By Andy Hum

MEET THE VISION Concept, the result BMW combining the two things they’re good at – building green cars and M cars. But at first glance, the specifications don’t sound terribly exciting.

It has a measly 1.5-litre turbodiesel and two electric motors – hardly the type of power plants one would find in a performance car. But that’s where the boredom stops. One of its electric motors drives the Vision Concept’s front wheels, while the other, together with the engine, powers its rear wheels. All together, it’s quite a force to be reckoned with.

Cumulative power output is rated at 356hp and it has a whopping 800 elephant-shot-putting Newton metres of torque. BMW conservatively anticipates its 0-100km/h time to take 4.8 seconds and an electronically-limited top speed of 250km/h.

What’s even more impressive is that it only needs an average of 3.76 litres to travel 100km, while being powered by the electric motors alone gives it an estimated range of 50km.

And if you think that it’s just fluff and a waste of money flaunting useless technology, think again – Dow Jones Sustainability Index has just named BMW the world’s most sustainable automobile company. For the fifth consecutive year.