Performance marque’s half century celebration expected to deliver a big battery-dedicated surprise.

AS milestone years go, 50 is a big one – so, potentially, BMW’s M Division’s idea of celebrating its half-century by offering ‘just’ a retro motorsport logo and a raft of heritage paint schemes is a diversionary tactic.

Chances are high that the Munich make’s monster factory will also at some point, perhaps on May 24, the actual date when it formed five decades ago, take opportunity to offer Really Big (and inevitable) News of a full-blown electric M-car to cement another half century in the fast car game.

Shocked? It’s kinda been brewing.

Back in January, when announcing a record year of M sales for 2020, the performance arm’s big boss, Markus Flasch, voiced his operation’s intention to present an “electrically powered performance automobile for the first time.”

Since then, of course, BMW has released the i4 M50 (below), which it billed as “the first purely electric performance car from BMW M” on strength that it will deliver “the classic M formula of agility, dynamism and precision to the world of electric mobility”.

Kiwis will be able to judge for themselves in 2022, but it’s a level of comment that has triggered quite a lot of debate elsewhere about whether the i4 M50, whose final specification and price for our country have yet to be shared, is as pukka M as the marketing people would have anyone think.

Some say the M50 appears closer philosophically to an M340i than it is to an M3, though it will definitely be hugely fast. Hitting the ‘Sport Boost’ button liberates 400kW – so, 30kW more than the gruntiest petrol-powered 3-Series model, the M4 Competition - and 795Nm from its two e-motors, meaning 0-100kmh in 3.9 seconds..

So, anyway, all this has stirred sentiment in some quarters that some far more special is being developed in great secrecy.

So far the brand has revealed that the only fully international treat for buyers of M Sport and full-fat M cars is that they can have the traditional BMW roundel replaced with a version of the original BMW Motorsport emblem and also order some products in special colours.

In is offering some low-volume special editions of some existing fossil fuelled variants, plus will unroll an M3 Touring wagon, and plans to celebrate the anniversary at various events, like Villa D’Este, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance, and the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring.

BMW Motorsport was first established in 1972, and the first iterations of its logo first started appearing on race cars in 1973, in the form of shifted semicircles in the iconic blue, red, and purple.

Blue represented BMW, red represented the racing world, and purple represented the two coming together to form BMW Motorsport.

The BMW M1 was the first car to wear the logo as we know it today in 1978, with three diagonal stripes set against the iconic M, and while since then the purple has changed to a darker blue, the logo has always been an indicator of a dynamic, innovative, high-performance car that would stand the test of time and be loved by car enthusiasts of all kinds.

BMW M or M Sport package vehicles with a production date starting March, 2022, can be fitted with a classic BMW Motorsport-inspired logo on the front, back, and wheels, with the red, blue, and dark blue semicircles surrounding the BMW logo.

According to BMW, these vehicles can be ordered starting at the end of next January.

In addition, BMW is offering various classic and iconic M paint colours like Imola Red, Dakar Yellow, Daytona Violet, Macao Blue, Fire Orange, and Frozen Marina Bay Blue on select models.

Apart from that M3 Touring, BMW also tells us to look forward to a special model of the M4 Coupe, and a successor for the M2.

BMW NZ has not shared any market-specific comment about the anniversary.