Four years after its grand debut as a dedicated M brand flagship, the BMW XM continues to struggle in its bid to find an audience. Met with a decidedly mixed reaction on its debut, the plug-in hybrid SUV is performing badly sales-wise, with global sales tumbling after a so-so start to begin with. Not surprisingly, it faces an increasingly uncertain future.
Global deliveries totaled just 7,608 units in 2025, making the high-performance SUV the slowest-selling model in BMW’s entire portfolio. And yes, that means even slower than the very niche and now discontinued Z4 roadster.
The XM’s slump has deepened through the first half of this year, with global demand dropping another 22.4 percent to 2,816 vehicles through June, putting it on pace to sell for under 6,000 units in 2026.
That’s nowhere near expectations for this M-branded model. Initially, BMW talked of China accounting for 23 percent of overall sales of the XM, just behind the U.S. at 26 percent. If you want to know why the XM has failed to meet expectations, those two markets provide the answer. U.S. deliveries slipped 4.9 percent in 2025 to just 1,878 units, while Chinese luxury buyers have largely looked elsewhere.
A second generation in doubt
Despite sharing its CLAR architecture and twin-turbo V8 hybrid powertrain with the M5, the niche crossover may not be generating enough sales to justify a second generation or even a major mid-cycle refresh. The complete absence of camouflaged test prototypes suggests BMW is skipping traditional facelift updates. In the longer term, an adaptation to the brand's upcoming Neue Klasse EV platform appears highly unlikely.
If the XM is ultimately put on the chopping block, it will join a growing list of discontinued niche models from BMW, such as the 8 Series, Z4, and 2 Series Active Tourer. This is happening as BMW redirects its resources toward core electric SUVs like the upcoming iX5 and iX7.