BMW's flagship cars safe in Australia – for now

The BMW M8 Coupe has been axed in the US, but the company’s local arm has stuck behind its flagship M range and the tamer 8 Series.

“The BMW 8 Series and BMW M8 Competition variants continue to represent an important part of our model lineup, and there are no plans at this stage to discontinue them for Australian customers,” said a spokesperson for BMW Australia.

That refers to the entire 8 Series and M8 range. BMW Australia offers the 840i in coupe, convertible and Gran Coupe (sedan) body styles, while the M8 is offered in Competition guise as either a coupe or four-door Gran Coupe.

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At $380,000 before on-roads, the M8 Competition Coupe is the most expensive model BMW Australia currently offers.

BMW Blog reported word from BMW in December in the form of a dealer bulletin that said M8 Coupe production would end in early 2025 and that there would be no model year 2026 (MY26) version to replace it.

That would leave BMW M’s flagship model range with only Gran Coupe and convertible body styles. The latter isn’t offered here.

It’s unclear when or indeed whether a replacement for the current 8 Series and M8 will be launched. The current-generation line entered production back in 2018, arriving here in 2019.

BMW Blog reports a replacement had previously been slated for 2026, offering both internal-combustion and electric power and riding the existing CLAR architecture, but that sources subsequently confirmed a final decision on its development had yet to be made.

With a replacement not yet confirmed, the outlet notes that should it finally be green-lit it would be unlikely to appear before the end of the decade.

The 8 Series was launched as a flagship grand tourer line for BMW, filling the void left by the demise of the more affordable 6 Series Gran Coupe, coupe and convertible.

BMW has flipped back and forth between offering 6 Series and 8 Series models since the 1980s, with the previous 8 Series being in production from 1990 to 1999.

Though a prototype M8 version of this was developed, it never entered production though the E31-generation 8 Series was offered with a range of V8 and V12 engines.

The current 8 Series has little in the way of direct competition.

While Lexus has its LC coupe and convertible, two-door versions of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class were axed in 2020, while other similarly priced coupes and convertibles tend to be more overtly sporty and similarly priced four-door models have more conventional sedan silhouettes than the 8 Series/M8 Gran Coupe.

The Audi A7 Sportback is much cheaper, with the Porsche Panamera being the 8 Series and M8 Gran Coupe’s only other potential rival.

Last year, BMW Australia sold 25 two-door 8 Series vehicles inclusive of the M8 Coupe, as well as 14 Gran Coupe vehicles. These were drops of 54.5 per cent and 66.7 per cent respectively.

That saw it outsold by the 7 Series (85 sales including 36 electric i7s), as well as BMW’s flagship XM SUV (144 sales). For context, Lexus delivered 51 LCs in Australia in 2024.

MORE: Everything BMW 8 SeriesMORE: Everything BMW M8