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NEWS
BMW mulls 2 Series future
Will this be the last small rear-wheel drive BMW?BMW's top executives insist there has been no decision yet made on whether it will develop another generation of small rear-wheel drive cars beyond the 2 Series Convertible launched at the Paris motor show last week.
And while they say the 3 Series and above will continue to feature the drivetrain layout loved by enthusiasts, they also extol the virtues of front- and all-wheel drive for the future of the brand.
BMW Group is already on record announcing it will base at least 22 new models on its new UKL front- and all-wheel drive architecture, 10 of them Minis and 12 of them BMWs, including the just-launched 2 Series Active Tourer (also pictured), the next X1 and new X2 SUVs and 2018's third-generation 1 Series hatchback.
The rear-wheel drive 2 Series Coupe was launched last year and the cabrio will be in Australia in 2015. Only derivatives of the current generation such as the M2 coupe are still in the pipeline.
As BMW's sport-oriented small car family, the 2 Series is the only possible rear-wheel drive chance below the 3 Series going forward. But that is dependent on whether the company decides it is economically feasible to do so.
"That's not yet decided," BMW global development boss Herbert Diess told motoring.com.au at the Paris show. "We don't have to decide yet because there is a long way to go for the successor of this model.
"Most of our models, most of the sporty models, will have rear-wheel drive," he added. "We are looking forward to a very successful launch worldwide, the coupe already was very successful and time will show about the next generation."
Promisingly, Diess said increasingly stringent emission regulations would not be the sole deciding factor in which wheels drive the next generation 2 Series.
"I think also our rear-wheel drive cars are very fuel efficient ... so this is not the criteria for choosing front- or rear-wheel drive. It's much more the functionality, the roominess, the spaciousness, so there are concepts where front-wheel drive makes a lot of sense."
Presumably, functionality isn't high on the list of requirements for coupe and cabrio buyers so that's another tick for a future rear-wheel drive 2 Series. But then again, it's not a high priority for drivers of the front-wheel drive Mini Cooper either...
Diess also said rear-wheel drive was applicable to BMW "sporty and premium cars", defining them as users of longitudinal inline six-cylinder engines. And in this generation – let alone the next – the only 2 Series with a six-cylinder engine is the 235i.
But most 3 Series also have four-cylinder engines and there is no question that car will continue with rear- and all-wheel drive.
"I think you can safely say the heart of the brand, which is 3 Series, is going to remain rear-wheel drive and of course all-wheel drive," BMW's global sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson told motoring.com.au. "I think the sporty enthusiasts will still push for rear-wheel drive for obvious reasons
"[But] one of the things we see around the world at the moment is all-wheel drive is becoming much more part of everyone's requirements.
"If you went back 10 years and you said 'is all-wheel drive important for BMW?', it was relatively small. Today one in four of our cars is an X product ... so it's definitely a big part of our business now and a growing part.
"In the United States now 80-85 per cent of our business – if you drew a line north of New York is now all-wheel drive – so that's the way the market is moving. It's similar in China, it's similar in Europe. We don't sell a 7 Series in Europe without all-wheel drive at the moment.
"So it's coming."
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Written byBruce Newton
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