BMW Australia is weighing on adding more all-wheel-drive performance models to its showroom as the car maker’s growing suite of more powerful engines start to test the on-road abilities of drivers.

The German luxury car brand used the Frankfurt Motor Show to announce it would roll out a version of its 5 Series Touring in Europe using the most powerful diesel engine it has ever produced, an impressively numbered 294kW/760Nm 3.0-litre inline-six unit with four turbochargers strapped to it. The BMW M550d Touring xDrive – its torque figure alone shadows that of the just-revealed halo M5 sedan – will sprint from 0-100km/h in just 4.6 seconds, but sip a miserly hatchback-rivalling amount of fuel.

“Traditionally we’ve seen xDrive M Performance passenger vehicles on offer in left-hand drive form only,” BMW Australia spokesman Adam Davis told Wheels. “xDrive has traditionally been available in markets that really benefit from the enhanced traction on offer. Having little snow and ice, our market demand for xDrive has been quite small.

“This is changing as our passenger vehicles and systems become ever more powerful and dynamic, to a point where it is making sense to introduce M and M Performance vehicles with all-wheel drive systems,” he said.

To give the M550d Touring a bit of bark to match its bite, BMW has added active steering, an M aerodynamic package, M-sports suspension lowered by 10mm, sports brakes, and 19-inch M light-alloy wheels with mixed tyres.

Unlike the sedan version, the M550d Touring doesn’t yet appear to have a petrol-powered rival. The M550i xDrive sedan uses a 340kW petrol-powered V8, which BMW claims will beat its four-doored diesel brother to 100km/h with a 4.0 second run.