BMW M GmbH, a company for individual automobiles, is a high-performance development, product and service company and was founded in 1993 as the successor to BMW Motorsport GmbH, which was founded in 1972, and at the same time integrated the BMW Individual department into it , so that this has since been part of BMW M GmbH and has its headquarters in Garching near Munich, registered in the registry court: Munich under HRB 44621, sales tax identification number: DE811163077. As early as 1977, the driver training division was integrated into BMW Motorsport GmbH, which was later taken over by the successor company BMW M GmbH.

The main tasks consist of the conception and development of particularly sporty and exclusive automobiles as well as a comprehensive customization program for vehicles from all BMW series and selected sporty accessories.

This task requires its own status within the BMW Group.

On the one hand, BMW M is an integral part of the overall company and can therefore fall back on all technical and scientific facilities of the BMW Group.

On the other hand, the subsidiary consciously cultivates its culture as a small, manageable company – characterized by a mixture of team spirit, experimentation and perfectionism. In this atmosphere, products can be created that would hardly be possible in the regular development processes .; extremely sporty BMW models that express the pure essence of driving pleasure. Unique vehicle creations that are individually designed according to the wishes of their customers. And last but not least, the offer of driver training courses that only exist in this form at BMW M.

The big difference to other vehicle manufacturers is that BMW M GmbH does not use tuned series engines in these special vehicles. All engines are specially developed by BMW M GmbH. These engines and technologies developed by BMW M GmbH were also used or integrated in later normal BMW AG models. This is also a very clever approach in several ways. For example, the expensive development costs in currently offered high-performance top models in the high-price segment can be offered to wealthy customers who want to stand out from the crowd, or who simply want to have more mileage than the standard models, and compensate these customers for the development costs incurred, so that the costs for the subsequent series models are far lower and are available more quickly, since these technologies have already been developed and, as BMW calls it, have already proven themselves in “large-scale customer trials”.

BMW M GmbH is not limited to engines, but also to all vehicle components, such as the chassis, transmission, equipment, vehicle electronics, special new aerodynamic parts and the use of new materials such as aluminum (doors of the M3 GT 1995) or carbon (E46 M3 CSL, carbon roof, intake tract and front apron support) to name just a few examples. Carbon was then initially used in many parts such as fenders, until this ended with the I3 and I8 with the complete body made of this material having found its way into regular standard vehicle production in the meantime.

But the development of racing vehicles and the entire motorsport division of the company also benefited from this. Since M GmbH also had direct access to the body production in the factory, these changes, such as the widened body by changing the side walls, such as in the M3E39 or the M3 E46, so that homologation vehicles that have to be produced in small series To get the FIA ​​competition approval in the respective classes can be realized with minimal expenditure of time and costs compared to other manufacturers.

For this purpose, BMW M GmbH also operates some test centers, e.g. at the Nürburgring.

That is why BMW tests all BMW M vehicles at the Test Center at the Nürburgring.

The other side is also the very strong connection to art, as shown by numerous special models, such as the special model Rene Magritte or Paul Klee and, last but not least, the many spectacular art cars of the many incredible and prominent artists. Well-known celebrities and discerning designers such as Karl Lagerfeld were also inspired by it and BMW M GmbH built their individual vehicle.

Like all BMW AG, BMW M also stands for sustainability, saving resources and protecting the climate. This is particularly evident in the fact that BMW M GmbH is always striving to reduce emissions as much as possible with the current state of technology during the manufacture of your vehicles. For this purpose, BMW AG has acquired another company, SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers LLC (USA) – together SGL ACF 2017.

The meanwhile almost exploding sales figures compared to earlier shows that the demand for exclusive and ultra-modern and individually designed vehicles is growing, which the annual reports of BMW M GmbH clearly show. With another sales record, BMW M GmbH continued on its growth path in the 2020 financial year. Despite the market situation shaped by the effects of the corona pandemic, the number of BMW M automobiles delivered worldwide increased by 6.0 percent to 144,218 units, and this despite the Covid 19 restrictions!

The following is the brochure “BMW M – Society for individual automobiles” published by BMW AG at the time, the official presentation of the company which BMW published as a presentation folder at the time.