With 5,806 cars sold, South Korea was the sixth-largest market for BMW M in 2022. To show its appreciation for the growing interest in high-performance cars, the luxury brand held a special event this week to celebrate the local launch of the XM. Timo Resch, Vice President Customer, Brand, Sales at BMW M made the trip to the country in East Asia to bring the plug-in hybrid SUV onto the stage.
The XM is one of the several M products coming this year in South Korea where BMW intends to sell the recently facelifted X5 M and X6 M as Competition-only models, along with the unreleased i7 M70. The M2 Coupe and M3 Touring have also been confirmed. At the very end of the presentation, Timo Resch teased the XM Label Red and said the company’s most powerful production vehicle has entered the late development stage and will be launched in the country this fall.
While the next-generation 5 Series debuting soon with an electric i5 will also spawn an M60 version, it wasn’t mentioned during the presentation. For the event held in South Korea, BMW invited local artist G-Dragon to generate more buzz around the XM.
BMW South Korea did mention other electric M Performance vehicles already sold in the country, namely the i4 M50 and iX M60. The former was actually BMW M’s best-selling product globally in 2022. The M760e plug-in hybrid based around an inline-six engine is also available locally and will likely be complemented by an M560e.
As previously reported, BMW M projects purely electric vehicles will outsell ICE and PHEV models combined as early as 2028. Just two years later, most performance cars will not have a combustion engine.
In the meantime, more plug-in hybrid M models are on the way, with the M5 Sedan and M5 Touring due around 2025 with a little over 700 horsepower or about 50 hp less than the XM Label Red special edition.
Source: BMW South Korea
