We know its identify but not its goal. BMW Center East uploaded a five-minute video filmed about Liwa, Abu Dhabi, showcasing a battery-electrical rig known as the “Dune Taxi.” The tagline is “When xDrive satisfies BMW M,” an odd play when xDrive 1st hooked up with M on the X5 M and X6 M crossovers 13 decades back, cementing their dalliance on the sedan facet in 2017 with the xDrive-only M5. The Dune Taxi gets plenty of AWD costars from M branch, though, such as the X6 M Levels of competition, an iX M60 producing some weirdly ICE-flavored noises, and the Concept XM, none of which clarifies what we’re meant to anticipate from all of this.
Top rated Gear defined that desert’s Vacant Quarter exactly where taking pictures can take spot is not significantly from the start of upcoming year’s Dakar Rally. However, the Dune Taxi appears to be like just like the Odyssey 21 spec electric powered buggy utilized in Intense E, but with a BMW grille and a pair of vents on the rear fenders. Both Audi and BMW were being fixtures in the Components E single-seater sequence right until very last year. Audi still left to compete in the Dakar Rally with its series-hybrid RS Q E-Tron in early 2022, lately updated to the RS Q E-Tron S2. Centered on the Dune Taxi’s condition, what appears to be the deficiency of a spare wheel, and the term “Cosowrth” in the heart stack, we suspect BMW is headed to the other worldwide electric powered off-highway racing function. In truth, the Cosworth link would seem to provide the proof of Severe E involvement. The engineering and motorsports business states in a post on its Fb page that the Odyssey 21 is “geared up with our electronics options from manage to display.” A image of that screen on Facebook matches a quick glimpse of the display screen in the Dune Taxi.
Other supporting evidence arrives in electricity rankings of 536 horsepower and 738 pound-ft of torque, a tad a lot less than the Odyssey 21’s official 550 hp but a skosh more than its 679 lb-ft. The Dune Taxi entire body is created from the same all-natural fiber-strengthened polymer (NFRP) with cutouts for gullwing doorways and a trim roof scoop. The suspension can operate by way of 15.7 inches of wheel travel, a 50 %-inch additional than identified on the Odyssey 21. And the Tal Moreeb sand dune that the Dune Taxi climbs for its rallying finale ascends at an incline of 130%, the same skyward angle the Serious E sequence claims the Odyssey 21 is made to max out on.
Not forgetting the other stars in the vid, Lebanese rally ace Abdo Feghali is at the wheel of the Dune Taxi, his fellow Purple Bull Driftbrothers are co-conspirators in the other BMW automobiles, and American actress Madelyn Cline plays navigator, apparently aiming to get the wildest taxi ride from a bus stop to the secret garage in which an XM is saved.
Back again to racing, there are two races remaining in this year’s Severe E Sequence, the Copper X-Prix in Antofagasta, Chile on September 24 and 25 and the Strength X-Prix in Punta del Este, Uruguay November 26 and 27. It can be feasible we are going to see the Dune Taxi make a cameo in South The us then, or it could get a mention through the debut of the XM SUV on September 27.