BMW Plans Green Supercar

It's difficult to understand why a company like BMW, renowned for performance-oriented road cars and revered for its dedication

to motorsport, hasn't created a replacement supercar for its much lauded and highly sought after M1. In recent years it certainly hasn't been finances, the Munich-based company's coffers being very full from year-over-year sales increases. Making matters worse, there have been some mid-engine teasers featuring the famed twin-kidney grille up front and one even with twin black, white and blue roundels on its derriere.

The former hailed from Italdesign, home of Giorgetto Giugiaro, a 1991 concept dubbed Nazca C2, followed up by a mid-engine roadster in 2003. The latter M1 Homage was more recent and comes directly from BMW's design studios.

According to Britain's Autocar, there's more to the M1 Homage than the design study

most thought it embodied when introduced. While it may not look like the BMW concept when it appears in the metal, insiders are not only calling it the M1's successor, but rather a “breakthrough green supercar”.

A green supercar? Isn't that an oxymoron? So far it has been, with most supercars guzzling gas at ridiculous rates, so the upcoming BMW supercar could certainly be a breakthrough machine. It will feature BMW's EfficientDynamics system, plus the brand's ultra-smooth and rev-happy 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine, also paying homage to the original M1.

Autocar reports that the new car's fuel efficiency and C02 emissions would be very close to that of a 5-Series sedan, thanks to direct-injection, brake regeneration, start-stop technology and enhancements from the brand's F1 team's kinetic energy recovery system.

Word has it will arrive in Q4 of 2012, going up against Ferrari, Lamborghini and now Audi, with its R8.