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2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe

One of the many perks of this job is, not surprisingly, the cars. It's relatively easy to snag the keys to a vehicle for a special occasion, whether that be for a road trip, tailgating or helping a friend move. And while sometimes the tailgating might happen with a Ford F-150 instead of a Range Rover and the road trip might be in a minivan rather than a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, occasionally the stars align and a special vehicle arrives for an equally special time.
That's exactly how I found myself dressed to the nines and behind the wheel of the BMW M6 Gran Coupe, a $135,375 (as-tested) rocket ship, en route to a rare multi-wedding weekend to celebrate with two pairs of my closest friends on the biggest day of their lives (a very special congratulations to Kara and Zach, and Laura and Andrew). Continuing with our nuptial theme, the M mechanicals and the 6 Series Gran Coupe body are a match made in heaven.

Is BMW the only real competition to Tesla Motors?

Tesla Motors chief Elon Musk probably isn't losing a ton of sleep over the new plug-in efforts by the makers of the "Ultimate Driving Machine," but maybe he should. That's what the Motley Fool is saying, presenting the case that the California company's real competition will come from BMW. What about the plug-in efforts of General Motors or Ford? Musk can hit the snooze, Motley Fool says. Unlike automakers that are "jamming battery packs into the existing vehicle design," BMW has built its i3 battery-electric and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar from the ground up. Like Tesla, BMW puts its battery packs into the floor of its vehicles. Most importantly, the i3 - and especially the i8 - are real performers. While the i8 is about 40-percent more expensive than the Tesla, it matches the Model S's 0-60 mile per hour acceleration times and handily beats its top speed figures. Tesla sold about 6,900 vehicles during the last three months of 2013 and BMW had more than 10,000 i3 orders on the books by late November and the first year's allotment of i8s is already sold out. The German automaker has what the Fool calls an "outside chance" of selling more plug-in vehicles than Tesla by next year, but Tesla is gearing up its gigafactory to get ready to sell a half-million EVs in 2020, so the race is most certainly on. You can read more over on the Fool.

BMW's plans for next plug-in i model, due after 2020

BMW entered the fight in the green car ring with gusto thanks to the one-two punch of the i3 and the i8. However, it seems that there could be a wait ahead before the German's i sub-brand is ready to land another strike at the market. "We are still in the strategic research phase where we brainstorm," Klaus Frohlich, BMW Group development boss, said to Automotive News Europe about the future vehicle. He indicated the next new model to bear the i prefix wouldn't arrive until after 2020. Frohlich also underscored that the sub-brand's products wouldn't be based on a standard BMW product. The German brand was at one point rumored to have a model called either the i5 or i7 on the way that would have added a plug-in hybrid drivetrain to the 5 Series. Frohlich's statement would seem to invalidate that possibility. Although, there's nothing stopping the vehicle from carrying regular BMW branding in the vein of the X5 xDrive40e PHEV. The current i-badged models won't just stagnate on the market in the meantime, though. "We have a minimum 20 percent battery density improvement every three years, thus over the i3 and i8's life cycle, we will offer more performance, more range or a combination of the two," Frohlich said to Automotive News Europe. Sadly, current owners won't be able to upgrade to the improved parts, though. Rumors about a third i sub-brand model go back years with much of the talk swirling around the i5. In addition to the speculation about a 5-Series-based version, there was also supposed to be a stretched variant of the i3 with that name, possibly even with a hydrogen fuel cell version. Although, BMW claimed the vehicle was purely "hypothetical." Related Video: