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.