"It's a fascinating idea as we have a lot of competitive engineers, so a halo car is always a thrilling idea," Flasch said when asked about the possibility of BMW M making a Mercedes-AMG One rival. "But M is so strong – 2019 will be our best year of sales ever – the brand doesn't need a halo car. Business- and image-wise I'm a little bit mixed about if this is necessary. I like the idea, but it needs to do a job."

There is a strong chance, however, that BMW M's standalone sports car will be electrified, either as a hybrid or a fully electric model. "We are working on electrified combustion and we are working on fully electric cars, but we will only bring those options to customers when they offer an advantage in terms of character, in terms of performance," said Flasch. "We won't do it just to be first on the market with a particular type of powertrain. That's not what our customers are after." He went on to add that "a brand new model without a predecessor is more suitable than a model with a predecessor."