19 outbreak in China.
A heavily-disguised prototype of the
facelifted X7 was also spied being put through its paces (BMW has already
revealed the SUV) as was a tester of the next X1.
