Photos of new BMW XM leaked before official unveiling

New cars “leaking” on social media before their official debuts is an all too common occurrence in this digital day and age — and an absolute nightmare for manufacturers. 

The latest victim is BMW, who has just had photographs of its soon-to-be-revealed XM splashed all over Instagram by user Wilcoblok. Developed by the Munich carmaker's M Division, this flagship SUV is (as TimesLIVE Motoring reported earlier this week) a plug-in hybrid model that marries a newly developed 4.4l twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine to an electric drive system for a claimed total output of 480kW and 800Nm of torque.

This is distributed to all paws via a hybrid-specific M xDrive four-wheel drive system. BMW hasn't released performance figures, but expect it to be ludicrously fast. Raw pace aside, it also offers a claimed maximum pure-electric driving range of about 80km. 

In terms of exterior styling, the XM is unashamedly aggressive with a huge kidney grille finished in gold, enormous front air intakes and a new split headlamp design similar to the one BMW used on the 7 Series. There's more contrasting gold trim running along the vehicle's belt line — and glasshouse for that matter — and at the rear a pair of double-stacked exhaust tailpipes set either side of the large gloss-black rear air diffuser. 

The single photograph of the interior reveals a suede headliner and a leather-wrapped sports steering wheel fitted with two M driving mode buttons (M1 and M2).

BMW was set to unveil the XM later this year with series production starting in December.

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.