Swansong for BMW X1

BMW will see out its current generation of its smallest SUV, the X1, next year with a number of luxury upgrades and an expansion to its suite of ConnectedDrive technologies.

The current E84-series X1, around since 2009, is due for replacement by an all-new series in 2016.

BMW Australia spokesman Scott Croaker confirmed the updated X1 will arrive in Australia in mid-2014. Asked about pricing changes, he told motoring.com.au it’s “too early to talk about that just yet”.

The MY15 refresher includes a number of exterior and interior updates. Outside, it gets a new front-end treatment around the lower air intakes and daytime running lights, plus new 17-inch alloy wheels and a new brown metallic paint option.

Indoors, the xLine, Sport Line and M Sport packages get upgraded dash surface materials and a revised range of trim options including gloss black, matt coral red and pearl-gloss chrome.
The ConnectedDrive technologies the car will get standard fall into two categories, or pillars, as BMW calls them.

The Driver Assistance category includes driver aids that are fast becoming standard fixtures upmarket, with many falling fast downmarket: cruise control with braking to maintain speed downhill; adaptive headlights with sensor-operated high/low beam; reversing camera and front/rear parking beepers.

The growth area, however, will be the Services & Apps category. Currently this covers the standard Bluetooth phone and audio connections across the BMW line-up, as well as internet connectivity, all that goes with that and a great deal more that will go with it into the future.

To the latter end, from mid-late 2014, BMWs will start appearing with inbuilt SIM cards for telematics functions.

“Yes, that’ll become standard inclusion from around then,” Croaker told motoring.com.au. “We’ll be rolling it out in stages across the range, but I’m not sure it it’ll appear in the X1 straight away.”

The SIM card system will allow the company to start building the ConnectedDrive suite as it goes, through most of its model line-up.

In time, it will expand to include real-time traffic updates; an intelligent emergency call system that contacts emergency services automatically, using GPS to pinpoint a stricken vehicle; concierge services via local/national BMW call centres and remote functions run from a smartphone app (un/lock, climate controls, find-my-car by asking it to flash lights or sound the horn).

With the eventual opening up of full web connection will come a world of in-car online infotainment. But infrastructure and service availability differs from country to country and it’s changing rapidly, meaning the company can only update media and buyers in more detail closer to launch time, Croaker said.

ConnectedDrive will in time provide owners with an online, mobile portal to the company taking in vehicles, smartphones and home computers.

The BMW ConnectedDrive Store will come a whole new channel of commerce covering vehicle-installed apps, subscriber services, information, entertainment including access to millions of songs and hundreds of dedicated channels, navigation, primary and secondary safety enhancement, and specific services for the company’s i-branded EVs and PHEVs.

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