BMW isn’t shielding its electric vehicle migration from its heritage, this big cinderblock gets a huge boost in horsepower
BMW has said the claims that the new XM looks like a brick in every sense is simply hearsay. Well, not actually, but the new Label Red trim on their boxy hybrid SUV might as well pen it on the front page of The New York Times. The new XM is vastly different from any other BMW model we’ve seen in the past. Check that, quite possibly any other German car we’ve seen in the past.
As the auto world moves quickly to capitalize on resurgence of a neo-boxy style in a modern day format, BMW has decided to just throw in a high-powered engine and pray it stymies the invective. The opposition? The fact that nearly everyone has had one thing or another to say about the XM– from the fact that it looks like it has the drag coefficient of a house to making an M model half electric. Whatever the reason, BMW has released the Label Red– a fiery, bright version of a consumer-available transit bus.
The BMW XM Gets Hotter in Label Red Form
While still having not completely shaken the chunky silhouette of the vehicle it’s based on, the new Label Red opts to increase output instead of putting lipstick on a pig. Instead, BMW gave the pig some extra go juice with 738 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque powered by a rumbling 4.4 liter twin-turbo V8 and an electric motor situated between the 8-speed transaxle. Bellowing underneath is the fact that this is the most powerful road-legal BMW to date– and it comes in the form of a tank instead of a supercar. Albeit, BMW has had their own issues when it comes to developing supercars.
All that firepower allows the XM to go from a stop to 60 mph in an astonishing 3.7 seconds. If you told anyone 10 years ago that a hybrid SUV would easily crack four seconds– we’re not sure you’d have been able to make it out from the dirty gawks and glares. The transaxle also plays a huge role in the feel of the vehicle– making it a rear-wheel biased all-wheel drive car. This deviates from the industry norm where so-called “super-SUVs” tend to be more SUV than super.
The XM will have a top speed of 155, but if you decide to option in the Driver’s Package, the friendly folks at Muchen will gladly up that number by 20 for you, bringing you to a grand total of 175 mph. Maybe going 175 miles an hour in a literal box might not be the best thing that the NHTSA recommends– but BMW says it’s fine so we’ll take their word on it
No Matter What, the XM is Still an M
Sure, it may look like the wooly mammoth in vehicular form, but the brand insists that the XM is still an M model– fitted to the teeth with every luxury that a high-performance BMW variant comes with on the regular. That includes adaptive dampers, new active anti-roll bars, an electronic ESC, and 23-inch summer tires. It also means that the powertrain was a previous thoroughbred that BMW has ran through the ringer in order for them to deem it fit for a vehicle like the XM.
The powertrain was developed via baptism by fire. The XM derives its setup from the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car which competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona in Florida. Its successful debut became the foundation for the twin-turbo hybrid setup the XM has been situated with an impressive background for one of the more peculiar vehicles of 2023.
The Label Red is… Red
It’s quite apparent what the color scheme for the Label Red is. Pulled straight from a fire truck, the red accents are overwhelming– in a good way. It makes it clear that this is a special edition vehicle. From the matte black paint showcased in the media images to the red trim pieces on the AC vents in the interior. The Label Red tries to take super SUV and put its own spin on it. In a day and age where super SUVs are all the rage– take one simple look at the influx of high-powered SUVs to hit US streets, one would be hard-pressed to find one actually worth the price.
In fact, it seems that most SUVs take the side of the family hauler instead of encompassing the real value of a sports car. And yes, the term super SUV is an oxymoron– a SUV cannot rival a supercar when it comes to every aspect, but you know the uber-wealthy will try. That’s why the Label Red tries its best to be a wolf in wolf’s clothing instead of the normal sheep in wolf skin adage. The Label Red intends to deliver on what BMW sees as the future of its company.
For that, we applaud them. The red fits in uniquely, and the auto manufacturer did it well– in a way that not many other SUV dupes have done. Whether or not the XM is truly the future of one of the most heralded brands in the world is a sight to be seen, and one that will take not only time but cold hard cash as well. We expect the starting price to be well north of $170k, maybe even creeping up into the low $200k range. Production starts the fall in Spartanburg, South Carolina– maybe we’ll even get our hands on it.
