Ten years ago, news about BMW launching a front-wheel drive car was always seen as a bad April Fool’s joke. BMW has always been a symbol of the true ‘ultimate driving machine’, thanks to its “strictly rear-wheel drive only” policy. However, that is set to change, as the firm plans to have at least five front-wheel drive cars, starting with the 2-Series Active Tourer (as pictured above). More on the 2-Series in a separate article soon.
According to BMW development director, Herbert Diess, BMW group has ambitious plans for 45 model range, which includes the Mini models as well. 30 of them are rear-wheel drive (phew) while the rest are front-wheel. Out of the 15, 10 will be from Mini, which explains the other five will be from BMW. BMW’s new UKL platform, which was used in the new Mini, allows for a lot of flexibility for a variety of future models. Diess mentioned that Europeans have less preference for the 5 and 7 series in favor of smaller premium cars, which explains the company’s decision to progress with front-wheel drive Beemers.
The word “Blasphemy!” must be in any Beemer fan’s mind right about now, but one can’t deny that platform sharing makes a lot of sense, moreover from an economic standpoint as BMW learned from another German rival, Volkswagen and its ingenious MQB platform. Looks like they shouldn’t have made this poster a few years ago then eh?
[source: Jalopnik]
