BMW X8 M to be a standalone M model on new platform?

The rumors regarding what BMW has planned for the top of its range keep getting weirder. All we know for certain is that the hybrid i8 flagship is no more, having gone out of production last month after years of buzz failed to lead to satisfying sales. Seems a lot of hot air filled the void, and not the kind found in a combustion chamber. First we kept hearing reports of a production version of the Vision M Next concept recast as an i8 M with clear M1 cues and a 600-horsepower hybrid powertrain due to arrive in 2023. It was going to be the M division’s first standalone product, a la the SLS AMG at Mercedes-AMG. In mid-April, sleuths found out BMW trademarked the name “X8 M,” and in late April we got reports that an X8 M hybrid would outdo the i8 M and break BMW’s self-imposed horsepower ceiling in 2023 with roughly 750 hp from an electrically assisted 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8. Two weeks later, we heard the i8 M program had been canceled.

This has left the new X8 M rumor to do battle with rumors of an X7 M that are at least two years old. Some tales of late theorize about a power-happy X7 M leapfrogging the just-released Alpina XB7. This would leave the potential X8 and X8 M to be slicked-back, extra-luxurious and power-happy versions of the X7 and X7 M. But BMW Blog reports that, according to its sources, there’s “no X7 M currently in the works or planned at the moment,” the Munich automaker happy to stand pat with the M Performance X7 M50i (pictured) and Alpina XB7. Furthermore, the all-BMW site says the X8 won’t be cloned off the X7 platform, but a “built-from-the-ground-up M Division product,” which would make M’s first wholly developed offering since the M1 a crossover instead of a car.

Presented this way, all we get for the speculation is more questions. It’s counterintuitive that M would hand its ferocious baby back to BMW to be defanged into a standard X8 — an alphanumeric BMW applied to trademark in 2016. Is there an X8, then? Or does M only make an X8 M Performance model and an X8 M? If so, why give away that market that’s made the X2, X4, and X6 contributing members of BMW society? 

Or should we take a breather? There’s supposedly an 8-badged crossover headed our way in concept form later this year, before some production-intent model is shown at the end of next year. When you start hearing rumors about rumors of what’s on the horizon, it might be time to belay the guessing until we at least see some dust kicked up on the horizon.