BMW M Production Numbers: Every M Car Built Since The 1978 M1

Article Summary

• The F87 M2 is the most-produced single M model at 62,146 cars, just 282 ahead of the G80 M3 sedan.
• North America has taken 414,557 M cars, 7,703 more than left-hand-drive markets in the rest of the world.
• BMW's 300,000th M car in June 2008 only lines up with MDataWorks' figures if the E24 M635CSi is counted, which points to the 1M Coupe as the car left out.

BMW handed over its one-millionth M car at the Munich plant on October 2: a G80 M3 Competition sedan in BMW Individual Fire Orange III. Count every M car built since the E26 M1 entered production in 1978, though, and you get just over 1,006,000, according to production data compiled by MDataWorks.

That’s 6,342 more than BMW’s milestone, and 6,342 is exactly how many E82 1M Coupes BMW built. Leave the 1M out and the total lands on one million.

MDataWorks counted total factory production per model, with special editions such as the CSL, CRT, GTS and DTM cars folded into their body style’s total. Models still in production include build estimates through mid-September 2026. M Performance models like the M340i aren’t part of the count, and they aren’t part of BMW’s either: as we reported last week, BMW’s milestone refers strictly to M cars.

Which M Car Did BMW Leave Out Of Its One Million?

BMW hasn’t explained how it reached its number, and MDataWorks doesn’t claim to know. Its analysis narrows the gap to two candidates. The first is the E24 M635CSi, sold in North America as the M6. BMW built 5,855 of them between December 1983 and February 1989. Take it out and the total drops to 1,000,487, close to a million but not on it.

The second is the 1M Coupe, built from September 2010 to June 2012, with only 983 of the 6,342 cars going to North America. Take it out and the count is 1,000,000 on the nose.

An older milestone breaks the tie. BMW celebrated its 300,000th M car in June 2008, and MDataWorks says its own figures up to that date only come close to 300,000 if the E24 is included. If the E24 counted in 2008, it presumably still counts, which leaves the 1M as the car on the outside.

There’s an argument for why BMW might see it that way. The car was never officially an 1M, since the mid-engine supercar already had the name, so BMW called it the 1 Series M Coupe. It also used the N54 twin-turbo inline-six from the regular lineup, though the early F87 M2 did the same with its N55, and nobody is suggesting the M2 sits outside the count. So if one model got left out, the arithmetic points to the 1M.

The M3 And M4 Account For More Than Half Of All M Cars

The M3 and M4 add up to 510,110 cars, 51 percent of MDataWorks’ one million. Here’s how every M family compares, with the 1M left out as in the MDataWorks count:

• M3 / M4: 510,110 (51.0 percent)
• M5: 134,685 (13.5 percent)
• M2: 117,173 (11.7 percent)
• X5 M / X6 M: 88,675 (8.9 percent)
• M6 / M8: 55,899 (5.6 percent)
• X3 M / X4 M: 40,366 (4.0 percent)
• Z3 M / Z4 M: 31,581 (3.2 percent)
• XM: 21,058 (2.1 percent)
• M1: 453

Every M3 generation has outbuilt the one before it except the E9x. The E30 managed 17,920 cars, all but 786 of them coupes. The E36 jumped to 71,241 once BMW added a sedan and a convertible, and the E46 reached 85,766, including 56,133 coupes. The E9x then fell back to 65,985 as the 2008 financial crisis hit.

The F8x, the generation where the coupe and convertible became the M4, reached 112,060. The G8x already stands at 157,138 and is still in production: 61,864 G80 M3 sedans, 53,293 G82 M4 Coupes, 23,935 G81 M3 Tourings and 18,046 G83 M4 Convertibles. BMW has never sold the M3 Touring in North America, and it has still outbuilt the M4 Convertible that Americans can buy.

The F87 M2 Is The Most-Produced Single M Model, For Now

Split the totals by individual model and the F87 M2 comes out on top. BMW built 62,146 between November 2014 and June 2021, just ahead of the G80 M3 sedan’s 61,864. The G80 needs 282 more cars to pass it, a gap a model still on the line should close within weeks, if it hasn’t already.

Next come the F82 M4 Coupe with 57,514, the E46 M3 Coupe with 56,133 and the G87 M2 with 55,027. Across two generations, the M2 family totals 117,173, more than three generations of X5 M and X6 M combined.

North America has warmed to the M2 less than to BMW’s other big sellers. Only 26 percent of M2s went there, the lowest share of any M family apart from the M1 and the 1M, while half went to left-hand-drive markets elsewhere.

Which Region Has Taken The Most BMW M Cars?

North America, by 7,703 cars. MDataWorks splits production into three regions, and these totals include the 1M: North America took 414,557 M cars (41 percent), left-hand-drive markets in the rest of the world took 406,854 (40 percent), and right-hand-drive markets took 184,931 (18 percent).

The open cars lean American. Of all Z3 M Roadsters, 69 percent went to North America, which makes sense for a car built in Spartanburg, and the share reached 70 percent for the F91 M8 Convertible and 69 percent for the E64 M6 Convertible. From the E36 onward, every M3 or M4 Convertible sent a larger share of its production to North America than the matching coupe did.

The Spartanburg effect doesn’t carry over to the XM. BMW builds it in South Carolina, yet only 38 percent of the 21,058 built so far went to North America, against 52 percent for left-hand-drive markets elsewhere. At the far end of the scale, all 453 M1s went to left-hand-drive markets outside North America.

How Many M5, X5 M And Other M Cars Were Built?

The M5 is the second-largest family, with 134,685 cars across seven generations. The F90 is the most-produced M5 at 33,107. The current G90 and G99 have reached 26,479, and the G99 Touring, the first M5 wagon sold in North America, accounts for 11,613 of them, or 44 percent. Its predecessors were footnotes by comparison: BMW built 891 E34 M5 Tourings and 1,025 E61s.

The X5 M and X6 M total 88,675 over three generations. The F95 X5 M and F96 X6 M alone account for 46,314 of those, more than the E70/E71 and F85/F86 generations combined at 42,361. The F95 X5 M ended production in July at 26,653 cars, according to MDataWorks, while the F96 X6 M is at 19,661 and counting. The X3 M and X4 M lasted one generation: 24,015 F97 X3 Ms and 16,351 F98 X4 Ms, 40,366 in all.

The M6 and M8 finished with 55,899 cars across four generations. The M8 was the strongest generation with 20,340 cars, and the F93 Gran Coupe was its most-produced body style at 8,119, though the single biggest model in the family is still the E63 M6 Coupe at 9,087. The Z3 M and Z4 M add 31,581: 21,613 Z3 Ms and 9,968 Z4 Ms.

And then there’s the M1: 453 built between July 1978 and February 1981, the first M car and still the rarest.

It took 48 years to get from that first M1 to the millionth M car, and the M3 and M4 did half the work. BMW used the same occasion to tease the electric M3 due in 2027, which suggests the next million will lean on the M3 just as heavily.

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