Change of leadership at the top of BMW M GmbH.

Munich. With effect from 1 November, Franciscus van Meel will assume the position as chairman of the board of BMW M GmbH. He succeeds Markus Flasch, who, after three years at the helm of the BMW Group subsidiary responsible for particularly sporty automobiles, will be changing to the Overall Vehicle Development division. Flasch will assume the position within the BMW Group as head of the production lines Rolls-Royce, BMW luxury and upper class, in future also including the BMW midrange production line. During his term of office in the executive board of BMW M GmbH, the company rose to become the world’s leading provider of performance and high-performance-automobiles.

For Franciscus van Meel it is a return to the chief executive position at the top of BMW M GmbH. Between 2015 and 2018, he had already led the company, which bears the status of an independent automobile manufacturer. In the meantime, van Meel has also been, inter alia, responsible for the Rolls-Royce product line as well as for the BMW luxury and upper class. Under his leadership, the BMW Group’s new technology flagship, the BMW iX, was brought to series-production readiness. Van Meel also headed development of the forthcoming purely electrically powered model variants. With this experience in hand, he brings along the ideal prerequisites to also shape the next stages already commenced on the way to electrification at the BMW M GmbH. The first highlight of van Meel’s second term of office has already been fixed: 2022 will witness the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the company - originally founded as BMW Motorsport GmbH - during which many new high-performance automobiles will be presented. These will also include the first BMW M3 Touring, which is already in an advanced stage of its series development process.

During the past three years, BMW M GmbH has been influenced by an unparalleled model offensive. The list of innovations with which BMW M GmbH was able to achieve new record sales figures and assume market leadership ahead of competitors included the extended range of performance automobiles and new versions of the model series BMW M3 and BMW M4, which represent the core of the BMW M brand, as well as the absolute top-of-the-range models in their segment, the BMW M2 CS (fuel consumption combined: 10.1 – 9.2 l/100 km according to WLTP; CO2 emissions combined: 229 – 210 g/km according to WLTP) and the BMW M5 CS (fuel consumption combined: 11.3 l/100 km according to WLTP, CO2 emissions combined: 256 g/km according to WLTP). The latest new model, the purely electrically powered BMW M automobile, the BMW i4 M50 (power consumption combined: 22.5 – 18.0 kWh/100 km according to WLTP, CO2 emissions combined: 0 g/km), has now been brought to market.

At the same time, the BMW M company’s commitment as a car manufacturer and in motorsport was recently again more closely interlinked. This was accompanied by the realignment of motorsport activities, new and particularly attractive customer sport offerings and the decision on BMW’s comeback in international prototype racing, which has been planned for 2023.