In a recent interview, BMW M's Head of Product Management has revealed the M3 and M4 could be offered with a four-cylinder engine.
Speaking to Motoring, Carsten Pries said "We do not start our design process with a power output in mind. We have a set of characteristics that a new model must meet. For sure, you could see a future [M3 and M4] powered by a four-cylinder engine."
According to Pries, replacing the six-cylinder engine with a four-cylinder engine would help to reduce the car's weight. "If we have a car with less mass, it is foreseeable that the [performance] targets we set could be reached with a four [cylinder engine]," he stated.
As a small reminder, the current M3 and M4 are powered by a 3.0-liter TwinPower Turbo 6-cylinder engine which produces 431 hp and 550 Nm of torque. This allosw the cars to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in as little as 4.1 seconds.
