BMW’s Most Powerful Vehicle

BMW’s most powerful vehicle may surprise you, both in name and style; nicknamed Lucy, BMW has developed a 5-Series electric test vehicle with 720-horsepower, all to develop their future EV lineup.

Lucy, a reference to Lucifer, is a prototype model fitted with three separate electric motors (one located on the front axle, with two on the rear) that allows BMW to fine tune their future electric powertrains. But the coolest part about this vehicle has to be the ability to change the power output and torque vectoring characteristics, meaning the 5-Series can dynamically represent anything from the massive 7-Series, to a higher stance SUV. Even better, it means that when everything is cranked to max, Lucy puts out 720-horsepower and 848 lbs-feet of seat-hugging torque.

All that power means that Lucy outdoes the BMW M5 Competition by 103-horsepower and 295 lbs-feet torque, and accelerates from a stand-still to 60 in just 2.8 seconds. Or at least, that’s what Lucy should be capable of, because no one has tested it yet; supposedly, it’s a conservative estimate, and no one has willingly put the prototype through those kinds of paces yet.

Now, with all that power, the BMW 5-Series battery definitely does not last a long time. Installed with only a 45-kilowatt-hour, the 5-Series prototype definitely doesn’t have a long capacity battery, able to pull about 6 laps around the track before recharging; however, due to the size and efficiency of this battery, charging back to full only takes but a couple minutes and they are able to get back to full testing. With Lucy, BMW is looking to test the battery and vehicle performance with consistently stable performance that only a small, quick-charging battery can provide, ensuring future EV products have higher performance.

Meanwhile, the interior hasn’t seen any changes, and that’s fantastic. BMW put great efforts into ensuring the comforts expected of a 5-Series were not compromised on to fit all the required technology to make Lucy all-electric.

And Lucy truly is a fitting name: As the prototype’s project manager Matthias Stangl says, “”When you say ‘Lucy,’ everybody’s thinking about ‘Lucifer, and you see this amazing black car down there. But if you think of the Latin origin of ‘Lucifer,’ it’s the one that brings the light.”