Having just taken delivery of a 2023 BMW XM, the folks over at IND Distribution decided to see how powerful the Toronto Red mastodont really is. With that in mind, they took the plug-in hybrid SUV to Performance Eurowerks and strapped the dedicated M model onto a dyno to rate its electrified V8. Mind you, the flagship M was still in its break-in period, so more power is likely to be unlocked after the vehicle racks up some miles. In addition, the battery was not fully charged, so that might have negatively impacted the dyno result.
After several runs, the best result was 614.84 horsepower (458.4 kilowatts) and 569.14 pound-feet (771.65 Newton-meters) of torque at the wheels. These are some healthy numbers considering BMW has rated the PHEV setup at 644 hp (480 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) after factoring in the crank output of the V8. IND Distribution did the math with an assumed 20% loss, which is likely too pessimistic (it’s usually 10-15%), and ended up with 768 hp (573 kW) and 712 lb-ft (965 Nm) at the crank.
Eliminating the electric motor from the equation, the twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 pushed out 573.49 hp (427.65 kW) and 516.42 lb-ft (700 Nm). We’ll remind you that BMW says the newly developed S68 on its own is good for 483 hp (360 kW) and 479 lb-ft (650 Nm). With the presumed 20% drivetrain loss, that results in a crank output of 715 hp and 645 lb-ft (874 Nm), which frankly seems overly optimistic in comparison to the engine’s official rating.
IND Distribution mentions the dyno test might not have yielded accurate results: “The excitement was cooled just a bit as we tried to figure out exactly how the hybrid system was functioning while in BMW’s dyno-mode. The EPower gauge did ramp up during the dyno pull, but then spiked at 6500 rpm which was directly visible on the dyno graph which made us question real-world accuracy.”
They also wanted to find out how much the XM weighs, but the SUV was simply too portly for Performance Eurowerks’ scales. BMW lists the vehicle with a curb weight of just over 2,700 kilograms or nearly 6,000 pounds.
Source: IND Distribution / YouTube