Following up on
earlier rumors, it appears that the M tuned 5-series diesel model has been confirmed. According to
Thedetroitbureau and
Autoblog, BMW has confirmed that there will indeed be a new diesel F10 tuned by BMW M joining the 5-series lineup.
Despite being tuned by BMW M, the F10 diesel M will not receive the "M5" moniker, but will instead be named along the lines of
M550d,
550dM,
550dXM, or
550d xDrive M, each a bit of a clumsy name in our opinion. For what it's worth, BMW recently filed a trademark for "M550."
The 5-series M diesel will be powered by a triple turbo inline-6 cylinder diesel motor and will be all-wheel-drive only. The sources speculate that it will come in with slightly less power than the F10 M5 (which makes 560hp), somewhere in the
500-550hp (unconfirmed) range. Torque, on the other hand, is speculated to exceed the 500lb-ft of the F10 M5 and could be
north of 650lb-ft (unconfirmed). If these figures end up accurate, the AWD xDrive transmission will certainly be needed to put all that power to the ground without excessive loss of traction.
The new F10 model will be introduced next spring, but it's not yet known whether this model will be available in North America. Future applications for this new M tuned diesel motor could include the X5, X6 and 7 series.