BMW mulling a "green" supercar?

By Alex Nunez, Forecast Earth Correspondent Posted Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:47pm PDT

BMW Group
U.K. pub Autocar has the rumor mill spinning like that big money wheel on "The Price Is Right." You know what? We'll bite, 'cause this one's juicy.

In the October 29 issue, Autocar says that BMW wants a lightweight 2-seat supercar that also doubles as a green performance showcase, according to an unnamed "company official." Power could come from a variant of the automaker's excellent direct-injected 3.0L turbo inline-six, which would be further augmented by Efficient Dynamics features such as a stop/start system and brake energy regeneration (both of which are already available on a variety of European-market BMWs). Maybe even F1-style KERS, too.

The idea is to deliver performance to rival Europe's top sports cars, while keeping emissions and fuel consumption on par with a mainstream sedan. If BMW were to style this theoretical supercar like the recent M1 Homage design study (shown above), all the better.
Even if this particular rumor never pans out, the approach described is something we all ought to get used to. As we've noted before, big V8 or V12 power is awesome, but it'll become less prevalent as automakers look to balance performance demands with the realities of emissions limits and fuel economy regs.

BMW prides itself on building performance cars, so it's no surprise to hear that they're looking at how to deliver performance more efficiently.